high plains drifter is he the devil

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. Its difficult to know where we stand because the townspeople deserve punishment for what theyve done but at the same time just how much of the Strangers behaviour is acceptable? Check this excellent film out. But being his second directorial movie, and his first Western, he worked quite safe, just doing what he learnt working as an actor in previous Westerns, especially "A Fistful of Dollars" (1964). Under a joint production between Malpaso and Universal, the original screenplay was written by Ernest Tidyman, who had won a Best Screenplay Oscar for The French Connection.[6]. Hes never been as thematically oblique or stylistically flashy (unless you consider his lack of flash to be flashy). 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. 6275 . >> http://bit.ly/24NeaTM 367 42 comments 73 shares Most relevant Wendy Banks Nice 2y While setting the ambush for the three outlaws, he tells a group of Mexicans to prepare some long tables for a "picnic". [5] In addition to Eastwood, the film also co-stars Verna Bloom, Mariana Hill, Mitchell Ryan, Jack Ging, and Stefan Gierasch. Cookie policy. Returning to Lago, the Stranger inspects the preparationsthe entire town painted red, armed men on rooftops, picnic tables laden with food and drink, and a big "WELCOME HOME BOYS" bannerthen he silently departs again. "[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. Edit, It appears to have been cut at around 45 minutes into the film, when someone yells, "What the you doin' to my father's house?" It exalts and delights in a kind of pitiless Old Testament wrath. The film was shot on location on the shores of Mono Lake, California. 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. 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. Cookie Notice Then, upon the Stranger's final departure from Lago, the midget Mordecai is seen tending to an unmarked grave which now bears the name Jim Duncan. 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. Its plot is nothing out of the ordinary but its given a supernatural and sadistic treatment that makes it stand out from the crowd. The premise of the movie is basically this; (spoiler) Clint Eastwood plays a Marshall named Jim Duncan. The film stars Eastwood as a mysterious stranger who metes out justice in a corrupt frontier mining town. The Stranger accepts the job and takes full advantage of the deal: he appoints a downtrodden dwarf named Mordecai as both sheriff and mayor, provides a Native American and his children with blankets and candy when the shopkeeper refuses to serve them, gets a new saddle and boots, and forces the saloon to serve everyone free drinks. The townspeople then conspired to frame the outlaws for stealing gold as a means to avoid paying them, and they have vowed revenge. [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. Though his laconic sense of humor often drags out the pacing of the movie, Eastwood uses his camera with intelligence and flair. When the drifter rides into Lago, he is met with incredulity and disapproval by the townspeople. Callie and several men, including Morgan Allen, decide to kill the Stranger. I was mostly satisfied by the story as the more it went on the more I got interested. Genre: Lulu.com . A mysterious drifter referred to only as "The Stranger" rides into the dismal mining town of Lago, which has a crisis on its hands: three ruthless gunmen are making their way to the town so they can settle scores over an old wrong done to them by the townspeople. 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. 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. 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. 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. The Stranger replies, "Yes, you do." McFarland . 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, [First published two years ago, 14 April 2021.] Tidyman said that his script for High Plains Drifter was inspired by the infamous 1964 Kitty Genovese case, where a 28-year-old Queens woman was stabbed and murdered as her terrified neighbors reportedly stared out their apartment windows and watched without calling for help. Privacy Policy The character of Marshal Duncan was played by Buddy Van Horn, Eastwood's long-time stunt double, to suggest that he and the Stranger could be the same person. I don't have much to say about 'High Plains Drifter'. Clint Eastwood, Producer: Edit, After having the townfolk paint the entire town red, rename it "Hell", and set up a picnic and welcoming banner for the outlaws' return, the Stranger rides out of town, leaving them to fight their own battle against the three outlaws that brutally whipped Duncan to death while the townies stood and watched. This script is a transcript that was painstakingly transcribed using the screenplay and/or viewings of High Plains Drifter. Terms and Policies original, Release Date (Streaming): The Stranger accepts seemingly reluctantly, to be put in charge of order and mounting a defense, recruiting the factotum dwarf as his Deputy. 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. 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. 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. [11], "It's just an allegory," Eastwood said, "a speculation on what happens when they go ahead and kill the sheriff, and somebody comes back and calls the town's conscience to bear. 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. [5] An uncredited rewrite of the script was provided by Dean Riesner, screenwriter of other Eastwood projects. Before he could despair over his flailing, fledgling career, he would be saved by the Westerna genre that immediately fit him like a bespoke duster. 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. In this, then, is also created the possibility of free will. The supporting cast is all of humanity. Book: White, Mike . He keeps things lean and simple. Jefferson, N.C . 