Nothing 'plain' about this movie... (High Plains Drifter (DVD))

Member Name: xBorgx

Product:	High Plains Drifter (DVD)
Date:	20/04/09 (112 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Top class western

Disadvantages: None

All eyes are upon a stranger as he rides into a small town... there are no sounds but for that of his horse as it grunts and gallops across the sandy terrain. A whip crash and he pauses to see where it came from, then off he goes again.


He hooks up his horse and enters the bar, still being studied with curiosity, fear and caution (or perhaps they see something familiar in the man?), his spurs now taking on the only sound as he walks.

The Stranger: Beer... and a bottle.
Barman: Ain't much good, but it's all there is.
(brings drinks)
Barman: You want anything else?
The Stranger: Just a peaceful bar to drink in.


Three desperados take an instant dislike to the stranger ("Flea-bitten range bums don't usually stop in Lago. Life here's a little too quick for 'em. Maybe you think you're fast enough to keep up with us, huh?") and follow him as he make his way to the town barbers, ordering a shave and a hot bath. A few more threatening words are spoken and the stranger ends up shooting them all.

Word gets around as to the stranger's skills with guns and the town folk of Lago ask him for his help as three men (Stacey Bridges, Bill Borders and Cole Carlin) are about to be released from jail for killing the town's last Marshall, and are going to head their way, their threat to burn the town down as they feel they were hoodwinked by the people of the town.

The gunslinger's payment for protecting them is 'everything he wants.' The gunslinger agrees to help and proceeds to take everything he wants, including making the town dwarf into the new sheriff and getting the towns folk to paint the town red. He also prepares them for the coming of Stacey Bridges and his crew... but some of the towns folk start to dislike this stranger and his gruelling and strange methods.

There is an air of mystery that surrounds the stranger, played superbly by Clint Eastwood - he also directed this movie. I guess there always is mystery for such characters played my Eastwood... from around 1965 and for a decade on he starred in several other such westerns (including Fistful of Dollars and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly), where he was known simply as the 'Man with no name.' But this mystery is more so in High Plains Drifter as the plot unfurls and we also see elements of the supernatural, which is also witnessed in his later film, Pale Rider.


The movie is wonderfully written by Ernest Tidyman, who also brought us Shaft in the seventies. The dialogue is superb, captivating and capturing the essence of all the movies of this genre - tough, clichéd, cheesy and intelligent.
It also stars Verna Bloom as Sarah Belding, Billy Curtis as Mordecai and Geoffrey Lewis as Stacey Bridges. It was released in 1973 and lasts for 105 minutes. The direction by Eastwood is pretty good, to say it was only his third venture into this field.


I caught this movie again recently and found myself instantly captivated. Although I have watched it numerous times, it has been a while since my last viewing. I found it had dated very little in the last thirty-five years. Not like his Dirty Harry movies - which are still good, but certainly dated. This may be due to the fact they are set in wild west, whereas the Dirty Harry movies are set in the early seventies, and look it too.

I was reminded on my teenage years and staying up late to watch it with my older brother, then going to school to talk to my mates about it. I am now on the look-out for more of his early westerns...


Recommended...

Also published on Ciao by me as 'Borg...'

Summary: 'They say the dead don't rest without a marker of some kind...'