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High Plains Drifter

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High Plains Drifter
High Plains Drifter movie poster
Directed by	Clint Eastwood
Produced by	Robert Daley Jennings Lang
Written by	Ernest Tidyman Uncredited: Dean Riesner
Starring	Clint Eastwood Verna Bloom Marianna Hill Billy Curtis
Music by	Dee Barton
Cinematography	Bruce Surtees
Editing by	Ferris Webster
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	April 19 1973 (New York City only) July 16 1973 August 3 1973 August 22 1973 August 23 1973 September 18 2001
Running time	105 min
Country	United States
Language	English
IMDb profile

High Plains Drifter is a 1973 Revisionist Western film starring and directed by Clint Eastwood, wherein he plays a character clearly influenced by the Man with No Name from Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars and its sequels. Eastwood's direction, too, was inspired by Leone, as the film uses often beautiful widescreen compositions (by cinematographer Bruce Surtees) very similar to those seen in the "Dollars" films. High Plains Drifter has a much quicker pace, however, which also indicates the stylistic influence of Eastwood's other mentor, Don Siegel (in fact, Eastwood has noted that the graveyard set featured in the film's finale had tombstones reading "Sergio Leone" and "Don Siegel," intended as a comical "dedication" to both then-living directors). Filmed on location on the shores of Mono Lake, California, High Plains Drifter is morally complex in the manner of the spaghetti westerns. The screenplay was written by Ernest Tidyman and an uncredited Dean Riesner, and Dee Barton provided the film's eerie musical score.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Interpretation
4 Score
5 Production notes
6 High Plains Drifter in popular culture
7 References
8 External links

Plot

As the film opens, a tall lone stranger gradually emerges from a shimmering desert horizon and rides into the town of Lago, Arizona. The townspeople eye him warily, and the crack of a teamster's whip emphasizes the tenseness of the air while also subtly introducing the film's central event. The Stranger (Eastwood) enters a bar for a beer and a bottle of whiskey. He is challenged by three gunslingers, only to turn his back and walk away from them. Insulted, they follow him to the barbershop across the street, where they surround him and attempt to lay hands on him. He surprises them by having his gun(s) already drawn and ready, hidden under the apron the barber had tied around his neck. He easily shoots all three dead in seconds. Later, a local woman named Callie Travers seems to desire his attention but, having no dignified way to show this, she accosts and insults him. He still won't give her the attention she's desperate for and he tries to walk away. She badgers him until he drags her into the livery stable and rapes her. She resists at first, but then clearly begins to enjoy the experience. Afterward, he leaves her without a word, checks into the local hotel, and spends the night.

Callie Travers, the town prostitute.

The next day, while he's bathing at the barber shop, the town sheriff stops by to speak with him. While they're in conversation, Callie comes in with a pistol and tries to kill The Stranger. Although she fires four shots at the bathtub from close range, he escapes unscathed by ducking under the water. Afterward, the Stranger asks cynically "Wonder what took her so long to get mad?" "Because maybe you didn't go back for more" replies Mordecai (Mordecai, a dwarf, is the town outcast; he quickly befriends the Stranger, however). The Stranger moves into the town hotel. When he sleeps, he is troubled by visions of three men with bullwhips flogging a fourth man to death in a street while faceless people watch from the shadows, doing nothing. As the movie progresses, the vision recurs, growing ever more detailed, until the shadowy faces are revealed as those of the townspeople. Only two people seem to protest the murder in the visions, and only one of these - Sarah Belding, wife of hotel owner Lewis Belding - tries to go to the victim's assistance. The other, Mordecai, protests silently while hiding under the steps of the saloon. Meanwhile, three felons, due to be released from the jail in Yuma in a few days, are expected to return to the town of Lago and wreak havoc. The men that the Stranger gunned down had been hired by the town to kill the felons, and now, in desperation, the town hires the Stranger to protect them. They offer him "anything he might want" in return. The townspeople and the three felons are linked by an illegal mine; they had hired the felons to assassinate the previous town marshal when he discovered the mine was on United States government land. The felons publicly whipped the marshal to death; afterwards, the townspeople framed the murderers for theft from the mine to keep them quiet.

