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Overrated

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

The acting in this movie is really good.

'High Plains Drifter (1973)' has got some dodgy sexual politics that can't go unmentioned. Aside from that, this is an enjoyable western that takes a revisionist stance and doesn't pull any punches. It doesn't try to reinvent or even comment on the genre - it's actually pretty standard aside from an interestingly ambiguous supernatural element - but still provides some fun sequences especially when Eastwood starts squinting and the bullets start flying. It may be showing its age more than others in the genre, but its dark approach makes it a worthwhile watch. 7/10

The first time I saw High Plains Drifter was probably in the late 1970s. Clint Eastwood stars in and directs the film. Most westerns are either about cattle drives or cowboys and Indians. High Plains Drifter is different: this is a God's-Judgment-on-the-wicked western.Clint Eastwood plays a stranger who rides into the town of Lago--and he has a really bad attitude. This stranger is also very good with a side arm. During the course of the film, the stranger ends up killing some bad guys and burning the town of Lago to the ground. There are a couple of flashbacks of one Marshall Jim Duncan being whipped to death. At the end of the film, the audience can see that the stranger was the Second Coming of Marshall Duncan:The stranger rides out of the town of Lago past the cemetery. This little guy named Mordecai is writing something on a grave marker. The stranger looks at Mordecai and Mordecai looks up and says, "I'm almost done here."Then Mordecai asks the stranger, "I never did know your name."And the stranger replies, "Yes, you do."As the stranger rides off, the camera shows the grave marker: "Marshall Jim Duncan."I have a short story entitled "High Plains Drifter" (Ethos, March & May 1995); I have a book entitled High Plains Drifter: A Hitchhiking Journey Across America (PublishAmerica, December 2008); I have a blog called "High Plains Drifter." So is this some sort of gunslinger fixation or is there method to my madness? The clue is in one Scripture: "In the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established."There is a lot of sin (unrepented sin) in the United States and in the world. When people continue to live in sin, eventually God's Judgment falls. The more people try to hide their sin, the greater God's Judgment. The people of Lago tried to hide the murder of Marshall Duncan, but their sin was found out. You can't hide from God.There is a scene in High Plains Drifter where this lady tells the stranger, "Ever since Marshall Duncan's death, the people in this town are afraid of strangers." _____"When the Stranger says: 'What is the meaning of this city? Do you huddle close together because you love each other?' What will you answer? 'We all dwell together To make money from each other'? or 'This is a community'?"Oh my soul, be prepared for the coming of the Stranger. Be prepared for him who knows how to ask questions."There is one who remembers the way to your door: Life you may evade, but Death you shall not. You shall not deny the Stranger."--T.S. Eliot Choruses from "The Rock"_____There is another scene in High Plains Drifter where the people of Lago (the town of Lago reminds me of Algona, Iowa) are meeting at the church. One of the guys is speaking in the front of the church. The camera then pans to the right and shows a bulletin board with this Scripture:Isaiah 53: 3-4: "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." Marshall Jim Duncan was whipped to death; Jesus Christ was at least nine-tenths whipped to death. The stranger riding into Lago (the first scene of the film) is a symbol of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ: not as the Lamb of God, but as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.Isaiah 63: 1-6: "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth."

HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER is the first western that Clint Eastwood starred in that he also directed himself. While he gives a typically great performance as the titular character, the real surprise here comes from his matured, stylish direction that would have you thinking he'd been making these films for twenty years beforehand. This is an eerie western, laced through with violent flashbacks and an increasingly hellish atmosphere as it tells the story of corrupt townsfolk who watched a man die at the hands of three violent outlaws.It's one of those films where my attention was gripped for every moment. Eastwood doesn't play a likable character at all – he starts off by raping a woman – but the reason for that gradually becomes clear as the film progresses. The supporting cast of ne'er-do-wells is fine, although nobody gives a stand-out performance (apart from Billy Curtis as the kooky, lovable dwarf, Mordecai). Geoffrey Lewis pops up in an early role as one of the bad guys.The direction is superlative and the script avoids the typical clichés for the most part. I paid particular attention to the soundtrack, which combines eerie, dramatic effects with excellent music. The ending is one of those ones that actually exceeds audience expectations in terms of the dramatic tension, excitement, and plain good ol' fashioned filmmaking it excels in. This may not be Eastwood's best, but it sure as heck is up there with the best of them.

Fearful of three recently released outlaws who murdered their previous sheriff, the citizens of a small Old West town hire a mysterious gunslinger to protect them, but the stranger knows more than he lets on this offbeat western with a 'Twilight Zone' style twist. While the twist at first feels like an afterthought, it begins to make more and more sense when one reconsiders prior events, and while the gunslinger initially seems merely heartless and cruel with the way he humiliates the townsfolk when given carte blanche and unlimited store credit for his services, all of this comes across as logical in the end. Plot turns aside, the film offers an interesting outlook on the risks of giving someone absolute power, and it is curiously debatable whether the townsfolk would be better off at the mercy of the outlaws than the very unpredictable stranger who enjoys raping their women, drinking all their booze and wrecking property where possible. Clint Eastwood plays the part well with a quiet charisma, but even as an antihero, he is a bit too dislikeable (making light of a violent rape; destroying buildings) for one to root for him - and given how despicable all of the townsfolk are shown to be, 'High Plains Drifter' is a film without a single likable character in sight. That said, there is perhaps something deliberate to this as the film noticeably plays against stereotypes of chivalry in the Old West. Indeed, while some have cited 'High Plains Drifter' as a supernatural western, it presents characters more flawed and down-to-earth than in most traditional westerns out there.