20th highest-grossing film released in 1973, American Rebel: The Life of Clint Eastwood, http://powergrid.thewrap.com/project/high-plains-drifter, https://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=highplainsdrifter.htm, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2003/oct/07/guardianinterviewsatbfisouthbank, Kino: Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter Detailed for Blu-ray, Metallicas Kirk Hammett Soundtracks a Six-String Shootout on New Song High Plains Drifter. Dennis Harvey 48 Hills. In an interview, Eastwood said that earlier versions of the script made the Stranger the dead marshal's brother. New York, NY . Callie and two men watching from inside their houses look shaken by Duncan's fate, while most other people seem unaffected or grimly pleased. The Ferrymans Obolus, the third and concluding sequence of Part 2, The idea is Gods. 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. Tidyman's screenplay was inspired by the real-life murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens in 1964, which eyewitnesses reportedly stood by and watched. Beastie BoysPaul's Boutique 2009 Capitol Records, LLC and Beastie BoysReleased on: 1989-07. 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. He favored a less explicit and more supernatural interpretation, and excised the reference. The movie concerns awell, drifter who wonders into a small town from the high plains. The Stranger lures one of the Carlin brothers outside and whips him to death, then kills the remaining outlaws one at a time. Ghost Images: Cinema of the Afterlife . High Plains Drifter is Western star Clint Eastwood's first attempt at directing one of his own westerns. Book: Green, Philip . "You know," Mordecai says, "I never did know your name." 1999 . [8] Over 50 technicians and construction workers built an entire town14 houses, a church, and a two-story hotelin 18 days, using 150,000 feet of lumber. I don't have much to say about 'High Plains Drifter'. I also think George Pickens will be our [18] Jon Landau of Rolling Stone concurred, noting "thematic shallowness" and "verbal archness"; but he expressed approval of the dramatic scenery and cinematography. In this, then, is also created the possibility of free will. Revelation 21:8 reads: But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.. The Italian, Spanish, French and German dubbings restored it.[9]. You know, the rhythm of this title really makes me think of "Catch Scratch Fever", and you know, I'll run with it, because it's better than getting the Beastie Boys song stuck in my head. Its first image is of a stock Western landscape, a barren southwestern American desert, our view distorted by waves of heat. High Plains Drifter Is Clint Eastwood's Mysterious, Overlooked Masterpiece Before he was known as a conservative filmmaker (both stylistically and politically), he made this strange and. Too bad, this movie is better than 95 percent of John Wayne's movies. The Malpaso Company, Rank Clint Eastwoods 10 Best Movies as Director, Some Juicy New Tidbits on the "DOA" Action Flick, RT25: Celebrating 25 years of Rotten Tomatoes. 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. McFarland . There's always retribution for your deeds. For a video version of my thoughts, see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4hLVDc9yrs. An American Journey: Issues and Themes . Apr 19, 1973 But like a Broadway-trained thespian who periodically returns to the stage to keep his or her instincts honed, Eastwood would keep circling back to the genre that had first forged his mythology in a crucible of six-shooters and squinting glances, the Western. 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. Callie and several men including Morgan Allen conspire to kill the Stranger. Your Ticket Confirmation # is located under the header in your email that reads "Your Ticket Reservation Details". After a federal marshal discovered that Lago's mine was on government land (which would have forced the closing of the mine), the town hired three gunfighters to murder him. 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. There are two headstones in the graveyard with the names of. [4] In addition to Eastwood, the film also co-stars Verna Bloom, Mariana Hill, Mitchell Ryan, Jack Ging, and Stefan Gierasch. 2013 . 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. As stridently revisionist as any Western of the Vietnam era, High Plains Drifter is really only a Western on paper. 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. Here its different though, and we see the cruel behaviour for what it is, even if some of the victims deserve retribution. Why Does Bruce Willis Make Movies He Hates? The next day, Lago's town council, needing to replace the three gunmen, offer the Stranger anything he wants to protect the town from Bridges and the Carlins, who will soon be released from prison. 2011 . Usually when Eastwood is punching a man across a table or delivering a nonchalant verbal beat down we are laughing and enjoying it. Eastwood proceeded to crank out a bunch of lean, economical WesternsHang Em High, Two Mules for Sister Sara, The Beguiledand was encouraged by his frequent director and most formidable mentor Don Siegel to try his hand behind the camera. 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. The Drifter's rape of Callie seems to be motivated by the fact she was rude to him. The next morning, Sarah tells the Stranger that Duncan cannot rest in peace because the town buried him in an unmarked grave. the dolly shot and zoom in the final scene showing Marshal Jim Duncan's name on the gravestone Mordecai just finished engraving after The Stranger tells him that he does in fact know The Stranger's name establishes at the very least that he came to town to avenge Duncan's death. All rights reserved, including educational use. [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. 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. More straightforward when Morgan punches out Mordecai. What Shows Have Been Renewed or Canceled. Coming Soon, Regal Theres one last reason why I adore High Plains Drifter and it really has nothing to do with what happens on screen. Tap "Sign me up" below to receive our weekly newsletter Fra Angelico (circa 1440-45) March 25th is the feast of the annunciation of Mary, for which Bach composed his cantata BWV 1. But the three worst the town ever saw, which they were hired to check, are being released from jail. Wayne wrote back saying this movie is terrible because of the violence and it's revisionist portrayal of westerns. 