All rights reserved, including educational use. A mysterious, unnamed stranger rides out of the desert into the isolated mining town of Lago in the American Old West. Because its a far more interesting movie the further you get away from its Western-ness and the more it steps into the realm of spectral, mystical Tales from the Crypt pulp. | Hes a mysterious fellow, cool and gruff looking and noticeably viler than the usual Eastwood western character. Book: White, Mike . Additional scenes were filmed at Reno, Nevada's Winnemucca Lake and California's Inyo National Forest. Robert E. . High Plains Drifter was released in theaters on this day in 1973. The next morning, the Stranger rides past Mordecai in the cemetery. Schnabel, a consummate, For many years my wife and Iwould hike the mountainsthe Rockies when we lived in Alberta, and the North Shore and, Copyright 2002-2023 Hendrik Slegtenhorst. One thing about the story that's bad is that the town people are represented as cowards for the whole movie and they don't exactly improve though the at the end either. He keeps things lean and simple. When the movies exploded like TNT overseas, no one was more surprised than Eastwood to learn that he had transformed into a global superstar overnight. This cantata, from 1725, begins, effectively, as musical reminiscence and narrative longing, a continuation of where the St. Fra Angelico : Resurrection of Christ and Women at the Tomb (1440-41), Fresco, Convento di San Marco, Florence. Amid shoot-outs and existentialism, a stranger is hired to protect a town from outlaws -- but his recipe for defense could be a deal with the devil. They won't be able to see your review if you only submit your rating. [4] Here its different though, and we see the cruel behaviour for what it is, even if some of the victims deserve retribution. Dennis Harvey 48 Hills. High Plains Drifter - Wikipedia Please enter your birth date to watch this video: You are not allowed to view this material at this time. It is one of those examples, I Lombardi, Verdis fourth opera, is set during the First Crusade. "It's just an allegory," Eastwood said, "a speculation on what happens when they go ahead and kill the sheriff, and somebody comes back and calls the town's conscience to bear. The three have their sights set on returning to Lago to wreak havoc and take care of some unfinished business. Knee is a concern, and might not be only one, de Geoffrey Lewis, Juliette Lewis' Father, Dies at Age 79 High Plains Drifter - YouTube New York . Watch the Clint Eastwood movie "High Plains Drifter". It's never revealed who the drifter is, but it's implied that he's the Devil, or the Angel of Death, or the ghost of Marshal Duncan - either way, it's at least a little supernatural, and very. There are two headstones in the graveyard with the names of. This is the film of a magnificent intellect. Whatever he is, hes definitely one of the most memorable characters Easwoods played, and thats saying something. The next day, Lago officials offer the Stranger "anything you want" to protect the town from Bridges and the Carlins, who will soon be released from prison. But like a Broadway-trained thespian who periodically returns to the stage to keep his or her instincts honed, Eastwood would keep circling back to the genre that had first forged his mythology in a crucible of six-shooters and squinting glances, the Western. Find a list of the best recent and upcoming film and TV titles added to Music title data, credits, and images provided by, Movie title data, credits, and poster art provided by. Bach, Cantata 6, at the Second Day of Easter Light and Darkness of Existence, The Ferryman's Obolus Mahler and Freud Meet in Leiden II:III, J.S. Cracks in the Pedestal Ideology and Gender in Hollywood . I hope hes wrong, or just being playfully cryptic. He. The scene disturbs more than the death by gun fire, only momentarily earlier, of three men by the same stranger who rapes the woman. In an interview, Eastwood said that earlier versions of the script made the Stranger the dead marshal's brother. He's nearer now, a bearded man in a dark cowboy hat and long dusty overcoat--the Stranger (. The libretto is, This work, with its firm and certain compound of optimism, tenderness, melancholy, and assertion, was a favourite of mine, Dante, Beatrice, and the Zodiac (15th c.) The stated theme of Paradiso is the coevality of unity and multiplicity. Coming Soon. The Stranger replies, "Yes, you do." The stranger was Marshal Jim Duncan himself come back to exact his revenge (perhaps through a deal with the devil.). Because of the stranger's expertise with a gun, the town votes to hire him at any cost to protect Lago from three outlawsStacey Bridges (Geoffrey Lewis), Bill Borders (Scott