Certification. R
Running Time. 1 hour 45 mins
Director. Clint Eastwood
Cast. Verna Bloom, Clint Eastwood, Marianna Hill, Geoffrey Lewis.
Rating. 50%
Outwardly High Plains Drifter appears a fairly formulaic member of the western genre - a mysterious stranger arrives in town, which inevitably spells trouble for the good folk of Lago. But High Plains Drifter is one of Clint Eastwood's darkest westerns. It is a story about revenge and violent retribution for a man abandoned by the very people he was sworn to protect.
The old west was a time of lawlessness, brutality and violence. In the late 1960s directors such as Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah started to show this brutality on screen. High Plains Drifter, Clint Eastwood's second film as a director, is an overtly violent and brutal western. The film spends scant screen time on character development, and concentrates more on the violence, the repercussions of which are explored in graphic detail, including an uncomfortably nonchalant rape scene. The concept of violence in the old west is a theme Clint Eastwood would revisit in later films, most notably in the Academy Award-winning Unforgiven, a more complete body of work when compared with High Plains Drifter.
Eastwood's character ('The Stranger') dominates proceedings and casts an enormous shadow across the film. Silent, stoic and brooding, Eastwood delivers much of the dialogue through gritted teeth. This is Clint Eastwood's showpiece and his portrayal of 'The Stranger' bears a remarkable similarity to 'The Man With No Name' ('Joe', 'Manco' and 'Blondie').
The ending of High Plains Drifter is shrowded in ambiguity. Indeed, reality is distorted throughout much of the film. Who exactly was 'The Stranger.' Was there some connection between 'The Stranger' and Marshal Duncan? 'The Stranger's' knowledge of the townsfolks' secret clearly points to some connection. Was 'The Stranger' the Marshal's brother? Or a friend? Could 'The Stranger' be the ghost of the murdered Marshal? A literal spirit of vengeance? This is a concept Clint Eastwood would explore in a later film, Pale Rider.
One thing is for certain, when 'The Stranger' dispatches the outlaws in the film's, somewhat lightweight climax, he is dispensing retribution, rather than justice or a poetic notion of protecting the 'innocent' townsfolk.
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