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High Plains Drifter
1973
Clint Eastwood's second film as a director (and his first Western) is a variation on the "man with no name" theme, starring Eastwood as the drifter known only as "the Stranger". He rides into the desert town of Lagos and is quickly attacked by three gunmen. Recovering with the aid of a local dwarf (a memorable role for Billy .. Read more
| Starring | Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom, Marianna Hill, Mitchell Ryan |
|---|---|
| Director | Clint Eastwood |
| Genres | Action/Adventure |
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High Plains Drifter
Clint Eastwood's second film as a director (and his first Western) is a variation on the "man with no name" theme, starring Eastwood as the drifter known only as "the Stranger". He rides into the desert town of Lagos and is quickly attacked by three gunmen. Recovering with the aid of a local dwarf (a memorable role for Billy Curtis), the Stranger is hired by the intimidated townsfolk to fend off a band of violent ex-convicts. After teaching the citizens self-defence and instructing them to paint the entire town red and rename it "Hell", the Stranger vanishes. He reappears when the marauding criminals arrive, and delivers justice and teaches the townsfolk a harsh lesson about moral obligation. Is he a figure from their past or a kind of supernatural avenger? Combining humour with action, High Plains Drifter is both a serious and tongue-in-cheek tribute to the Westerns that made Eastwood a household name. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
| Starring | Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom, Marianna Hill, Mitchell Ryan, Jack Ging, Geoffrey Lewis, John Quade, Walter Barnes, Billy Curtis, Stefan Gierasch, Ted Hartley, Dan Vadis, Scott Walker |
|---|---|
| Director | Clint Eastwood |
| Studio | UNIVERSAL PICTURES UK |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 41 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Collections | 100 Wild Westerns |
| Genres | Action/Adventure |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Dubbed | French, German, Italian, Spanish |
| Subtitles | DVD: Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish |
| Released | DVD: 18 Sep 2006 Production year: 1973 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (3)
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Sex, sadism and the supernatural are loosely bundled in Clint Eastwood's stylishly self-conscious western: man-with-no-name satire or fable of mystic revenge, take your pick. Eastwood looms out of the desert, a mirage of retribution on a town's inhabitants who stood by while their honest sheriff was whipped to death. Eastwood seems, not altogether successfully, to be paying off debts to his former mentor, Sergio Leone — gratitude he can only express obliquely via the occult references in this distinctive variation on the spaghetti western genre.
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As gravestone inscriptions in the town of Lago (painted red and renamed Hell by the phantom drifter) make clear, this... read more on Time Out
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Most helpful member's review
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10 out of 16 people found this review helpful
A western ghost story
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Most recent members' review
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1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
The archetypal Eastwood Western
I have a soft spot for Eastwood Westerns. I'll admit it. I'm into films, and I'll happily sit through films that make my friends get up and go to the pub. The more challenging the better...
But there's something about a man with no name (why does Eastwood never have a name in these?!) turning up in a desert town, being all dark and brooding, sleeping with half the female population of the town and shooting all the men. Must be something primaeval.
Anyway, for me, this film is great. Eastwood directed it, as well as taking the lead role, so a critic might say it shows all his indulgences. Like the fact that the women throw themselves at him. But it has all the key pieces, including a backstory that drives the plot forwards as it is slowly revealed. It's one of the darker spaghetti Westerns I've seen (with suggestions of rape and so on), but still very enjoyable. Maybe I'm just a pleb... -
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High Plains Drifter
Clint Eastwood's second film as a director (and his first Western) is a variation on the "man with no name" theme, starring Eastwood as the drifter known only as "the Stranger". He rides into the desert town of Lagos and is quickly attacked by three gunmen. Recovering with the aid of a local dwarf (...
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