High Plains Drifter (Widescreen Edition)

The Stranger, nameless and taciturn, is an obvious twist on the "Man With No Name," but taken here to it's logical extreme; Eastwood has given us, in the character of The Stranger, a figure that is undoubtedly one of the most brutally amoral anti-heroes in film history. With a running time of only 84 minutes, Eastwood doesn't waste a minute of that screen-time in getting the story into high gear. Starting with an eerily atmospheric, deceptively calm, opening sequence, The Stranger arrives in Lago. Within minutes he has gunned down 3 thugs who baited and goaded him, thinking they had an easy mark, and in the films most controversial scene, `rapes' a woman he meets in the street!

I said that "High Plains Drifter" was a straightforward film, at least on the surface, but to truly understand the actions of The Stranger you have to look beyond the obvious. "High Plains Drifter" plays as a revenger, but it's more than that, it's a psychological western, and one, I think, that stands alongside Brando's "One Eyed Jacks;" The Stranger is as a mirror to the rotten and corrupted soul of Lago.

The town is fearfully awaiting the arrival of three ghosts from its past, convicted killers who were set up and imprisoned on trumped-up charges; soon to be released, their first order of business will be to head back to Lago and extract their pound of flesh from each and every one of the people who betrayed them. And that brings us full-circle, the thugs The Stranger gunned down were hired by the town to protect them from the returning killers!

Most of the townspeople, but especially the mayor and his cronies, are hypocrites and gutless cowards, both morally and physically; unable to live with their past actions, they use weasel words and spurious justifications to salve their collective conscience, and in doing so, Lago itself becomes their prison. After witnessing the speed and accuracy of The Stranger, they beg him to stay and protect them. At first he's not interested, `til they offer him "anything," an "open check," for his services... he takes them at their word. 3 pairs of hand-tooled boots, a gun belt, a silver-tooled saddle, unlimited gut-rot, beer, and cigars later, The Stranger tells them he won't do their dirty work for them, but he'll teach them how to do it for themselves.

I said that you have to look beyond the obvious to understand the actions of The Stranger. While in the store he gives two jars of candy and a stack of blankets to an old Indian and his grandchildren, not out of any act of kindness towards them, but because he knows it'll upset the racist store owner. Similarly he watches as the boot-maker delightedly calculates his check for the boots etc, only to smile as the man is told it's all free of charge, the bar owner is overjoyed as The Stranger buys him a cigar and orders a round for everyone, only to be crushed by the same news. He then humiliates the mayor and sheriff in front of the whole town by giving their positions to the town joke, a midget named Mordecai. And that brings us to the `rape' scene that has upset so many people. As I said, The Stranger is a mirror to the towns rotten soul; it's blatantly obvious that the woman wants this powerful and masculine man, but on HER terms, well, she gets what she wants, but on HIS terms. In fact the only character that manages to surprise The Stranger is the Preacher, who shows, in one cynically comical scene, that he's quite capable of serving God and mammon both! An ambush of the killers is planned, and as a final act of degradation, The Stranger has the residents paint the whole town red, renames it "Hell," and sets up a "Welcome Home Boys" street party for the returning killers... needless to say, they return to one HELL of a party!

"High Plains Drifter" is a wonderful film that works on many different levels; watch it for the fun in seeing The Stranger blowing away the bad guys and humiliating the craven townspeople, or delve deep inside the character of The Stranger and see just how far "revenge" can be taken... HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!


Hell On Earth   July 14, 2002
Interplanetary Funksmanship (Vanilla Suburbs, USA)
23 out of 26 found this review helpful

"How do you know what the world is like? Do you know the world is a foul sty? Do you know, if you rip off the fronts of houses that you'd find swine? The world's a hell."

No, those lines are not from Clint Eastwood's 1973 masterpiece "High Plains Drifter." Actually, they were spoken by Joseph Cotten in Alfred Hitchcock's 1943 suspense movie, "Shadow of a Doubt." But no other words can better capture the essence of this darkest and bleakest of Westerns.

Clint Eastwood reprises his most famous role, "The Man With No Name" that made him a household name in such Sergio Leone movies as "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." Some people claim this movie as a "revisionist Western," but to me it is a little more complicated than that. "High Plains Drifter" is a harrowing admixture of elements from such disparate works as "High Noon," "Peyton Place," "The Count of Monte Cristo" and Dante's "Inferno."

When the Man With No Name comes riding into the Texas hamlet of Lago, he immediately strikes fear in the hearts of the local townspeople. Hiding behind the facade of piety and the pioneer work-ethic lies a craven, dark secret which the town will keep shrouded at any cost.