Sarah Belding

The Stranger takes full advantage of his carte blanche in the town, and his demands are both heavy and bizarre. Eastwood's character exacts a steep price for his help with the three returning felons and although he trains the townspeople and gives them a strategy, he is particularly ruthless and even asks the hotelier to empty the hotel of all its occupants so he can settle in by himself. Resentment of his behavior grows among many of the townspeople. The managers of the mine argue over whether the Stranger is worth all the trouble he's causing, and one of the managers attempts (with disastrously unsuccessful results) to kill the Stranger in his bed. The ensuing melee ends with the hotel in ruins, and the Stranger drags the innkeeper's wife off as partial payment for all the trouble. Shortly before encountering the returning felons, the Stranger literally has the locals paint the entire town red (to depict hell) and he also makes them set up a picnic table awaiting their return. By the film's end, the Stranger's vengeance is complete after a final brutal whipping scene echoing that of the past: the town is in ruins and many of the prominent citizens are dead or missing; but the men the town has feared are dead, too. The question that has tormented the townspeople through the movie – who is the Stranger? – is addressed cryptically at the end. Leaving town, the Stranger encounters Mordecai finishing a grave marker apparently at the Stranger's request. Mordecai says to him, "I never did know your name." The Stranger replies, "Yes, you do." Mordecai blanches at the answer, and as the Stranger returns to the shimmering haze of the horizon, the camera pans over the grave marker to reveal the murdered Marshal Jim Duncan's name. The implication is that Clint Eastwood's nameless character is the avenging angel of Marshal Jim Duncan, a fact seemingly supported in the film's final shot as Eastwood rides off into the distance and literally disappears from the camera.

Cast

Clint Eastwood ... The Stranger
Verna Bloom ... Sarah Belding
Marianna Hill ... Callie Travers
Mitch Ryan ... Dave Drake (as Mitchell Ryan)
Jack Ging ... Morgan Allen
Stefan Gierasch ... Mayor Jason Hobart
Ted Hartley ... Lewis Belding
Billy Curtis ... Mordecai
Geoffrey Lewis ... Stacey Bridges, Outlaw
Scott Walker ... Bill Carlin, Outlaw
Anthony James ... Cole Carlin, Outlaw
Walter Barnes ... Sheriff Sam Shaw
Paul Brinegar ... Lutie Naylor
Richard Bull ... Asa Goodwin
Robert Donner ... Preacher
John Hillerman ... Bootmaker
John Quade ... Freight Wagon Operator

Interpretation

The only townsperson to entirely escape the Stranger's vengeance is Mordecai, the man who tried to help Duncan. It thus becomes apparent that the Stranger is a ghost, an avenging angel, or both, riding forth from the spirit world to settle a few scores. This supernatural interpretation is indicated in the film's title and supported by the Stranger's recurring visions of the crime, which seem, in fact, to be memories; the setting is Lago, the observers are the townspeople, the man being flogged to death resembles an older Eastwood, and the Stranger winces as the whips cut into the victim. Other scenes offer further evidence: the raped woman shoots the Stranger at close range with no effect; the Stranger renames the red-painted town "Hell"; and, in the film's opening and closing shots, the stranger materializes like an apparition from the shimmer of a heat wave, then vanishes back into it. Finally, the Stranger rides a gray horse, an obvious reference to the Fourth Horseman in the Book of Revelation 6:8 "And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him" (see also Pale Rider and Unforgiven). During an interview on Inside the Actors Studio, Eastwood commented that earlier versions of the script made the Stranger the dead marshal's brother. He favored a less explicit and more supernatural interpretation, however, and excised the reference, although the French and German dubbings retain it.

Score

The film is known for its horror-esque film score - a highly atmospheric combination of discords which plays from the outset, followed by a typical stirring western soundtrack reminiscent of the Jewish orchestra scenes at the prison camp in Sergio Leones film which Eastwood also starred in The Good the Bad and the Ugly. The discorded sound is particularly effective during the whipping scenes in which the Stranger towers above the wrong-doer against a background of fire, evoking traditional images of hell which are echoed in the red paint covering the town.

Production notes

Lago (Mono Lake)

Eastwood had an entire town built on the shores of Mono Lake for the project.
Filming was completed in only six weeks.
The character of Marshall Duncan was played by stuntman Buddy Van Horn, a long-time stunt double for Clint Eastwood, in order to create some ambiguity as to whether he and the Stranger are one and the same.

High Plains Drifter in popular culture

John Wayne was reportedly so upset by what he saw as an inaccurate depiction of the West that he wrote to Eastwood. Eastwood's reply, if any, is not known.
The character of Saint of Killers from the comic book Preacher (comics) is based on The Stranger.
Jazz guitarist Bill Frisell wrote a composition "High Plains Drifter" for his first Elektra release Before we were born.
The Australian indie rock band The Cruel Sea (band) had a song entitled High Plains Drifter on their 1991 album This Is Not The Way Home.
The Beastie Boys wrote a song for their album Paul's Boutique entitled "High Plains Drifter".
Daredevil issue #219, written by Frank Miller and titled "Badlands" is about a small town where a corrupt sheriff once beat a man to death with a chain. Matt Murdock, out of costume, comes to the town and punishes those involved.
The character Macgregor in the comic High Moon is based, in part, on The Stranger.