High Plains Drifter

2/16/2014

Supernatural Western? A lone gunman with no name and seemingly with no past, rides into the dusky town of Lago. The residents of Lago at first view the stranger with suspicion, but when news that some outlaws that are out for blood are on their way to town, they ask the stranger for his help. This is Clint Eastwood's first Western film that he directed, and it's clear and evident that the guy not only loves the genre that made his name, he also knows what makes it work. Obviously having worked for Sergio Leone, Eastwood was making notes because High Plains Drifter oozes the mythical aura of many of Leone's finest genre offerings. To which, with thanks, the result is one of the best offerings in the 70s for the Oater enthusiast. The film opens with our mysterious drifter slowly c

1/27/2022

I don't have much to say about <em>'High Plains Drifter'</em>. It didn't thrill me or anything, but it did keep my attention from start-to-finish so it's evidently a good film. Clint Eastwood is the only cast member worth talking about, he gives a commanding performance in the lead role. Geoffrey Lewis, a frequent castmate of Eastwood's, is the best of the rest, if I had to pick. The film does feature dark themes, which helps the film's pacing out a lot. It's nothing special in my eyes, though there is entertainment there no doubt. It's a borderline 8* rating for me, but not quite.

4/18/2023

Another Hollywood (spaghetti) formula Western where homicidal maniacs abound. Here, Clint plays a homicidal maniac who obviously comes back from the dead after being killed by three bad guys and betrayed by an entire town of people. So, the first thing he does is murder the only three men who weren't part of that. Makes sense? Not if you're looking for credible motivation. But credible motivation isn't a part of most of Eastwood's Westerns. Certainly not the spaghetti ones. So, the rest of the movie is just sound and fury, signifying nothing, and don't try to make sense out of any of it. It's just another movie about homicidal maniacs being everywhere. If the West or East or anywhere was anything like this, there wouldn't be anyone left in one piece to keep a town going. They'd all eit

3/13/2024

**_Clint paints the Western town red, like Gehenna_** A mysterious Stranger (Eastwood) trots into a remote town in west-central California, a dozen miles from the Nevada border. The townspeople desperately need his help to prepare for the release of three vengeful men from the territorial prison. "High Plains Drifter" (1973) was Clint’s third directorial effort (although he also did some uncredited work on “Dirty Harry”). It parallels his “Pale Rider” from a dozen years later with the difference that Preacher from “Pale Rider” is essentially righteous and therefore protects worthy people whereas Stranger in this flick is vengeful, focusing on dishing out retribution to those who are bad. The fact that there are few ‘good’ people in Lago makes you root for the Stranger, to a degree, b

1/15/2026

Now we are used to Clint Eastwood playing the poncho-clad man of few words in westerns, but this one has an altogether spookier thread to it. When he arrives into a dead end town he is immediately challenged by three ne’er do wells whom he effortlessly despatches. The townsfolk are not so much terrified as they are impressed and so they ask him to stick around and help protect them from three more thugs who have threatened to burn down their town. Now you’d have thought that had these townspeople just placed themselves on their rooftops with rifles, then they could easily have picked off three men on horseback, but this town really ought to have been on the “yellow” brick road, so they need outside help. He agrees, after a fashion, but exerts his own unique price on this citizenry whilst a

7/6/2026

The Stranger (director Clint Eastwood) puts the “anti” in anti-hero, and then drops the “hero” part altogether. High Plains Drifter (1973) opens with an intriguing — nay, baffling, staggering, head-scratching choice. A nameless gunman arrives in the mining town of Lago (where precious little mining takes place), kills three men, and rapes one woman. The three men arguably had it coming; as for the woman, the Stranger soon has her coming too. So, it’s not rape if she has an orgasm? Is that what they were trying to tell us? This is a development in hemingwayan morality that even Papa Hem didn’t anticipate: it’s okay if she feels good after. The following day, the woman shoots at the Stranger while he’s taking a bath. He dives in — somehow the bath water protects him from the bullets.