Marshal, being whipped to death by outlaws Stacey Bridges and brothers Dan and Cole Carlin, as Lago's citizens watch in silence. Terms and Policies 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. This movie is definitely a different kind of western. But he has a score of his own to settle. Kapsis; Coblentz, Kathie . "[16] Tom Zito of The Washington Post called it "an enjoyable, well-constructed work that suffers only from a slightly tedious tone that makes the film seem longer than its 105 minutes."[17]. High Plains Drifter (1973) on IMDb: Movies, TV, Celebs, and more. rape and sadism). [13], 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. The film was shot on location on the shores of Mono Lake, California. Edit, After having the townfolk paint the entire town red, rename it "Hell", and set up a picnic and welcoming banner for the outlaws' return, the Stranger rides out of town, leaving them to fight their own battle against the three outlaws that brutally whipped Duncan to death while the townies stood and watched. If there's ever an actor that would sell me in watching a western, that man would be Clint Eastwood. Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story: Season 1, Link to Marvel Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer, Link to RT25: Celebrating 25 Years of Rotten Tomatoes, Link to Prime Video Acquires J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves. [5] An uncredited rewrite of the script was provided by Dean Riesner, screenwriter of other Eastwood projects. 0786484217 . Mordecai says, "I never did know your name," to which the Stranger replies, "Yes, you do." High Plains Drifter (1973) - IMDb Coming Soon. In this, then, is also created the possibility of free will. Hes a mysterious fellow, cool and gruff looking and noticeably viler than the usual Eastwood western character. Eastwood reportedly liked the offbeat quality of the film's original nine-page proposal and approached Universal with the idea of directing it. Much is explored in regards to the townsfolk not doing anything when they are oppressed or when oppression becomes apparent to them. The Drifter's rape of Callie seems to be motivated by the fact she was rude to him. He then rides out of town without explanation, following the wounded Morgan. Meanwhile, the best you can say for High Plains Drifter is that the title is a low pun. Will the town's leaders convince the mysterious man to help? The film stars Eastwood as a mysterious stranger who metes out justice in a corrupt frontier mining town. He favored a less explicit and more supernatural interpretation, and excised the reference. All the major series of deaths in the film are in threes: of the hired men at the beginning of the film, of the men murdered for their horses by the three murderers of the town marshall (which had set the retribution in motion), and of the three murderers themselvesone by throttling, another by scourging by lash, the last by death before the burning flames. and the The Malpaso Company. Cinema Detours . High Plains Drifter - amazon.com High Plains Drifter is a 1973 Western directed by (and starring) Clint Eastwood, with a screenplay by Ernest Tidyman ( The French Connection, Shaft ). [18] Jon Landau of Rolling Stone concurred, noting "thematic shallowness" and "verbal archness"; but he expressed approval of the dramatic scenery and cinematography. Clint Eastwood: Interviews . A distant figure on horseback rides through shimmering, midday heat. 0-00-638354-8. High Plains Drifter - Rotten Tomatoes One of the three gunmen shares his fate later in the film. Starring: Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom, Marianna Hill The, Cantata 182, composed in 1713, is for Palm Sunday, which is the first day of Holy Week and the Sunday before Easter, and. 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. Callie and several men, including Morgan Allen, decide to kill the Stranger. Says the paradox: to save the just, you must make a pact with the Devil. The young actor had come to Hollywood from the San Francisco Bay area in the early 50s, and thanks to his 6-foot-4-inch stature and good looks was signed to a $100-a-week contract at Universal, where he was quickly put to work in a string of hokey B-movies like Revenge of the Creature and Tarantula. 978-0786449613 . Callie and two men watching from inside their houses look shaken by Duncan's fate, while most other people seem unaffected or grimly pleased. All rights reserved. Given that he was mentored by the likes of Don Siegel and my personal favourite director Sergio Leone it's no wonder that Eastwood went on to make hits like The Outlaw Josey Wales and Unforgiven. with updates on movies, TV shows, Rotten Tomatoes podcast and more. Universal Pictures, 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. Now, with those murderers just released from prison, they want Eastwoods Stranger to defend them. Its first image is of a stock Western landscape, a barren southwestern American desert, our view distorted by waves of heat. High Plains Drifter 1973 | Maturity Rating: 16+ | 1h 45m | Westerns 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. Sep 7, 2010, Runtime: This