Josey Wales, and not Jesse James, is the true, if fictional, personification of the James myth. Wales embodies what James attempted to fabricate for himself: an image of the noble rebel, fighting the good fight, a kind of latter-day Robin Hood. James' image is a falsehood while Wales' image is an authentic one. It is the honest fulfillment of what Stiles calls "a need that people have, that American culture has, for a rebel - for someone who resists the powers that be...this heroic, defiant figure." Even in the model of Robin Hood, Wales wins the day, lending his expertise and the still-warm albeit deeply submerged embers of his heart to this band of settlers; he is, in effect, giving to the poor. For James--Stiles argues--giving to the poor largely amounted to gambling heavily, "and at best [paying] handsomely when he stopped at a farm house anonymously for a...night's rest and for a meal; that's about as close as he came to ever giving money to the poor."

For this alone, for providing what I would suggest is an authentic depiction of the myth of the heroic rebel, The Outlaw Josey Wales is worth revisiting.