[11] On Metacritic the film has a score 69% based on reviews from 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". After the Stranger kills a group of men hired by the cowardly townspeople to protect Lago, the town's elders decide to hire the Stranger as their protector. Ernest Tidyman's script has some raw violence for the kinks, some dumb humor for audience relief, and lots of arch characterizations befitting the serio-comic-strip nature of the plot. 1999 . 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. But looking back now, Id say that Eastwood comes out of that exchange looking like the victor. [22], High Plains Drifter was first released on DVD by Universal Studios Home Video on February 24, 1998. After having sex with him in his room, Callie slips out as three men enter. The Stranger is then shown painting "HELL" over the Lago town sign. I myself prefer to think that the angel carries the ghost, or, perhaps better, the soul of the man who was, with or before him, as that seems a more satisfactory, and more universal, allegory. Starring: Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom, Marianna Hill Watch all you want. It adds to the argument that High Plains Drifter is a deconstruction of the myths of the old west. He takes a room and decides to stay. Rape-Revenge Films: A Critical Study . [3] The film was influenced by the work of Eastwood's two major collaborators, film directors Sergio Leone and Don Siegel. Beastie BoysPaul's Boutique 2009 Capitol Records, LLC and Beastie BoysReleased on: 1989-07. [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. All rights reserved. Particularly bad is the scene where Callie ambushes the Stranger while he's taking a bath, unarmed, and fires several shots at him. By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and 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. Not just politically, but also stylistically. 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. 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. Verified reviews are considered more trustworthy by fellow moviegoers. Director Clint Eastwood: Attention to Detail and Involvement for the Audience. 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. Get the freshest reviews, news, and more delivered right to your inbox! 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. Mordecai says, "I never did know your name," to which the Stranger replies, "Yes, you do." Id argue that the movie is just as brutal and cynical as Leones westerns if not more. This script is a transcript that was painstakingly transcribed using the screenplay and/or viewings of High Plains Drifter. Whenever Clint Eastwood is given a unnamed Cowboy you better expect nothing but the best. The result is one of the best Westerns of the 1970s. In this, then, is also created the possibility of free will. 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. User Ratings Universal Pictures, 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. With Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom, Marianna Hill, Mitchell Ryan. Over the years, a number of fans have asked where was High Plain Drifter filmed. Dialogue earlier in the film, and the final scene with Mordecai strongly imply, however, that he's. "[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. He. This, An astounding composition, that still reveals more of itself six decades after I first heard it. When the drifter rides into Lago, he is met with incredulity and disapproval by the townspeople. The outlaws arrive and easily overcome the novice resistance of the townspeople; the defenders are all killed, while the survivors are rounded up in the saloon. The Stranger replies, "Yes, you do." Eastwood reportedly liked the offbeat quality of the film's original nine-page proposal and approached Universal with the idea of directing it. In High Plains Drifter, the Stranger is all but a Devil in a film brimming with nihilism; in Pale Rider, very much the positive to that film's negative, morals aren't quite so out of reach, and the Preacher is gradually revealed to be something of a Christ figure. 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. High Plains Drifter, which followed a mysterious gun-fighter (Eastwood) hired by a local town to defend its people against three violent outlaws, is a dark, revisionist examination of the cowboy . We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. Anyway Clint. It's also a pretty violent business that won't disappoint the millions who flocked to the Leone westerns. There are two headstones in the graveyard with the names of. the marshal was killed because he was going to close down the mine, the Stranger is the ghost of the dead marshal, given that he relives the marshal's death, which he wasn't there for otherwise. The small supernatural elements made it more interesting in my opinion as it added a more unique feel as I was watching this. Aim for the Heart . Storytelling style is questionable, but make no mistake, musical and visual styles are never less than solid, even when handled in the context of storytelling. 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. 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. Edit, American screenwriter Ernest Tidyman wrote the screenplay for High Plains Drifter and followed it up with a 1973 novelization of the film. But he has a score of his own to settle. Meanwhile, the best you can say for High Plains Drifter is that the title is a low pun. [23] It made its Blu-ray debut on October 15, 2013, with a newly remastered transfer,[24] and was reissued on October 27, 2020, by Kino Lorber with commentary tracks and new interviews. Belding, aiming a shotgun at the Stranger's back, is shot dead by Mordecai. "You know," Mordecai says, "I never did know your name." Meanwhile, a group of outlaws are about to return to the town and take their revenge. the townspeople had the marshal killed. It exalts and delights in a kind of pitiless Old Testament wrath. A gun-fighting 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. Rarely are humble westerns permitted to drift around on such a highfalutin plane. | While seemingly an act of meanness, particularly in the way he said it, in truth he wants them to stay out of harm's way. The inclusion of the sexually immoral, who, in the film, consort with the murderer, would explain the rape scene that occurs so suddenly after the beginning of the story. 