script is a transcript that was painstakingly transcribed using the screenplay and/or viewings of High Plains Drifter. The Stranger suddenly returns and kills the outlaws one by one, whipping Cole to death, hanging Dan with another whip, and shooting Stacey. It was one generations Great Western Star reaching his hand out to the previous generations. Apr 19, 1973 A stranger (Clint Eastwood) rides out of the hot desert into a small town in the wild west. Starring: Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom, Marianna Hill Watch all you want. Over the years, a number of fans have asked where was High Plain Drifter filmed. Privacy Policy High Plains Drifter is Western star Clint Eastwood's first attempt at directing one of his own westerns. The drifter, or stranger, accepts an offer to help the townsfolk defend against the three gunmen who have recently been released from prison and are on their way to cause havoc. [4] The film was influenced by the work of Eastwood's two major collaborators, film directors Sergio Leone and Don Siegel. [21], High Plains Drifter was first released on DVD by Universal Studios Home Video on February 24, 1998. The Italian, Spanish, French and German dubbings restored it.[9]. Book: Gentry, Ric . As an actor, he is probably better than he allows himself to be. The allegory cant get blunter then him literally put up a signpost that says hell and have the town paint all the buildings red. The leading role is Christs. While setting the ambush for the three outlaws, he tells a group of Mexicans to prepare some long tables for a "picnic". After scouting locations alone in a pickup truck in Oregon, Nevada and California,[7] he settled on the "highly photogenic" Mono Lake area. By what name was High Plains Drifter (1973) officially released in India in Hindi? And it was during the shows hiatus toward the end of its run that he was offered the lead role in Sergio Leones 1964 spaghetti Western, A Fistful of Dollars. As a director, Eastwood is not as good as he seems to think he is. 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. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. 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. Rob Ager, in a detailed and wordyinterpretationof the film, and also argues that the avenging angel is the ghost of the murdered marshall. "Mortal combat, East and West". Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Portions of the town aflame in the night produce the backdrop of the lake of fire. Flashbacks to Marshal Duncan's murder showed Cole wearing the biggest grin; he's definitely not smiling when he gets on the wrong end of the bullwhip, but. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Beastie BoysPaul's Boutique 2009 Capitol Records, LLC and Beastie BoysReleased on: 1989-07. I was mostly satisfied by the story as the more it went on the more I got interested. 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. A mysterious drifter referred to only as "The Stranger" rides into the dismal mining town of Lago, which has a crisis on its hands: three ruthless gunmen are making their way to the town so they can settle scores over an old wrong done to them by the townspeople. These people want protection, but theres no salvation for them. 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. Morrisville . Book: Hughes, Howard. The movie concerns awell, drifter who wonders into a small town from the high plains. hitchcockthelegend 20 July 2008 A lone gunman with no name and seemingly with no past, rides into the dusky town of Lago. Universal Pictures, [19] Jon Landau of Rolling Stone concurred, noting "thematic shallowness" and "verbal archness"; but he expressed approval of the dramatic scenery and cinematography. The camera then reveals the name on the grave marker to read "Marshall Jim Duncan, Rest In Peace." When they ask if they can come to the "fiesta", he says no. , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes. If the film is memorable, it's for the themes and relatively gripping latter acts, and while I wish there was more inspiration throughout the film in order to make the final product rewarding on the whole, when the drama bites, it grips as an at least almost rewarding thriller. Haunting. As we slowly learn in an onion-peel haze of almost-psychedelic flashbacks and dream sequences, the townsfolk silently watched as three of its scuzziest citizens brutally whipped Lagos marshal, Jim Duncan, to death. "[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. [8], Complete buildings, rather than facades, were built, so that Eastwood could shoot interior scenes on the site. 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. High Plains Drifter (1973) - Frequently Asked Questions - IMDb The Stranger drags Sarah, kicking and screaming, into her bedroom (the only room in the hotel not damaged) where they have sex. Regal "[16], Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called it "a stylized, allegorical western of much chillingly paranoid atmosphere and considerable sardonic humor that confirms Eastwood's directorial flair. Meanwhile, he picks up a brush to drip the letters H-E-L-L in crimson on a signpost at Lagos border. For the first and last time in his career, High Plains Drifter would prove that he might just want to be both. He found out the mine was on government land and was going to report it, which would result in it being closed. 