costarred Jon Voight in his film debut. Kaufman spent four years trying to find a distributor, but the film was a box-office failure when it finally played. While the movie didn't gain as much attention as Goldstein, it did help Kaufman land a contract in Universal Studios' Young Directors Program in 1969. The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972) In 1972, Kaufman wrote and directed The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid starring Robert Duvall as Jesse James, in what was his first commercial film after the previous two independent ones. He spent a lot of time researching the real life characters when writing the screenplay, although the film took some liberties portraying some of the factual details. The Los Angeles Times wrote that "Kaufman is not an angry revisionist, but seems to be trying to tell it like it must have been, with an amused detachment, which sees the events as something close to an absurd spectacle." The White Dawn (1974) Kaufman directed The White Dawn in 1974, a drama based on the novel of the same name by James Houston. Shot in documentary style, a story about whalers, played by Warren Oates, Louis Gossett Jr., and Timothy Bottoms, stranded in the Arctic at the turn of the century. To survive they battle polar bears and take advantage of the Eskimos who had originally saved them. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) Kaufman wrote and began directing The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) but was fired as director after disagreements with its star Clint Eastwood who then directed the film himself. Before filming began, Eastwood felt the screenplay needed more suspense and hired Kaufman to polish the story. He also thought Kaufman would be a good choice to direct, after being impressed by the realism he created in White Dawn. Critic David Thomson explains that Eastwood was later bothered by the number of takes Kaufman wanted, which Eastwood considered a waste of time and expense. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) Kaufman directed the science fiction thriller, Invasion of the Body Snatchers in 1978, which became his first box office hit. It was a remake of the 1956 version. In this version, Kaufman moved the setting to San Francisco and recreated the alien threat as more a horror film than science fiction, and in a way that was disturbing, humorous, and believable. Critic Pauline Kael said "It may be the best movie of its