High Plains Drifter (Widescreen Edition)

The story is interesting and contains an important moral point about cowardice and conformity. The film ends with a ghostlike eerieness, which Eastwood used again in "Pale Rider" several years later. In summary, "High Plains Drifter" offers an excellent alternative to the countless run-of-the-mill westerns produced over the years.


Best western ever made   October 27, 2001
Andrew D. Dixon Jr. (Jacksonville, Florida United States)
10 out of 12 found this review helpful

John Wayne told Clint Eastwood he hated High Plains Drifter. You can't get a better endorsement than that. Wayne called the movie "unamerican." I say that's (...). The entire movie is totally in support of the American ethos: Undermine the establishment, turn the tables as an outsider and get revenge. The stuff this great country was made of. Some of the best one liners ever delivered too, my favorite, "Here's to your feet mam, they're almost as big as your mouth." Westerns don't get better than this. Even film fans who aren't big fans of westerns (which I'm not) can't help but get drawn into this cool-guy-screws-over-the-hicks opus. Form up the Lago Volunteers and ride on.
Your most humble and loyal servant,
Dixonator
Fort Pierce, Florida


Clint - The Avenging Angel with No Name   May 1, 2005
Setmose (Jerusalem)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful

This is one of Clint Eastwood's best efforts. The subject of the film was later reprized in "Pale Rider", which is good in its own right, but "pales" beside the mythic resonance of "Drifter".

Clearly, Eastwood is using everything he learned at the feet of the master Sergio Leone, but goes the master one better. "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" had a strong anti-war message on a grand scale. "Drifter" is a more interior kind of study of group corruption, and the place of the a-moral avanger within the panoply of human foibles.

I'm surprised that no reviewer has taken up the Christological overtones of the film. The Sheriff of Lago is whipped to death in the street in front of all of the townspeople - just like Jesus on the stations of the cross. "The Stranger", as the returning (resurrected?) ghost of the Sheriff (who is only reckognized as such by the town dwarf), is also handy with a whip, as was Jesus when he "cleansed" the Temple of the corruption of the money-lenders (which is the exact hidden sin of the town).

"Lago" is obviously an anagram for "Gaol": the citizens are locked in a purgatory waiting room, and The Stranger has come to dispense judgment.

The role of the dwarf, whom The Stranger appoints first as Mayor and then as Sheriff of the town, simply to grind the faces of the towspeople in their own corruption, is a brilliant bit of Sergio Leone parody put on steroids!

The entire movie is paced excellently and has a very satisfying balance. Geoffry Lewis as the head of the bad guys later became a staple player in Eastwood's Malpaso productions, including an excellent turn in "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot".

All in all, this is a quintessential Eastwood film, and is probably the capstone of the Sergio Leone style Western. One can imagine the master grinning and nodding in approval during his first viewing of the pupils fledgling production!



Don't dare !   September 3, 2002
Eran Cohen (Israel)
9 out of 75 found this review helpful

There is nothing good about this film , it's just a gruesome presentation of most sorts of violence known to man - brought to the extreme : Verbal assaults , severe human and animal abuse , theft , rape , murder - this film has it all .

In his first shot at directing and starring a Western , Eastwood seemed to have wanted to rise above his previous releases in which he had only starred . The result is terrible ; he took all the memorable nuances the viewers had loved to watch in older westerns and turned them upside down . One cannot find even one decent , not to say admirable character - all the major players are evil and wicked in one way or the other . Furthermore , the concept the movie is based upon is vague and unclear most of the time - it is not understood why things happened the way they did in the past , and why exactely things are so wrong in the present . Even when there are action scenes they are empty , unsatisfying and useless .

Those facts leave the viewer hung up and totally frustrated . Ultimately , there is not a single benefit that can be earned out of watching this movie .

If you like the usual Eastwood performances - this is the one to skip . You will have to trust me for this one . Seeing only the rape scene Eastwood takes part in , or more accurately commits on his own , is a degradation of the entire art of filmmaking . I know the cinematic era back then was one of brutal violence in some cases ("Straw Dogs" and the other Pekinpah alikes), and it was quite popular , but seeing it today really makes the watcher sick . It's too blatant , too offensive , too cruel , too gory , too disgusting - too much - to see rapes that become divine pleasure for the woman after she gets used to it ! To watch midget abuse , mass murders for nothing , to witness hell on earth - for what ? The only missing act of violence is child abuse . Thanks god he spared us from this one . The worst part is that all the violence is for nothing . There is no redeeming in this movie , and absolutely no redemption . In the end I realized that maybe everything was done to satiate the hunger of the crowd for blood .

In all - Don't , Don't , Don't . I managed to see it through only to deliver a community service , as an eye witness who bared the atrocity in order to warn the rest of the camp from the hurt feelings and the complete waste of time


Minor classic in the man against the mob genre   June 10, 2005
Ian Muldoon (Coffs Harbour, NSW Australia)
9 out of 13 found this review helpful

"It's what people see inside themselves that makes them afraid" intones Jim Duncan (or his living ghost) as he climbs out of the bed of the woman he has just "enjoyed". A man of honour who seeks revenge on a whole town who stood by while he was apparently whipped to death by guns hired to kill him because he would not hide the fact the town was mining illegally on government property, Clint Eastwood is brilliant as is the magic photography of Bruce Surtees. All who deserve it get their come-uppance and one of the final images of Clint standing in front of a wall of flame is straight out of the course Old Testament Revenge 101. A minor classic of the genre.