Walker), and Cole Carlin (Anthony James)who have just been released from jail after they brutally whipped to death Lago's previous Marshal Jim Duncan (Buddy Van Horn) and who are believed to be on their way back to Lago. Coming Soon. High Plains Drifter. [18] Jon Landau of Rolling Stone concurred, noting "thematic shallowness" and "verbal archness"; but he expressed approval of the dramatic scenery and cinematography. He then rides out of town without explanation, following the wounded Morgan. (Photo: Hendrik, Akira Kurosawa : Ran. "[21], The film was recognized by American Film Institute in 2008 on AFI's 10 Top 10 in the category "Nominated Western Film". Book: Gentry, Ric . It's Me, Margaret. Still, the film comes close enough to rewarding to endear adequately as a thriller, and a stylish one at that. Get a list of the best movie and TV titles recently added (and coming What to Watch Right Now on Amazon's Prime Video. Eastwood reportedly liked the offbeat quality of the film's original nine-page proposal and approached Universal with the idea of directing it. Free (& Subscription) Games for All Platforms: New & Upcoming, What to Watch in May: 18 Notable TV Shows & Streaming Movies. We never really are told who he is or where he comes from. The film was well received by many critics, and rates 93% positive on Rotten Tomatoes based on 27 reviews. The Stranger lures one of the Carlin brothers outside and whips him to death, then kills the remaining outlaws one at a time. [8], Complete buildings, rather than facades, were built, so that Eastwood could shoot interior scenes on the site. hitchcockthelegend 20 July 2008 A lone gunman with no name and seemingly with no past, rides into the dusky town of Lago. Slaughter may be by burning, beheading, or throttling. He orders every building in town painted blood red. Obviously he's not okay with rape and he's sure as hell not trying to glorify it - but the execution seems miscalculated, to say the least. The film stars Eastwood as a mysterious stranger who metes out justice in a corrupt frontier mining town. Book: Heller-Nicholas, Alexandra . The film stars Eastwood as a mysterious stranger who metes out justice in a corrupt frontier mining town. Edit, One gravestone shown in the intro is dated to 1882, so this movie most likely takes place in the mid-1880s. This uncertainty is kind of understandable, as Eastwood must work hard to transcend natural shortcomings to this minimalist narrative, which is still meaty, yet would have seemed meatier if style didn't also come with its own immediately questionable elements. Cookie policy. Because maybe you didn't go back for more? Brutal story-line which is about as close to an explicit allegory as the western has ever come. This content is imported from youTube. "[10] The graveyard set featured in the film's final scene included tombstones inscribed "Sergio Leone" and "Don Siegel" as a humorous tribute to the two influential directors. After having sex with him in his room, she slips out as three men enter. The angel of death, who is the Satan depicted in Paradise Lost, is not inherently evil, being created by God, but is that creation of God who Himself contends with evil, and, indeed, tempts it. Grown men moan to each other about the Strangers behaviour and then point out well, why didnt you do anything about it then? as he takes and violates anything he wants whilst no-one has the balls to do anything about it. Brings back the memory of my Dad bringing home a . [12], Vincent Canby of The New York Times called the film "part ghost story, part revenge Western, more than a little silly, and often quite entertaining in a way that may make you wonder if you lost your good sense. Three gunmen hired to protect the town taunt and threaten him; he kills all three with little effort. Under a joint production between Malpaso and Universal, the original screenplay was written by Ernest Tidyman, who had won a Best Screenplay Oscar for The French Connection.[6]. But he took a what-the-hell gamble and flew to Spain to shoot the first installment in what would become Leones stylish, international sensation Man With No Name trilogy (which would also include 1965s For a Few Dollars More and 1966s The Good, The Bad and The Ugly). Can the mysterious gunfighter without a name stop the three outlaws? ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. The original script identified him as the marshal's brother. In Biblical accounts, Mordecai sat in the kings gate to signify his intimacy to the ruler, or, in the film, the stranger. Lulu.com . Given that he was mentored by the likes of Don Siegel and my personal favourite director Sergio Leone its no wonder that Eastwood went on to make hits like The Outlaw Josey Wales and Unforgiven. I don't have much to say about 'High Plains Drifter'. Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter: A mean-spirited, relentlessly This film just feels mean, and the nastiness all comes from the character of the stranger. Cinemark But he has a score of his own to settle. One you unglue your eyes from the gorgeous scenery, filmed on location, you understand that this is definitely not your typical John Wayne flick. High Plains Drifter is a 1973 American Western film directed by Clint Eastwood, written by Ernest Tidyman, and produced by Robert Daley for The Malpaso Company and Universal Pictures. As stridently revisionist as any Western of the Vietnam era, High Plains Drifter is really only a Western on paper. Even when the film is traditional in structure, it's often distancing, for Eastwood's quiet directorial intensity is often more quiet than intense, and therefore more dry than Eastwood can handle as a sophomore directorial storytelling, resulting in dullness that is the biggest issue of the final product. That's obviously wrong. High Plains Drifter is a 1973 Western directed by (and starring) Clint Eastwood, with a screenplay by Ernest Tidyman ( The French Connection, Shaft ). The character of Marshal Duncan was played by Buddy Van Horn, Eastwood's long-time stunt double, to suggest that he and the Stranger could be the same person. 978-1-84511-902-7 . Written by Ernest Tidyman, who was a bit of an uncategorizable genre schizophrenic himself having already written both the Blaxploitation classic Shaft and earned a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for The French Connection, High Plains Drifter is a haunting and haunted supernatural revenge story about a mysterious, cigarillo-chewing man with no name (guess who?) Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Of course, the townspeople themselves aren't exactly innocent either so much as punishing them, along with the three gunmen, for their role in the marshal's death. High Plains Drifter (1973) - IMDb But Eastwood has always been cagier about interpreting his film, saying that that interpretation might be true, but its also possible that the Stranger is Duncans avenging brother. Yeah, I'm thinking that this guy doesn't so much drift the high plains, as much as he drifts the regular plains, while high, which would be appropriate, considering he is the prince of sin. He then rides out of town without explanation, following the wounded Morgan. Verified reviews are considered more trustworthy by fellow moviegoers. High Plains Drifter is Western star Clint Eastwoods first attempt at directing one of his own westerns. Over the course of the movie, Eastwoods Stranger acts as if hes Lagos savior, but hes not interested in protecting them, he wants them to pay for Duncans murder. [6] An uncredited rewrite of the script was provided by Dean Riesner, screenwriter of other Eastwood projects. | High Plains Drifter. Menu. A gunfighting stranger comes to the small settlement of Lago and is hired to bring the townsfolk together in an attempt to hold off three outlaws who are on their way. As the Stranger trains the townsfolk to take arms and the gunmen draw closer, the hidden secrets and corruptions of the town begin to unravel, and the truth behind Lago's feud with the outlaws and their culpability in the death of a federal marshal, with whom the Stranger has a connection soon comes to light A Deconstruction of the Western genre with supernatural overtones, High Plains Drifter is one of Eastwood's most popular and acclaimed films. High Plains Drifter is a morality tale carved out of the harsh Western desert and directed with a panache that synthesized the styles of Sergio Leone and Don Siegel, two directors who had worked with Eastwood frequently. | | The leading role is Christs. This most interesting film is a story of the avenging angel, who comes to the town of Lago (lake), which is indeed on the shore of a lake, and proceeds to mete out brutal retribution. After Belding says "It couldn't be worse if the devil himself had ridden into Lago!" The Stranger only agrees to take up the role after the town meets his bizarre demands including painting the town's buildings red and rechristening the town itself as "Hell". Your AMC Ticket Confirmation# can be found in your order confirmation email. Meanwhile, a group of outlaws are about to return to the town and take their revenge. That, however, is small comfort as this cold, gory and overthought movie unfolds. When the attractive, blond townswoman Callie Travers flirtatiously insults him, he rapes her in the livery stable. After a shoot-out leaves the town's hired-gun protectors dead, the town's leaders petition the Stranger to stay and protect them from three ruthless outlaws who are soon to be released from prison. Just confirm how you got your ticket. 