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High Plains Drifter (1973)

post #1 of 18
7/20/08 at 5:35pm
Thread Starter 
What shocks me is just how brutal this film is. Anytime someone is being lashed to death it is almost hard to watch. What is everyone
s take on The Stranger? Is he some spirit sent to avenge the previous Sheriff?
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post #2 of 18
7/20/08 at 5:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by woodsy View Post
What shocks me is just how brutal this film is. Anytime someone is being lashed to death it is almost hard to watch.
And then they added a midget. That's fucked up.
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post #3 of 18
7/20/08 at 5:45pm
I was about to point out that there were already several threads devoted to this movie, but apparently, they've all been lost to the search engine. That revamp fucked up a lot of our best discussions.

So to start up again, I was absolutely blown away by this movie. The way he treats everyone from day one is incredibly brutal. Of course, once you realize what's going on, it puts everything in a new light.
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post #4 of 18
7/20/08 at 6:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg David View Post
I was about to point out that there were already several threads devoted to this movie, but apparently, they've all been lost to the search engine.
One you started.

This one you also started and HPD is mentioned, but other good stuff as well. Might be my first ever post in that thread.
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post #5 of 18
7/20/08 at 10:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post
And then they added a midget. That's fucked up.
High Plains Drifter's midget blows In Bruges's midget out of the water.

I love this movie to death.
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post #6 of 18
7/21/08 at 12:39am
Possibly my favourite western ever (ETA: not true, that'd be Butch and Sundance - but this is very close). By the time the whole town's painted red, been renamed Hell and the midgets the mayor, I'm usually grinning like a loon.

People kinda forget Eastwood was deconstructing the western loooon before Unforgiven.
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post #7 of 18
7/21/08 at 1:14am
I agree that this is definately a good movie, but for me the unleavened darkness (including semi-heroic rape) kinds sucks a lot of the fun out of it. I know that's the point, but it keeps the whole thing at a distance. Given the choice of this or Unforgiven, I take the later.

My take was that he was the dead man's soul returned from Hell to enact vengeance. I'm not sure the movie is even particularly coy with this information.
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post #8 of 18
7/21/08 at 2:38am
That was my interpretation.

It's interestiong Arjen, your arms-length reaction to this is precisely the reaction I have to Unforgiven.
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post #9 of 18
7/21/08 at 2:56am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post
One you started.

This one you also started and HPD is mentioned, but other good stuff as well. Might be my first ever post in that thread.
I started a thread on this flick too. Damn it's one amazing movie. The first horror western. Gotta love the eerie main theme.
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post #10 of 18
7/21/08 at 2:58am
The handling of the flashback screams "Ted Post TV movie!", but there's some great imagery in there as well. The whole town painted red on that sandy terrain. Love it. Prefer Outlaw Josey Wales.
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post #11 of 18
7/21/08 at 3:03am
The Outlaw Josey Wales is one great Eastwood movie that I have yet to see all the way through.

Eastwood's introduction in HPD is probably one of the best in modern cinema. Rides into town, kills several toughs, then "rapes" a woman. Right off the bat you know this guy is anything but a hero. Gotta love the look Mordecai has on his face when he sees that. Also, the subsequent attempts on Eastwood's life by the woman.
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post #12 of 18
7/21/08 at 4:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post
The handling of the flashback screams "Ted Post TV movie!", but there's some great imagery in there as well. The whole town painted red on that sandy terrain. Love it. Prefer Outlaw Josey Wales.
Not much of a knock, though, since I prefer The Outlaw Josey Wales to a lot of things. I won't go so far as to say that I prefer it to sex, but it's definitely better than ice cream.
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post #13 of 18
7/21/08 at 10:26am
It's Eastwood's version of a spaghetti western. Eastwood has said the original idea was to have his character just out for a revenge and be a flesh and blood avenger but he though it was too conventional so he made it more ambiguous. The shot of Eastwood against the flames with the whip is visually striking and the eerie beginning and end, great film.
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post #14 of 18
7/21/08 at 10:41am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg David View Post
Not much of a knock, though, since I prefer The Outlaw Josey Wales to a lot of things. I won't go so far as to say that I prefer it to sex, but it's definitely better than ice cream.
Outlaw Josey Wales is the great Philip Kaufman movie never made.

In my humble, it's a tad overrated. Once Eastwood took over some of his lesser artistic instincts shone through.

Give me HIGH PLANES DRIFTER: Raw. Brutal. Mean. A near perfect revenge fantasy. (The flip side being PALE RIDER, a not as successful angelic reinterpretation & SHANE homage)
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post #15 of 18
7/21/08 at 10:54am
I can't really say that it's my favorite western but it's really up there. I love it. For all its western trappings I always saw it as more of a gothic story. With completely superficial changes I can see this a Hammer production with Vincent Price in Eastwood's role set in 18th century England.
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post #16 of 18
7/21/08 at 7:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dragon Ma View Post
It's Eastwood's version of a spaghetti western. Eastwood has said the original idea was to have his character just out for a revenge and be a flesh and blood avenger but he though it was too conventional so he made it more ambiguous. The shot of Eastwood against the flames with the whip is visually striking and the eerie beginning and end, great film.
I believe he actually said the movie was written and shot with him being the slain sheriff's brother. That after it was all completed that he realized that his character was more a force of vengeance. The ending scene at the tombstone was suppose to be the final clue that he was the brother, but now stands as the clue that he was the spirit of the deceased sheriff.

Yeah this movie is great, mainly for the unromantic character Eastwood portrays.
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post #17 of 18
7/22/08 at 1:46am
Quote:
Originally Posted by stelios View Post
I can't really say that it's my favorite western but it's really up there. I love it. For all its western trappings I always saw it as more of a gothic story. With completely superficial changes I can see this a Hammer production with Vincent Price in Eastwood's role set in 18th century England.
That interpretation is supported if you watch The Beguiled, which is a similarly gothic tale, and one I love almost as much as this one. Not that the films are linked, but it does sort of confirm Eastwood's interest in that kind of story.
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post #18 of 18
2/17/10 at 9:57am
God, that ending is so creepy.

"You still here?"

This film manages to evoke such a terrific atmosphere.
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