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. 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. 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. [12] On Metacritic the film has a score 69% based on reviews from 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". He could also be some sort of avenging spirit as well. Of course, another possibility is that the Stranger is. In an era when New Hollywood movie-brat auteurs grasped for Art, Eastwood seemed to unconsciously position himself as their antithesis. External Reviews I suppose that would be cooler if this film was more exciting, because even though it is decent, it does indeed drift, more so than it ought to. And maybe it stung the young director at the time. 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. original, Release Date (Streaming): It's also a pretty violent business that won't disappoint the millions who flocked to the Leone westerns. Dynamite, used in the narrative to kill the cowardly and stone the murderers is the sulfur that presages the second death. Book: Hughes, Howard. 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. Callie and two men watching from inside their houses look shaken by Duncan's fate, while most other people seem unaffected or grimly pleased. Book: Ruffles, Tom . I love High Plains Drifter, and I adore Eastwood, but the scene conveys the mindset of a writer/director who has zero clue about the psychological implications of sexual assault. He's nearer now, a bearded man in a dark cowboy hat and long dusty overcoat--the Stranger (. "[21], The film was recognized by American Film Institute in 2008 on AFI's 10 Top 10 in the category "Nominated Western Film". 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. Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story: Season 1. The Malpaso Company. Usually when Eastwood is punching a man across a table or delivering a nonchalant verbal beat down we are laughing and enjoying it. Tidyman's screenplay was inspired by the real-life murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens in 1964, which eyewitnesses reportedly stood by and watched. Impressed by his abilities, the townsfolk hire him to protect the town, but start to second-guess their hire when he begins to take advantage of them. The scene where Clint Eastwood is about to get his clean shave is honestly cinema at it's best. 2014 . | Holes in the plot were filled in with black humor and allegory, influenced by Sergio Leone. He found out the mine was on government land and was going to report it, which would result in it being closed. "[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. I mean, theres horses and saloons and tumbleweeds. When trouble found him, the cigar usually came out long enough . 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. Still from High Plains Drifter In Rabbinical literature, the angel of death, a creation of God on the first day, exacts slaughter, in the manner ordained by God, to restore the honour of mankind. User Reviews It wasnt a hell of a thing killing a man yet. The leading role is Christs. Think of the miners as working in the mines and therefore unseen during the day. As a freshly minted red-hot commodity both at home and abroad, Eastwood quickly parlayed his new-found bankability into a handful of macho and muscular studio pictures like the fish-out-of-water cop thriller Coogans Bluff and the bloated WWII action-adventure Where Eagles Dare. Tidyman's screenplay was inspired by the real-life murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens in 1964, which eyewitnesses reportedly stood by and watched. Cinema Detours . Amherst . Your AMC Ticket Confirmation# can be found in your order confirmation email. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. 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. By opting to have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the email address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes account against an email address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie. Wayne wrote back saying this movie is terrible because of the violence and it's revisionist portrayal of westerns. I didn't say 0 TDs for your 1 is good. Get a list of the best movie and TV titles recently added (and coming What to Watch Right Now on Amazon's Prime Video. Sep 7, 2010, Runtime: 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. Not in 2023" 0786484217 . But more than anything, its a ghost story (if you choose to see it that wayand I do) in frontier drag. The Stranger drags Sarah, kicking and screaming, into her bedroom (the only room in the hotel not damaged) where they have sex. He favored a less explicit and more supernatural interpretation, and excised the reference. 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 have lost your good sense. 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. The film stars Eastwood as a mysterious stranger who metes out justice in a corrupt frontier mining town. [7], Complete buildings, rather than facades, were built, so that Eastwood could shoot interior scenes on the site. That, however, is small comfort as this cold, gory and overthought movie unfolds. Privacy Policy. 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. The CulturalRites article on his most interesting film is available here. 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. 