Peopled only by bullies and cowards, the town is immediately torn apart by Eastwood -- executing the local goon squad who try to rough him up, raping the town prostitute, setting neighbour against neighbour and exposing the town preacher as a craven, hypocritical fraud.

It soon becomes evident to the town that the stranger has come to avenege the death of their marshal, who was bullwhipped to death in the town square as everyone watched, none of the men lifting a finger to help him or to stop the killers.

So, when the stranger shows up, the Marshal's killers are about to be released from prison. The cowardly town Sheriff tries to hire the newcomer as a gunfighter to face down the killers, but Eastwood turns the tables on him and the town and soon has conscripted the town's spineless men in a local volunteer regiment to ambush the killers when they ride into town. This is a neat twist on "High Noon," in which Gary Cooper's Sheriff Will Kane had to face the men who swore to kill him alone, because no one in the town had the guts to help him; in "High Plains Drifter," no-one has the guts to refuse the Man With No Name, for fear _he'd_ kill them.

What is so compelling about "High Plains Drifter" is Eastwood's complex portrayal of executioner and avenging angel: Unlike in "Shadow of a Doubt," Eastwood is no sociopathic murderer, as was Cotten's Charlie Oakley; Rather, the town of Lago *deserves* its violent demise, and -- as in "The Count of Monte Cristo" -- the Man With No Name icily exacts his revenge on the town ruthlessly, methodically.

In ripping the facade of religiosity and respectability away from the town, he makes the only man with any courage in Lago -- the town midget, played by Bill Curtis -- the Mayor and Sheriff. The sets -- designed and built by Hitchcock set designers Henry Bumstead and George Milo -- play a key role in this movie. Like any other frontier town in any Western, the buildings are standard issue: General store, hotel, church, saloon, livery stable, etc. But, they are all constructed of bare wooden planks, without a drop of paint on them, save for the signs denoting their function. Clearly, these buildings are naked citadels of greed, earmarked for gouging every last dollar and squeezing every last penny out of their customers and parishoners. Only the mining office -- which hides the town's dark secret -- is whitewashed over to cover its sins. It's a brilliant example of Bumstead's minimalistic Expressionism.

The Man With No Name takes note of this, and before the killers' return, he orders the townsfolk to paint it a shocking, scarlet red. The hotel owner protests, exclaiming "it's going to look like Hell!" Of course, all Eastwood does in response is squint and form an impish, ironic smile with his parched lips.

The final scene is a brilliant deja-vu montage which recalls the Marshal's murder: On a pitch-black night, the stranger horsewhips one of the killers to death, and guns his two partners down in intensely emotionless vengeance. The stranger slowly walks away, finally cleansing Lago of its sin as the entire town burns in flames in a baptism by fire.

I consider this movie to be Eastwood's greatest directorial effort, slightly above "Bird" and "The Unforgiven." Singular in purpose, relentless in its dark vision of humanity, "High Plains Drifter" is the ultimate revenge tale.


High Plains Drifter - Another great Eastwood western!   April 6, 2003
K. Wyatt (St. Louis, MO United States)
23 out of 25 found this review helpful

In this classic western, Clint Eastwood performs admirably as producer, director and of course starring in the lead role. High Plains Drifter is an excellent tale that highlights Eastwood's talents in this genre, whether it's his "Stranger" type aura or the clipped but poignant lines. This great western has a superb script and exceptional performances by Eastwood and the other actors. Its surreal style, unexpected plot twists and great camera angles serve well to enhance this movies overall appearance. I do not normally comment on the soundtrack for films however, in this case I feel compelled to because I felt the soundtrack for this one is a perfect accoutrement to the overall feel of the movie!

The premise:

A lone stranger rides into town and is immediately set upon by some of the locals. Unfortunately for these rough locals, they've picked the star of the movie in Clint Eastwood to aggravate and they receive his quick six shooter justice for their efforts. The locals, being a cowardly bunch, eagerly set out to appease him in every way in order to secure his loyalty and protection from a group of criminals who are soon to be released from the territorial prison.

The "Stranger" agrees to be their benefactor and immediately sets out to do so in some strange ways. Through humiliation, misogyny and the threat of immediate "justice," he begins to prepare the town for return of the criminals. As a surreal side note, the Stranger and some of the locals are having waking nightmares about the brutal killing of the former marshal by the criminals who are expected to return. What follows is a western that is one of the best and a benchmark for all westerns to follow.

I highly recommend this great Eastwood western to any and all die hard or casual fans of the genre or the actor. It is a classic western that deserves a spot on the DVD rack.

Special features:

Not unlike many of the other movies of the time, this one isn't jam packed with special features because there just aren't many to throw in. It does have a great trailer and some production notes that are quite interesting to read through on the screen. {ssintrepid}