| High Plains Drifter | | Cast : | Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom | | Director : | Clint Eastwood | | Studio : | Universal Studios | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | August 22, 1973 | | DVD Released Date : | May 06, 2003 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 07, 2005 | | Summary | Eastwood's first western as a director is dark and mysterious | Content
 | A stranger rides into town, appearing as if out of nothing through the haze. This town is called "Lago", and is owned primarily by a mining company. Nobody in town seems to have seen a stranger in quite some time. The mining company has had quite some difficulty in the past with its hired guns. A year or so earlier, they had three hired gunslingers protecting the town and the mine, but those had turned on a marshall to protect the mine's secret and been incarcerated. The three replacements meet a quick end when they confront the stranger. So, of course, the logical thing to do is enlist this strange drifter to protect the town from the first three gunslingers, now due to be released from prison.
Eastwood's first western as a director is dark, sinister and mysterious. This is a very atypical western, and is soaked in the cynical pessimism of 1970's cinema. The stranger promises the townspeople that he can show them how to defend themselves, but when it comes down to it they have very little interest in defending themselves. Flashback scenes show the townspeople hiding in shadow as the marshall was mercilessly whipped to death by the mining company's hired goons. This is a town that has truly turned its back on the light, cowardly embracing the darkness.
Truth and justice are the themes of all great westerns. This film portrays a town so weakened by its own abandonment of those values that when faced with its own destruction it lacks the moral conviction to save itself from the lawless gunslingers who aspire to take what they feel is their due. The townspeople are destroyed by their own moral corruption, and are impotent to defend themselves against evil because they have lost the ability to see themselves as the good.
Is the stranger the old marshall? The flashback scnes have Eastwood playing the role, as the marshall is bullwhipped for having discovered the mine's secret. But the marshall has a grave, a fact the stranger remarks upon at the close of the film. Is he a ghost of the marshall, an agent of justice visited upon the people of Lago to exact penance? The film leaves this question open for the viewer.
The stranger himself commits an act of sexual violence in an early scene, one which would be considered rather politically incorrect these days. A woman takes an interest in the stranger, a woman who had stood calmly and watched the old marshall die. She endeavors to bump into him, and he sees right through the charade. He takes her to a stable and has his way with her. It is never quite clear whether this is truly a rape. She later claims it to be, but she embraced him during the sexual act. Either way the act itself has no moral value, because the stranger simply allows the lack of morality in the townspeople to manifest itself in the way it responds to any act of wrongdoing.
This is a dark western that shows much of the brilliance Eastwood would later receive acknowledgement of in his long career directing dramatic works. If you are considering purchasing this DVD, which has no extra features to boast about, I would recommend it to anyone who is an Eastwood fan or otherwise considers themselves open to the limitless possibilities of the western film genre. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 20, 2005 | | Summary | Haunting, Riveting, Ruthless, Convicting | Content
| Located on the coast of southern California in the days of the Western Territory, the town of Lago stood idly by when their marshall, Jim Duncan, was brutally whipped to death before their eyes. The three scoundrals that did it are soon to be released from territorial prison and revenge is certain to be on their minds. The town hires the quick gun and ruthless gaze of Clint Eastwood, stranger with no name, to protect them.
"Revenge is a dish best served cold". And that's what we get in High Plains Drifter. Clint plays the ruthless, cold-hearted killer with a quick draw and a sharp eye for pretty women. He intends to serve up a dose of justice, Clint Eastwood style, to this weak-kneed community lacking backbone and a conscience. And, whie he's at it, deliver a little something to the scoundrels who killed Jim Duncan. What transpires draws the viewer into the showdown with all the high drama of Eastwood's better-known westerns.
The movie is very entertaining and certainly makes its point. You gotta love Clint in this old western role. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 10, 2005 | | Summary | Minor classic in the man against the mob genre | Content
| "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. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 01, 2005 | | Summary | Clint - The Avenging Angel with No Name | Content
| This is one of Clint Eastwood's best efforts. The subject of the film was later reprised 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).
The role of the dwarf, whom The Stranger appoints first as Mayor and then as Sherrif 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!
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| Rating | | | Date | April 25, 2005 | | Summary | Overrated Clint vehicle not deserving of its reputation... | Content
| I'd read for years about how good this western is, but still put off seeing it. I'm glad I did though. I've seen it twice in the last 3 years, and it just gets duller and dumber. The supernatural angle? Painting the town red? Shades of Sergio Leone? None of this impressed me. Don't get me wrong, I love Clint. But, certain movies of his are just plain overrated. 'Unforgiven' is the same way. I agree with the reviewer who said to stick with the spaghetti westerns. They're much more entertaining and original, not to mention deserving of their reputation(s). |
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