Settle a debate..

Josey Wales

Both. So is The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Many westerns are set during or in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War. It serves as a good counterpoint to the random, unfocused violence and individualism of the West.

But as much as I love Outlaw Josey Wales, which I do, it is an unapologetic attack on Reconstruction. Though its racial politics are mighty confusing and interesting. Forrest Carter, the writer, was an opponent to civil rights and a staunch supporter of George Wallace. It is also the most nuanced portrayal of Native Americans in film up to that point, maybe even to this day.

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More of a western I'd say.

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I reckon so.

Forrest Carter was not the nicest of men, and he fabricated and exaggerated his personal history in his semi-biographical "Education of Little Tree. Still, the Outlaw Josey Wales is a damn good book--politics be damned.