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. Clint Eastwood, Producer: [10] The Italian, Spanish, French and German dubbings restored it. I didn't say 0 TDs for your 1 is good. 2023 METACRITIC, A FANDOM COMPANY. The librettist is Temistocle Solera. The film was shot on location on the shores of Mono Lake, California. 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. An Allegory of the Avenging Angel, in Clint Eastwood's High Plains Ghost Images: Cinema of the Afterlife . Some critics thought Eastwood's directing derivative; Arthur Knight in Saturday Review remarked that Eastwood had "absorbed the approaches of Siegel and Leone and fused them with his own paranoid vision of society". Jefferson, N.C . Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is Copyright 2009-2022, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. 20th highest-grossing film released in 1973, "The Representation of Justice in Eastwood's, "Kino: Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter Detailed for Blu-ray", "Metallica's Kirk Hammett Soundtracks a Six-String Shootout on New Song 'High Plains Drifter', https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=High_Plains_Drifter&oldid=1151485503, This page was last edited on 24 April 2023, at 10:54. the Terms and Policies, and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes. After Belding says "It couldn't be worse if the devil himself had ridden into Lago!" High Plains Drifter is his spooky, dark, and vicious version of the Sergio Leone Man With No Name Spaghetti Westerns he once starred in, and a moody existential meditation on gunplay, revenge and karma. Tidyman said that his script for High Plains Drifter was inspired by the infamous 1964 Kitty Genovese case, where a 28-year-old Queens woman was stabbed and murdered as her terrified neighbors reportedly stared out their apartment windows and watched without calling for help. 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. Not in 2023" 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. Because maybe you didn't go back for more? Of course, another possibility is that the Stranger is. The Stranger finds Bridges and the Carlins, who have just finished off Morgan, and harasses them with dynamite and rifle fire, leading the outlaws to believe the townspeople are responsible. Clint Eastwood and Issues of American Masculinity . Meaning of hells comin with me : r/Poormanspoison - Reddit Meanwhile, a group of outlaws are about to return to the town and take their revenge. Why High Plains Drifter Is Clint Eastwood's Best Movie - Esquire [8], 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. Now this may not be as good as some of Clint Eastwood other western, especially Unforgiven, but it's still a nice alternative and a unique take on the western genre from the man who is the best in that genre. Just below that it reads "Ticket Confirmation#:" followed by a 10-digit number. Book: McGilligan, Patrick . 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. In praise of High Plains Drifter - Clint Eastwood's shocking, spiritual TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Additional scenes were filmed at Reno, Nevada's Winnemucca Lake and California's Inyo National Forest. High Plains Drifter is Western star Clint Eastwoods first attempt at directing one of his own westerns. | This would explain why nobody in the town recognized him, but he knew how exactly the Marshal was killed and he was able to kill the three men . With the possible exception of John Wayne, no actor was more synonymous with the movie Western during the second half of the 20th Century than Clint Eastwood. 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. When the attractive, blond townswoman Callie Travers flirtatiously insults him, he rapes her in the livery stable. The text is Martin Luthers. It's left unclear whether the Stranger is the brother of the dead marshall in Lago or the dead marshall's vengeful spirit. Lago is a mining town, so presumably the stores are making money selling things to the miners. The film had its share of detractors. The Stranger lures one of the Carlin brothers outside and whips him to death, then kills the remaining outlaws one by one. The scene where Clint Eastwood is about to get his clean shave is honestly cinema at it's best. The next morning, the Stranger rides past Mordecai in the cemetery. These were a branch of American Western movies that coincided with the 'New Hollywood' era, acting as the swan song of the Western Old Myth where cars started to make odd appearances, marking the way technology and capitalism would put a deathblow on the frontier or pioneer spirit. A series of events soon has the townspeople questioning whether siding with the Stranger was a wise idea, as they quickly learn the price that they each must pay for his services. and our 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. 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.