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. and the Because its a far more interesting movie the further you get away from its Western-ness and the more it steps into the realm of spectral, mystical Tales from the Crypt pulp. And in 1971, he finally got his shot with the paranoia-drenched Fatal Attraction prototype Play Misty for Me. Western, Original Language: Maybe thats because back in 1973, working as a director for only the second time, Eastwood was still figuring out what kind of director he wanted to be. Amherst . 17 June 2019. That, however, is small comfort as this cold, gory and overthought movie unfolds. Cinemark You're almost there! | 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. One of my favorites from back in the day. It wasnt a hell of a thing killing a man yet. Obviously he's not okay with rape and he's sure as hell not trying to glorify it - but the execution seems miscalculated, to say the least. The Stranger assembles a group of citizens to defend the town, but soon realizes that none have the necessary "shooting" skills. Anushka Pathania. As the Stranger rides off into the desert, a perplexed Mordecai stands beside the tombstone he just finished engraving: "Marshal Jim Duncan, Rest in Peace". Upon arriving, the Stranger has a lucid and graphic dream about Jim Duncan's death, in which Duncan declares damnation upon the townspeople for not saving his life. [4] In addition to Eastwood, the film also co-stars Verna Bloom, Mariana Hill, Mitchell Ryan, Jack Ging, and Stefan Gierasch. The scene where Clint Eastwood is about to get his clean shave is honestly cinema at it's best. 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. The film was shot on location on the shores of Mono Lake, California. Especially from the line "they didn't know him by his face". The jail-freed trio realizes too late that he's after vengeance for the whip-torment they inflicted on weakling Marshal Jim Duncan (Buddy Van Horn) years ago, still the stranger's daily nightmare. Elements include a darker, more cynical tone, with focus on the lawlessness of the time period, favouring realism over romanticism. When the attractive, blond townswoman Callie Travers flirtatiously insults him, he rapes her in the livery stable. Free (& Subscription) Games for All Platforms: New & Upcoming, What to Watch in May: 18 Notable TV Shows & Streaming Movies. As we slowly learn in an onion-peel haze of almost-psychedelic flashbacks and dream sequences, the townsfolk silently watched as three of its scuzziest citizens brutally whipped Lagos marshal, Jim Duncan, to death. Nowadays, we tend to think of Eastwood as a pretty conservative filmmaker. Instead of doing their dirty work, he abuses his "blank pay check" not just for free goods, but also to commandeer everyone in a militia and transform the whole town. 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. Callie and several men including Morgan Allen conspire to kill the Stranger. Written by Ernest Tidyman, who was a bit of an uncategorizable genre schizophrenic himself having already written both the Blaxploitation classic Shaft and earned a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for The French Connection, High Plains Drifter is a haunting and haunted supernatural revenge story about a mysterious, cigarillo-chewing man with no name (guess who?) 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. It is bad. Because maybe you didn't go back for more? This cantata, from 1725, begins, effectively, as musical reminiscence and narrative longing, a continuation of where the St. Fra Angelico : Resurrection of Christ and Women at the Tomb (1440-41), Fresco, Convento di San Marco, Florence. It may also be the closest that he ever came to making an experimental, out-there movie. 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. High Plains Drifter is a 1973 Western directed by (and starring) Clint Eastwood, with a screenplay by Ernest Tidyman (The French Connection, Shaft). I joke about the obvious influence from Sergio Leone, but the genuinely unique aspects of this "supernatural" western go punctuated by the taking of story and storytelling notes from Leone, if not other western filmmakers, which reflect a lack of certainty to Clint Eastwood's storytelling. Dee Barton wrote the film score. Clint Eastwood: Interviews . The three have their sights set on returning to Lago to wreak havoc and take care of some unfinished business. High Plains Drifter: Official Clip - Lago is Hell, High Plains Drifter: Official Clip - I'm the Sheriff and the Mayor, High Plains Drifter: Official Clip - A Whipping Revenge, High Plains Drifter: Official Clip - He Shot My Ear Off, High Plains Drifter: Official Clip - A Shave and a Shootout. 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. 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. It's up to the viewer to decide. Morrisville . 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. with updates on movies, TV shows, Rotten Tomatoes podcast and more. The image is an example of a ticket confirmation email that AMC sent you when you purchased your ticket. A gunslinger emerges from a desert's shimmering horizon like an apparition. [8], Complete buildings, rather than facades, were built, so that Eastwood could shoot interior scenes on the site. 978-1300981176 . The stranger was Marshal Jim Duncan himself come back to exact his revenge (perhaps through a deal with the devil.). 0-00-638354-8. After having sex with him in his room, she slips out as three men enter. [22], High Plains Drifter was first released on DVD by Universal Studios Home Video on February 24, 1998. Meanwhile, the best you can say for High Plains Drifter is that the title is a low pun. Coming Soon. [10] The Italian, Spanish, French and German dubbings restored it. Murphy, Arthur D. (March 28, 1973). 