I hope hes wrong, or just being playfully cryptic. 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. Instead of doing their dirty work, he abuses his "blank pay check" not just for free goods, but also to commandeer everyone in a militia and transform the whole town. In an era when New Hollywood movie-brat auteurs grasped for Art, Eastwood seemed to unconsciously position himself as their antithesis. Rob Ager, in a detailed and wordyinterpretationof the film, and also argues that the avenging angel is the ghost of the murdered marshall. Rape-Revenge Films: A Critical Study . Starring: Clint Eastwood,Verna Bloom,Marianna Hill. , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes. The Stranger accepts the job and takes full advantage of the deal: He appoints a downtrodden dwarf named Mordecai as both sheriff and mayor, provides a Native American and his children with blankets and candy when the shopkeeper refuses to serve them, gets a new saddle and boots, and forces the saloon to serve everyone free drinks. This is the film of a magnificent intellect. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. With his cigar in his mouth, whether it was his Man with No Name in Leone's films or the Stranger in his own High Plains Drifter, Eastwood was a taciturn loner not looking for trouble. Did he want to be a stripped-down bareknuckle filmmaker like Siegel, or a baroque allegorist like Leone? Why Does Bruce Willis Make Movies He Hates? Additional scenes were filmed at Reno, Nevada's Winnemucca Lake and California's Inyo National Forest. The Stranger lures one of the Carlin brothers outside and whips him to death, then kills the remaining outlaws one by one. There is the unusual, The characterization, on the stage, eminently well contrasts the well intentioned and truehearted peasant Luisa with the, From time to time, I revisit the 1932-37 recordings of the Beethoven piano sonatas by Artur Schnabel. Check this excellent film out. Dialogue earlier in the film, and the final scene with Mordecai strongly imply, however, that he's. [9], 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. 3,224 IMDb 7.4 1 h 45 min 1973. 978-1300981176 . Edgar Wright talks about High Plains Drifter (1973) - Reddit He could also be some sort of avenging spirit as well. 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. Haunting. 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. No one looks good in the end. It is the first Western film that he both directed and starred in. 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. 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. The next morning, the Stranger rides past Mordecai in the cemetery. 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. High Plains Drifter was released in theaters on this day in 1973. | 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?) 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. I mean, theres horses and saloons and tumbleweeds. "[14], Arthur D. Murphy of Variety called it "a nervously humorous, self-conscious near satire on the prototype Clint Eastwood formula of the avenging mysterious stranger. 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. Check box if your review contains spoilers, High Plains Drifter: Maybe You Think You're Fast Enough, Now Playing: High Plains Drifter: Maybe You Think You're Fast Enough. Tidyman's screenplay was inspired by the real-life murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens in 1964, which eyewitnesses reportedly stood by and watched. He keeps things lean and simple. "You know," Mordecai says, "I never did know your name." Universal wanted Eastwood to shoot the feature on its back lot, but Eastwood opted instead to film on location. 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. With Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom, Marianna Hill, Mitchell Ryan. "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. High Plains Drifter Explained User Reviews The most eye-catching and best-known sequence in the film occurs when Eastwood tells the cowering citizens of Lago to paint every building in the town red as they await the three murderers return. The Italian, Spanish, French and German dubbings restored it.[9]. Cinemark Anti-heroes are still common, but with stronger roles for women and more-sympathetic portrayal of Native Americans and Mexicans. []. This is even true for the DVD version. The Stranger suddenly returns and kills the outlaws one by one, whipping Cole to death, hanging Dan with another whip, and shooting Stacey. It is bad. 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. 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. Robert Daley, Writer: 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. 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". New York . Dee Barton wrote the film score. 2.75/5 - Decent. Aim for the Heart . The historicity of the name, in Persian, suggests the meaning little boy; in Aramaic, follower or servant, or follower and servant of God. 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. That, however, is small comfort as this cold, gory and overthought movie unfolds. The premise of the movie is basically this; (spoiler) Clint Eastwood plays a Marshall named Jim Duncan. He later orders the hotel owners, Lewis and Sarah Belding, and all the other guests to vacate the premises, leaving him its sole occupant. It's the story of a mysterious, crack-shot out-of-towner paid handsomely to protect an idyllic California . User Ratings The townspeople then conspired to frame the outlaws for stealing gold as a means to avoid paying them, and they have vowed revenge. 