2004 . The film had its share of detractors. High Plains Drifter is a 1973 American Western film directed by Clint Eastwood, written by Ernest Tidyman, and produced by Robert Daley for The Malpaso Company and Universal Pictures. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/HighPlainsDrifter. User Reviews Cookie Notice I don't suppose the film, running only a little over 100 minutes, is too draggy, but there are a few overdrawn set pieces, some of which are a little forceful in a manner which makes the implied twists sort of obvious sooner that they ostensibly should be, or at least leaves the plot to outstay its welcome enough to hit formulaic moments. Westerns often have mysterious, strong silent protagonists but high plains drifter might have gone as far as to have the stranger be some kind of spectre or ghost, sent to the town to punish them for their sins. He was mellow on the set, never asked for more than one or two takes, and made a habit of coming in both under-schedule and under-budget on his filmsalthough he probably would have preferred to call them movies rather than films. As an actor, he is probably better than he allows himself to be. Although hed already appeared in more than a dozen often-uncredited, blink-and-youll-miss-them parts by 1959, Eastwoods career was salvaged when he was cast that year as Rowdy Yates on the hit TV oater, Rawhide. Drifter is lauded as being one of the very first revisionist westerns as opposed to the classic traditional westerns. Now, with those murderers just released from prison, they want Eastwoods Stranger to defend them. That night, in his hotel room, the Stranger dreams of Jim Duncan, a U.S. Whats most notable is how Eastwood holds fast to the rebel spirit of the spaghetti Westerns and revisionist New Hollywood Westerns of the previous decade, but packages it in a film thats slicker and more mainstream-friendly. In some details they will seem inappropriate at the moment but it is not wasted. But more than anything, its a ghost story (if you choose to see it that wayand I do) in frontier drag. 978-0786449613 . It's also a pretty violent business that won't disappoint the millions who flocked to the Leone westerns. 6275 . Read our extensive list of rules for more information on other types of posts like fan-art and self-promotion, or message the moderators if you have any questions. Rarely are humble westerns permitted to drift around on such a highfalutin plane. HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER is perhaps Eastwood's most mean-spirited film that deals with supernatural elements and quite literally burning down every cliche, the Western cliche . Edit, A stranger (Clint Eastwood) rides his horse out of the hot undulating waves of the desert and into the mining town of Lago and asks for a beer, a bath, a shave, and a haircut. [8] The film was completed in six weeks, two days ahead of schedule, and under budget. When Clint Eastwood was on "In the Actors Studio" he said the stranger was Marshall Duncan's brother. Edit, American screenwriter Ernest Tidyman wrote the screenplay for High Plains Drifter and followed it up with a 1973 novelization of the film. There's always retribution for your deeds. High Plains Drifter Is Clint Eastwood's Mysterious, Overlooked Masterpiece. The supporting cast is all of humanity. Why Does Bruce Willis Make Movies He Hates? A Stranger (Clint Eastwood) rides into in the dusty mining town of Lago, where the townspeople are living in the shadow of a dark secret. That fact that we cant identify with the silent mysterious main character like we usually do during westerns puts us more into the shoes of the agitated townsfolk, which was a nice twist. In this, then, is also created the possibility of free will. Its also a film that deserves to be seen by anyone who has a sweet tooth for the genre or thinks they have a bead on Eastwood as a filmmaker. 2011 . External Reviews As night falls and the town burns, it looks like the outlaws are getting the better hand. Apr 19, 1973 High Plains Drifter: Directed by Clint Eastwood. Dee Barton's score is genuinely refreshing, capturing the supernatural feel of the film through a fusion of classic western themes and a whimsy which ranges from colorful to rather intense, while Bruce Surtees' cinematography, despite being not quite as playful as Barton's still-underused efforts, is also attractive in its bleakness, with a rugged palette over gritty art direction by Henry Bumstead. 5 Movies That Influenced GTA (& 5 That Influenced RDR) - Game Rant The direction was great, the cinematography was great, and cast fit well into there characters. McFarland & Co . The Stranger drags Sarah, kicking and screaming, into her bedroom (the only room in the hotel not damaged) where they have sex. The scene where Clint Eastwood is about to get his clean shave is honestly cinema at it's best. and the By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and