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. Once the plains have peaked, a few draggy spots and conventional spots behind natural shortcomings that thin out dramatic value even more when accompanied by moments of overstylization and dull dryness winds the final product shy of rewarding, but through a neatly whimsical score, rugged visual style, some effective direction and some solid performances, all behind a story that, for all its thin spots, boasts intriguing thematic depth, "High Plains Drifter" stands as an effective, if improvable supernatural western and sophomore effort for Clint Eastwood. Dee Barton wrote the film score. . Read critic reviews. But High Plains Drifter is daring, weird and wonderful. The Easter, In the afternoon of April 13th I spent six hours re-familiarizing myself with Killarney, in the southeast of the city. Did he want to be a stripped-down bareknuckle filmmaker like Siegel, or a baroque allegorist like Leone? I hope hes wrong, or just being playfully cryptic. Menu. Clint: The Life and Legend . [22], American musician Kirk Hammett included a song named High Plains Drifter, which takes its title from the film, on his 2022 extended play, Portals. Will the town's leaders convince the mysterious man to help? 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. Regarding power and authority, these depictions favour critical views of big business, the American government, masculine figures (including the military and their policies), and a turn to greater historical authenticity. Lago is a mining town, so presumably the stores are making money selling things to the miners. The film was critically acclaimed at the time of its initial release and remains popular. The film was shot on location on the shores of Mono Lake, California. 2009 . When Clint Eastwood was on "In the Actors Studio" he said the stranger was Marshall Duncan's brother. Just confirm how you got your ticket. 2.75/5 - Decent. Morrisville . 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. Duncan made a Faustian bargain with the devil. In this Western, a drifter with no name (Clint Eastwood) wanders into a small town, where his gun-slinging abilities are in high demand. | Portions of the town aflame in the night produce the backdrop of the lake of fire. hitchcockthelegend 20 July 2008 A lone gunman with no name and seemingly with no past, rides into the dusky town of Lago. "[19] John Wayne criticized the film's iconoclastic approach; in a letter to Eastwood, he wrote, "That isn't what the West was all about. By creating an account, you agree to the (2) The stranger was Marshal Jim Duncan himself come back to exact his revenge (perhaps through a deal with the devil.). Too bad, this movie is better than 95 percent of John Wayne's movies. This movie is definitely a different kind of western. 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. Clint Eastwood's America . If you can look past the dated sexual politics, this is a deeply cynical deconstruction of the romanticized western. The Stranger assembles a group of citizens to defend the town and has them practice shooting, but soon realizes that none have the necessary skills. The stranger was Marshal Jim Duncan himself come back to exact his revenge (perhaps through a deal with the devil.). A stranger (Clint Eastwood) rides out of the hot desert into a small town in the wild west. Brings back the memory of my Dad bringing home a . Meanwhile, after spending a night in a hotel bed together, Sarah Belding tells the Stranger of her belief that Jim Duncan cannot rest in peace nor depart the physical realm because he was buried in an unmarked grave. 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. 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. He favored a less explicit and more supernatural interpretation, and excised the reference. 6275 . But once he shows his skills with a pistol, the locals realize he may be able to help them fend off a band of criminals who have been terrorizing the town. This 10-digit number is your confirmation number. 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. rape and sadism). [8] The film was completed in six weeks, two days ahead of schedule, and under budget. As the outlaws make their way back into Lago, they discover that the town is not exactly as they had left it, and waiting in the shadows is the Stranger, ready to expose the town's secret and serve up his own brand of justice. Slaughter may be by burning, beheading, or throttling. 978-0823230143 . It may also be the closest that he ever came to making an experimental, out-there movie. Bach, Cantata 1 Feast of the Annunciation of Mary, Caravaggios Dagger A Pursuit of Right Action, Mahler and Freud Meet in Leiden Of the Pilgrimage of Life, Constellations of Desire Book Three of Solitary Ethics, Beethoven Piano Sonata 29 in B, Op. 1-57806-070-2 . Movies. Here is a list of locations where High Plains Drifter is shot at, read on . 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. A film version broadcast on the Sundance Channel in 2020 has a few words noticeably cut out. The Stranger's instructions that all buildings should be painted red and the town's name of Lago be replaced by a sign labelled 'HELL' echoes Duncan's dying words that the residents would suffer in Hell for failing to prevent his death. Thomas, Kevin (April 6, 1973). (3) The stranger was the ghost of Marshal Duncan. The violence of the film (including a couple of murders by bull-whipping) is continual and explicit. Metacritic Reviews. I don't have much to say about 'High Plains Drifter'. He accepts only after he is given free rein to do as he pleases around the town, an offer which he does not waste at all, forcibly taking any woman he wants and throwing families out of their hotel rooms so he can have the entire building to himself. [] Eastwood, Clint: High Plains Drifter (1973.) 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. Meanwhile, the best you can say for High Plains Drifter is that the title is a low pun. It is the first Western film that he both directed and starred in. 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. "[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. [5] In addition to Eastwood, the film also co-stars Verna Bloom, Mariana Hill, Mitchell Ryan, Jack Ging, and Stefan Gierasch.
high plains drifter is he the devil
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