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. Over the years, a number of fans have asked where was High Plain Drifter filmed. Clint Eastwood's orchestration of subtle stylization begets subtle color that rarely allows entertainment value to slip too far, and when slow spells do enter, upon being met with a genuine sense of thoughtfulness, rather than the dryness which plagues this drama as much as anything, they bite, with high tension. The Stranger replies, "Yes, you do." It's also a pretty violent business that won't disappoint the millions who flocked to the Leone westerns. In an interview, Eastwood said that earlier versions of the script made the Stranger the dead marshal's brother. 978-0823230143 . High Plains Drifter is Western star Clint Eastwood's first attempt at directing one of his own westerns. 2009 . Clint Eastwood is the ultimate thinking mans cinematic killing machine. Pale Rider (1985) directed by Clint Eastwood - Letterboxd Before he could despair over his flailing, fledgling career, he would be saved by the Westerna genre that immediately fit him like a bespoke duster. Id argue that the movie is just as brutal and cynical as Leones westerns if not more. Payback! . When they ask if they can come to the "fiesta", he says no. 90 (1814), Kurosawa and the Dreams of the Alpine Meadows, Bach: Cantatas for Advent, Christmas, New Year, Cinema 52 Films Recently Watched | CulturalRites, Winter Light, Stanley Park, Vancouver, Canada. [8], Complete buildings, rather than facades, were built, so that Eastwood could shoot interior scenes on the site. Before the film is finished fire is raging throughout the town and everyone who was involved in the Marshall whipping gets some kind of upcommance for their actions. Starring: Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom, Marianna Hill Watch all you want. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. Free (& Subscription) Games for All Platforms: New & Upcoming, What to Watch in May: 18 Notable TV Shows & Streaming Movies. The film was shot on location on the shores of Mono Lake, California. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. 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. Stay up-to-date on all the latest Rotten Tomatoes news! Think of the miners as working in the mines and therefore unseen during the day. "Film Reviews: High Plains Drifter". Well, the big difference with this particular "man with no name" character is that no one dubs Eastwood in Italian, and there is way more weird stuff surrounding him then there ever was in a Sergio Leone western. Eastwood's direction is overambitious and undercooked at the same time, but when middleground is found, it's hard to deny the potential which has since gone on to be fulfilled more tightly by the talented filmmaker, who sells a fair bit offscreen here, though not as much as he does onscreen. "[20], The film was recognized by American Film Institute in 2008 on AFI's 10 Top 10 in the category "Nominated Western Film". [5] In addition to Eastwood, the film also co-stars Verna Bloom, Mariana Hill, Mitchell Ryan, Jack Ging, and Stefan Gierasch. Says the paradox: to save the just, you must make a pact with the Devil. McFarland & Co . Dee Barton wrote the film score. After the film came out and wound up being a big box-office hit, Eastwood wrote a fannish letter to John Wayne, suggesting that they make a movie together. 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. Bach: Cantata 182, at Palm Sunday Hope Returns to Rejoice, J.S. Watch the Clint Eastwood movie "High Plains Drifter". [3] It is one of those examples, I Lombardi, Verdis fourth opera, is set during the First Crusade. High Plains Drifter: Official Clip - Whipped to Death, High Plains Drifter: Official Clip - Whipping the Outlaw, High Plains Drifter: Official Clip - Blowing Up The Hotel, High Plains Drifter: Official Clip - The Sheriff and the Mayor, High Plains Drifter: Official Clip - Shave and a Shootout, High Plains Drifter: Official Clip - Shooting Up Hell, High Plains Drifter: Official Clip - Killing the Outlaws, High Plains Drifter: Official Clip - Target Practice, High Plains Drifter: Official Clip - The Stranger Rides Away. The town's solution to their quarrel with the marshal. The original script identified him as the marshal's brother. At least Sergios movies had the humour to counterbalance the depraved killings and the degenerate treatment of women. 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. Though his laconic sense of humor often drags out the pacing of the movie, Eastwood uses his camera with intelligence and flair. Jefferson, N.C . 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. 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. Callie and several men, including Morgan Allen, decide to kill the Stranger. It seems the residents are the only ones in town. The librettist is Temistocle Solera. [4] In addition to Eastwood, the film also co-stars Verna Bloom, Mariana Hill, Mitchell Ryan, Jack Ging, and Stefan Gierasch. Cookie policy. High Plains Drifter (1973) - Trailer HD 1080p - YouTube Clint: The Life and Legend . [3] The film was influenced by the work of Eastwood's two major collaborators, film directors Sergio Leone and Don Siegel. As always, Clint Eastwood performance is spectacular as "the stranger" or nameless cowboy as he known for. High Plains Drifter (1973) on IMDb: Movies, TV, Celebs, and more. "[15], 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. I'm 98% sure the idea for this is drawn from that movie. Zito, Tom (May 29, 1973). 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. original, Release Date (Streaming): rape and sadism). | This 10-digit number is your confirmation number. Edit, It appears to have been cut at around 45 minutes into the film, when someone yells, "What the you doin' to my father's house?" 