Where was 'High Plain Drifter' filmed? List of locations in Clint Mostly asked to project a sense of corruption amidst a feeling of liberation from the shackles of morality, most everyone in this cast does fine, with Eastwood predictably stealing the show, with a formulaic, but still-effective portrayal of an intensely charismatic, yet chillingly enigmatic man with no name, or at least a name that is not said, just assumed. 2.75/5 - Decent. Book: Hughes, Howard. the whole town knows what happened to Marshal Duncan and why, Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy, his pathetic pleas for mercy earn him no pity from either audience. There's also, of course, the last line of dialogue in the movie. The film stars Eastwood as a mysterious stranger who metes out justice in a corrupt frontier mining town. There's always retribution for your deeds. PDF Cowboy Gothic: Haunting and Memorialization in High Plains Drifter Or the ghost of Duncan, hanging in a tortured purgatorial limbo, until he can get a proper burial, a shred of justice, and some overdue payback. Yes, there are subtle problems throughout the film, but there are also considerable strengths, and they stood a real chance of taking a small-scale narrative and molding it into a rewarding thriller, only to go overpowered by the cold spells which, when combined with those subtle missteps, ultimately secure the final product shy of its potential. Wayne, who it turns out wasnt a fan of the film, wrote an angry letter back, saying that High Plains Drifter isnt what the West was all about and that it isnt the American people who settled this country. The Duke may have thought that he was putting the young Eastwood in his place. Ive watched High Plains Drifter probably a half dozen times and every time Im more and more convinced that the Stranger is the ghost of Duncan meting out punishment from the Great Beyond. "@shane130 @JFowlerESPN I disagree he would be good in 1975. I mean, theres horses and saloons and tumbleweeds. The locals are impressed, enough to vote in town council to let Sheriff Sam Shaw (Walter Barnes) explain those were hired guns overstepping their task. Book: Ruffles, Tom . Morrisville . Speaking about the composition, Hammett said he didn't set out to write a song based on the movie, but upon finishing it, he realized it "conveyed the same sentiment as the film, so the piece was christened accordingly."[23]. [3] Will the town's leaders convince the mysterious man to help? "[18], The film had its share of detractors. 2013 . Universal wanted Eastwood to shoot the feature on its back lot, but Eastwood opted instead to film on location. 1558491201 . Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is Copyright 2009-2022, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. The film was shot on location on the shores of Mono Lake, California. The film stars Eastwood as a mysterious stranger who metes out justice in a corrupt frontier mining town. attempting to shoot the Stranger in the back after he's killed all the gunmen is remarkably similar to the remaining Rojo brother trying to shoot The Man With No Name in the back after he's killed everybody else in. Marvel Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer, Jurassic Park Movies Ranked By Tomatometer, RT25: Celebrating 25 Years of Rotten Tomatoes, Fatal Attraction Series Stars Joshua Jackson and Lizzy Caplan on the Sexy, Unsettling Psychological Thriller, Prime Video Acquires J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves Batman: Caped Crusader and 2 More Animated Projects, Clint Eastwood's sophomore outing as director sees him back in the saddle as a mysterious stranger, and the result is one of his most memorable Westerns. High Plains Drifter Script - Dialogue Transcript - Script-O-Rama By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. [3] The film was influenced by the work of Eastwood's two major collaborators, film directors Sergio Leone and Don Siegel. "[14] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 3 stars out of 4 and wrote, "What does work very well indeed is Eastwood's presence, personal style, and direction. And two decades before Eastwood would win Best Picture and Best Director Oscars for his return to the genre with the twilight apologia Unforgiven, he still hadnt begun to grapple with the regrets and ramifications of shoot-first-ask-questions-later Old West violence. He favored a less explicit and more supernatural interpretation, and excised the reference. The