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. [19] Jon Landau of Rolling Stone concurred, noting "thematic shallowness" and "verbal archness"; but he expressed approval of the dramatic scenery and cinematography. [citation needed], Universal released the R-rated High Plains Drifter in the United States in April 1973, and the film eventually grossed $15.7 million domestically,[3] 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. Terms and Policies That, however, is small comfort as this cold, gory and overthought movie unfolds. Brutal story-line which is about as close to an explicit allegory as the western has ever come. [19], 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. 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. 1999 . If there's ever an actor that would sell me in watching a western, that man would be Clint Eastwood. Copyright Fandango. 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. 2009 . They won't be able to see your review if you only submit your rating. Returning to Lago, the Stranger inspects the preparations the entire town painted red, armed men on rooftops, picnic tables laden with food and drink, and a big "WELCOME HOME BOYS" banner then he silently departs again. 6275 . And maybe it stung the young director at the time. 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. Privacy Policy 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. 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. From a moviemaker's point of view, they're not necessary to drive the plot. "Clint Back in Saddle in 'Drifter'". It turned out that Eastwood was a natural born director, albeit a different breed of one. 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. 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. I was mostly satisfied by the story as the more it went on the more I got interested. That isn't the American people who settled this country. Did he want to be a stripped-down bareknuckle filmmaker like Siegel, or a baroque allegorist like Leone? Eastwood reportedly liked the offbeat quality of the film's original nine-page proposal and approached Universal with the idea of directing it. 1973 | Maturity rating: 16+ | 1h 45m | Westerns. 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. The Easter, In the afternoon of April 13th I spent six hours re-familiarizing myself with Killarney, in the southeast of the city. A mysterious, unnamed stranger rides out of the desert, wearing a duster & black hat, into the isolated, lake mining town of Lago in the American Old West. He looks like the tight-lipped, cigar-chewing sharpshooter of Hang 'Em High or Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy, and on paper High Plains Drifter certainly reads like your typical Clint Eastwood western. Which brings us to 1973s High Plains Drifter, a movie thats so frequently overlooked and uncharacteristically strange and surreal that it sticks out like a sore, red-painted thumb in the long sweep of Eastwoods filmography. This 10-digit number is your confirmation number. 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. We never really are told who he is or where he comes from. Movies. Chris Nashawaty is a writer, editor, critic, and author of books about Roger Corman & Caddyshack. The allegory cant get blunter then him literally put up a signpost that says hell and have the town paint all the buildings red. 2014 . He then rides out of town without explanation, following the wounded Morgan. 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. Coming Soon. 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. 978-1300981176 . Dee Barton wrote the film score. Here Eastwood takes advantage of what he has learned in the spaghetti western with a plot that is fully attached to the genre. Edit, This is purposely left ambiguous to give it an almost supernatural feel, but the theories put forth are as follows: (1) The stranger is Marshal Jim Duncan's brother who learned that the three men who killed his brother were being released from prison and would likely return to their town, so the stranger "passed through" in order to take revenge on the three men and on the town itself for simply standing by and watching as his brother was brutally murdered. | 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. Cinemark Still from the opening scene. [5] An uncredited rewrite of the script was provided by Dean Riesner, screenwriter of other Eastwood projects. original, Release Date (Streaming): A mysterious, unnamed stranger rides out of the desert into the isolated mining town of Lago in the American Old West. "[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 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. with updates on movies, TV shows, Rotten Tomatoes podcast and more. Kapsis; Coblentz, Kathie . 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. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. Callie and several men, including Morgan Allen, decide to kill the Stranger. If you can look past the dated sexual politics, this is a deeply cynical deconstruction of the romanticized western. He could also be some sort of avenging spirit as well. 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. Starring: Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom, Marianna Hill [10] The Italian, Spanish, French and German dubbings restored it. He then rides out of town without explanation, following the wounded Morgan. 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. Still, its Eastwoods flashbacks to Duncans murder-by-bullwhip that are even more horrifyingand technically dazzling thanks to Bruce Surtees fever-dream cinematography, Dee Bartons eerie score, and Eastwoods decision to have his longtime stunt double, Buddy Van Horn, play Duncan, making the physical similarities between Duncan and the Stranger all the more creepy. By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and
After scouting locations alone in a pickup truck in Oregon, Nevada and California,[7] he settled on the "highly photogenic" Mono Lake area.
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