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. Hes never been as thematically oblique or stylistically flashy (unless you consider his lack of flash to be flashy). Returning to Lago, the Stranger inspects the preparationsthe entire town painted red, armed men on rooftops, picnic tables laden with food and drink, and a big "WELCOME HOME BOYS" bannerthen he silently departs again. It is gradually revealed that the townspeople hired these 'outlaws' to murder Duncan when he discovered the local gold mine was illegally on government land and would have to be closed, destroying the town's livelihood. . He later orders the hotel owners, Lewis and Sarah Belding, and all the other guests to vacate the premises, leaving him its sole occupant. Elements include a darker, more cynical tone, with focus on the lawlessness of the time period, favouring realism over romanticism. The sleepy Wild West mining town of Lago, named after a local lake, is shaken up when a tough stranger (Clint Eastwood) stands up to the local gun champions and kills them in an uneven duel. University Press of Mississippi . 5 Movies That Influenced GTA (& 5 That Influenced RDR) - Game Rant High Plains Drifter (1973) - IMDb He. 2009 . As an actor, he is probably better than he allows himself to be. 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. 2023 METACRITIC, A FANDOM COMPANY. University of Massachusetts Press . It's left unclear whether the Stranger is the brother of the dead marshall in Lago or the dead marshall's vengeful spirit. Dynamite, used in the narrative to kill the cowardly and stone the murderers is the sulfur that presages the second death. High Plains Drifter. 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. Clint Eastwood, Producer: Its plot is nothing out of the ordinary but its given a supernatural and sadistic treatment that makes it stand out from the crowd. It was Eastwood's second film as director, and the first Western he directed. A mysterious gunfighter without a name (Clint Eastwood) rides across the desert landscape and arrives in the mining town beside the sea "Lago" to stay for the night. Particularly bad is the scene where Callie ambushes the Stranger while he's taking a bath, unarmed, and fires several shots at him. That night, in his hotel room, the Stranger dreams of Jim Duncan, a federal marshal, being whipped to death by outlaws Stacey Bridges and brothers Dan and Cole Carlin, as Lago's citizens watch in silence. Anyway Clint Eastwood stars in and directs HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER which is a mystery western and quite dark, bloody and cool. Book: Ruffles, Tom . The goal of /r/Movies is to provide an inclusive place for discussions and news about films with major releases. The film stars Eastwood as a mysterious stranger who metes out justice in a corrupt frontier mining town. Is dad a fan of action-packed movies from the wild, wild west? Nigel Andrews of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that "after Play Misty For Me, High Plains Drifter emerges as a disappointingly sterile exercise in style, suggesting that the first thing Eastwood should do as a director is forget the lessons he has learned from other film-makers and start to forge a convincing style of his own. And in 1971, he finally got his shot with the paranoia-drenched Fatal Attraction prototype Play Misty for Me. But the three worst the town ever saw, which they were hired to check, are being released from jail. [] Eastwood, Clint: High Plains Drifter (1973.) As they unknowingly beat a dummy in the bed, the Stranger tosses a stick of dynamite into the room, destroying most of the hotel, then shoots two of his attackers dead, as Morgan flees, wounded. Western, Original Language: It uses material from the Wikipedia article "High Plains Drifter". we cut to a shot of the Stranger, seemingly implying. It's also a pretty violent business that won't disappoint the millions who flocked to the Leone westerns. The next morning, Sarah tells the Stranger that Duncan cannot rest in peace because the town buried him in an unmarked grave. 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. There's a boldness, confident stylisation, and genuine weirdness to the movie that totally escaped other post-spaghetti American Westerns, with a real sense of exorcism running both through and beyond it. 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. 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. More straightforward when Morgan punches out Mordecai. Terms and Policies High Plains Drifter is Western star Clint Eastwoods first attempt at directing one of his own westerns. 106 (1818), Dante: Paradiso 1 Congruence of the One and the Many, Giuseppe Verdi Luisa Miller (1849) Power and Violence, Beethoven Piano Sonata 27 in e, Op. He passed through this small town a long time ago. Brutal story-line which is about as close to an explicit allegory as the western has ever come. The Stranger finds Bridges and the Carlins, who just "finished off" Morgan, and harasses them with dynamite and rifle fire, leading the outlaws to believe the townspeople are responsible. Brings back the memory of my Dad bringing home a . "[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]. Geoffrey Lewis, Juliette Lewis' Father, Dies at Age 79 Usually when Eastwood is punching a man across a table or delivering a nonchalant verbal beat down we are laughing and enjoying it. High Plains Drifter. on Twitter High Plains Drifter begins in a way that should be immediately recognizable to anyone even remotely familiar with the genre: a stranger rides into town. Thomas, Kevin (April 6, 1973). In an interview, Eastwood said that earlier versions of the script made the Stranger the dead marshal's brother. . Three gunmen hired to protect the town taunt and threaten him; he kills all three with little effort. The scene disturbs more than the death by gun fire, only momentarily earlier, of three men by the same stranger who rapes the woman.
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