Stranger suddenly returns and kills the outlaws one by one, whipping Cole to death, hanging Dan with another whip, and shooting Stacey. But looking back now, Id say that Eastwood comes out of that exchange looking like the victor. New #Steelers TE Darnell Washington would have gone much higher than late-third round but "medical zonked him," as one scout said. This particular revisionist western is characterized by trippy, almost abstractionist artistic touches that are admirable as unique, and not even all that overwrought, yet the occasions in which the offbeat meditations are overplayed stand, distancing subjective value with artistic non-conventions to storytelling. Universal released the R-rated High Plains Drifter in the United States in April 1973, and the film eventually grossed $15.7 million domestically,[2] ultimately making it the sixth-highest grossing Western in North America in the decade of the 1970s and the 20th highest-grossing film released in 1973. Book: McGilligan, Patrick . Holes in the plot were filled in with black humor and allegory, influenced by Sergio Leone. Here Eastwood takes advantage of what he has learned in the spaghetti western with a plot that is fully attached to the genre. Nowadays, we tend to think of Eastwood as a pretty conservative filmmaker. Clint Eastwood became a star starring in Westerns, so it wasn't new to see him in this role. Belding, aiming a shotgun at the Stranger's back, is shot dead by Mordecai.The next morning as the Stranger rides past Mordecai in the cemetery. With Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom, Marianna Hill, Mitchell Ryan. [11] On Metacritic the film has a score 69% based on reviews from 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". High Plains Drifter is a 1973 American Western film directed by Clint Eastwood, written by Ernest Tidyman, and produced by Robert Daley for The Malpaso Compa. And in 1971, he finally got his shot with the paranoia-drenched Fatal Attraction prototype Play Misty for Me. High Plains Drifter. on Twitter: "@dirtyracoon25 @JFowlerESPN Nah he 1999 . Maybe thats because back in 1973, working as a director for only the second time, Eastwood was still figuring out what kind of director he wanted to be. Dialogue earlier in the film, and the final scene with Mordecai strongly imply, however, that he's. Clint Eastwood is the ultimate thinking mans cinematic killing machine. For more information, please see our In an era when New Hollywood movie-brat auteurs grasped for Art, Eastwood seemed to unconsciously position himself as their antithesis. Payback! It was one generations Great Western Star reaching his hand out to the previous generations. 20th highest-grossing film released in 1973, American Rebel: The Life of Clint Eastwood, http://powergrid.thewrap.com/project/high-plains-drifter, https://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=highplainsdrifter.htm, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2003/oct/07/guardianinterviewsatbfisouthbank, Kino: Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter Detailed for Blu-ray, Metallicas Kirk Hammett Soundtracks a Six-String Shootout on New Song High Plains Drifter. Aim for the Heart . The Italian, Spanish, French and German dubbings restored it.[9]. So, for the first big western he makes himself, Eastwood plays a charismatically quiet, yet intimidatingly dangerous stranger with no name; now that's new. And Eastwood takes that Old Testament theme of payback for cowardice, hypocrisy, and inaction and grafts it onto the genre that he knew in his marrow. The film was directed by Clint Eastwood and written by Ernest Tidyman and stars Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom and Mariana Hill. 0-00-638354-8. Three hired "town security" gunmen taunt and threaten him; he kills all three with little effort. University Press of Mississippi . It made its Blu-ray debut on October 15, 2013, with a newly remastered transfer, and was reissued on October 27, 2020, by Kino Lorber with commentary tracks and new interviews. Think of the miners as working in the mines and therefore unseen during the day. For a video version of my thoughts, see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4hLVDc9yrs. High Plains Drifter Clint Eastwood | In Review Online Edit, This is purposely left ambiguous to give it an almost supernatural feel, but the theories put forth are as follows: (1) The stranger is Marshal Jim Duncan's brother who learned that the three men who killed his brother were being released from prison and would likely return to their town, so the stranger "passed through" in order to take revenge on the three men and on the town itself for simply standing by and watching as his brother was brutally murdered.