978-0823230143 . The Drifter's rape of Callie seems to be motivated by the fact she was rude to him. It's also a pretty violent business that won't disappoint the millions who flocked to the Leone westerns. High Plains Drifter: Official Clip - Whipped to Death, High Plains Drifter: Official Clip - Whipping the Outlaw, High Plains Drifter: Official Clip - Blowing Up The Hotel, High Plains Drifter: Official Clip - The Sheriff and the Mayor, High Plains Drifter: Official Clip - Shave and a Shootout, High Plains Drifter: Official Clip - Shooting Up Hell, High Plains Drifter: Official Clip - Killing the Outlaws, High Plains Drifter: Official Clip - Target Practice, High Plains Drifter: Official Clip - The Stranger Rides Away. Mordecai says, "I never did know your name," to which the Stranger replies, "Yes, you do." 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. The townspeople then turned in the outlaws on false robbery charges to avoid paying them, and they have vowed revenge. So, for the first big western he makes himself, Eastwood plays a charismatically quiet, yet intimidatingly dangerous stranger with no name; now that's new. The movie concerns awell, drifter who wonders into a small town from the high plains. Here is a list of locations where High Plains Drifter is shot at, read on . English, Director: Clint Eastwood became a star starring in Westerns, so it wasn't new to see him in this role. As an actor, he is probably better than he allows himself to be. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Scan this QR code to download the app now. Whenever Clint Eastwood is given a unnamed Cowboy you better expect nothing but the best. You see, Lago is a town with a past. [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. In Biblical accounts, Mordecai sat in the kings gate to signify his intimacy to the ruler, or, in the film, the stranger. I hope hes wrong, or just being playfully cryptic. It didn't thrill me or anything, but it did keep my attention from start-to-finish so it's evidently a good film. High Plains Drifter: Directed by Clint Eastwood. Book: Girgus, Sam . High Plains Drifter is a morality tale carved out of the harsh Western desert and directed with a panache that synthesized the styles of Sergio Leone and Don Siegel, two directors who had worked with Eastwood frequently. The goal of /r/Movies is to provide an inclusive place for discussions and news about films with major releases. Belding, aiming a shotgun at the Stranger's back, is shot dead by Mordecai. After scouting locations alone in a pickup truck in Oregon, Nevada and California,[7] he settled on the "highly photogenic" Mono Lake area. He. 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.. There's also, of course, the last line of dialogue in the movie. Hes a mysterious fellow, cool and gruff looking and noticeably viler than the usual Eastwood western character. I don't suppose the film, running only a little over 100 minutes, is too draggy, but there are a few overdrawn set pieces, some of which are a little forceful in a manner which makes the implied twists sort of obvious sooner that they ostensibly should be, or at least leaves the plot to outstay its welcome enough to hit formulaic moments. And Eastwood takes that Old Testament theme of payback for cowardice, hypocrisy, and inaction and grafts it onto the genre that he knew in his marrow. 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. In addition to the cruel nature of the film there is a surprising supernatural element at play. Anyway Clint Eastwood stars in and directs HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER which is a mystery western and quite dark, bloody and cool. It's the story of a mysterious, crack-shot out-of-towner paid handsomely to protect an idyllic California . Please enter your birth date to watch this video: You are not allowed to view this material at this time. New York . 2004 . Why Does Bruce Willis Make Movies He Hates? 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. 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. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "High Plains Drifter". 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. 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. The next day, Lago officials offer the Stranger "anything you want" to protect the town from Bridges and the Carlins, who will soon be released from prison. Read our extensive list of rules for more information on other types of posts like fan-art and self-promotion, or message the moderators if you have any questions. The film often intercuts with a blurry flashback of a Marshall being whipped by three gunmen with close to the entire town standing by watching, doing nothing to help the poor fellow. High Plains Drifter. 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. 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. These were a branch of American Western movies that coincided with the 'New Hollywood' era, acting as the swan song of the Western Old Myth where cars started to make odd appearances, marking the way technology and capitalism would put a deathblow on the frontier or pioneer spirit. The Italian, Spanish, French and German dubbings restored it.[9]. [19] Jon Landau of Rolling Stone concurred, noting "thematic shallowness" and "verbal archness"; but he expressed approval of the dramatic scenery and cinematography. Machoism is also a meaty theme of most westerns but that is given a slap to the face also in the film. Rob Ager, in a detailed and wordyinterpretationof the film, and also argues that the avenging angel is the ghost of the murdered marshall. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. 1973 | Maturity rating: 16+ | 1h 45m | Westerns. Although hed already appeared in more than a dozen often-uncredited, blink-and-youll-miss-them parts by 1959, Eastwoods career was salvaged when he was cast that year as Rowdy Yates on the hit TV oater, Rawhide. 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. After having sex with him in his room, Callie slips out as three men enter. Book: Hughes, Howard. The film stars Eastwood as a mysterious stranger who metes out justice in a corrupt frontier mining town. 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. With Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom, Marianna Hill, Mitchell Ryan. It adds to the argument that High Plains Drifter is a deconstruction of the myths of the old west.
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