Rating: 
Summary: Could have been much better
Review: Good concepts but its too corny and lacks refinement
Rating: 
Summary: Supernatural western 5 stars for content 2 for quality
Review: An odd supernatural western with a number of twists, Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter is now recognized as a pivotal and important western. When it was released it was blasted by many critics for its violence since then its critical reputation has risen. Eastwood plays a stranger who arrives in an odd town called Lago. The residents are wary of any stranger and the gunslingers hired to protect the mining operation (among other things)immediately want to take him down a peg or two. They have no idea who they're dealing with. There's a dark secret involving murder eating at the heart of Lago and its residents. Its corrupting effects are hidden by pleasant facades of the buildings. The residents want to hire The Stranger who defend them against outlaws who have a grudge against the towns people. He's initially reluctant but agrees after given carte blanc to the town. He does lives up to his end of the bargain but not before exacting a brutal revenge. The film certainly merits five stars. It's an assured second film from Eastwood as a director. The script by Ernest Tidyman (with uncredited rewrites by Dean Reisner)marvelously captures many of the elements that made Sergio Leone's westerns so popular and manages to invert many of them at the same time. Reportedly inspired by a subgenre of samurai films revenge films, Eastwood chose to make the film when the treatment intrigued him. Tidyman's (The French Connection)screenplay is lean and compact providing a perfect frame work that echoes and compliments the films that Eastwood made for Leone. The haunting musical score also echoes Morricone's scores for Leone's films without imitating them. Universal has given this classic western shoddy treatment. The cover you see here isn't the cover on the current version. It's a much less dramatic photographic image. Additionally, it's clear that this is just a re-release of the original 1997 bare bones DVD. The film has not been remastered and there's loads of analog artifacts as well as some interlacing problems in a couple of scenes. The film deserves to be restruck from the original negative and remastered with 5.1 Dolby Digital sound. It also deserves a commentary track from star/director Eastman as well as a documentary on this magnificent film. There is a promotional film floating around that was made at the time of the film and the least Universal could have done with this reissue was put it on disc. That, along with a retrospective documentary and interviews is really what this terrific film deserves. Sadly, Universal has chosen to release it with little fan fare at a budget price but without any of the extras that would make it worthwhile. There is the original trailer (in pan and scan format) and production notes. One other minor flaw is that the transfer is cropped incorrectly in this widescreen presentation. As a result, some of the credits appear at the very edge of the screen. While this isn't a major issue, the film isn't presented in quite the way it should be. Eastwood deserves kudos for this fine western which was a pivotal film in his career as both director and star. Universal deserves a round of boos and hisses for the shoddy presentation of this reissue. Hopefully, this film, like Unforgiven, will receive the deluxe presentation it deserves.
Rating:
Summary: Eastwood turns in his typical performance
Review:
This gives the old saying, "painting the town red," a whole new meaning.
Eastwood is portraying a gunman wreaking vengeance on an entire Western town for standing by while a gang of nasties brutally kills the sheriff. One gets the impression, at the end, that he is the reincarnation of the murdered sheriff, himself. Eastwood, like John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable and a host of other actors, always plays himself. His stock in trade is his "tough guy" impression, and he does it flawlessly. His films are always well-done, and he always plays the same basic part, which his audience obviously loves. Joseph (Joe) Pierre
author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books
Rating:
Summary: Hell On Earth
Review: "How do you know what the world is like? Do you know the world is a foul sty? Do you know, if you rip off the fronts of houses that you'd find swine? The world's a hell."
No, those lines are not from Clint Eastwood's 1973 masterpiece "High Plains Drifter." Actually, they were spoken by Joseph Cotten in Alfred Hitchcock's 1943 suspense movie, "Shadow of a Doubt." But no other words can better capture the essence of this darkest and bleakest of Westerns. Clint Eastwood reprises his most famous role, "The Man With No Name" that made him a household name in such Sergio Leone movies as "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." Some people claim this movie as a "revisionist Western," but to me it is a little more complicated than that. "High Plains Drifter" is a harrowing admixture of elements from such disparate works as "High Noon," "Peyton Place," "The Count of Monte Cristo" and Dante's "Inferno." When the Man With No Name comes riding into the Texas hamlet of Lago, he immediately strikes fear in the hearts of the local townspeople. Hiding behind the facade of piety and the pioneer work-ethic lies a craven, dark secret which the town will keep shrouded at any cost. Peopled only by bullies and cowards, the town is immediately torn apart by Eastwood -- executing the local goon squad who try to rough him up, raping the town prostitute, setting neighbour against neighbour and exposing the town preacher as a craven, hypocritical fraud. It soon becomes evident to the town that the stranger has come to avenege the death of their marshal, who was bullwhipped to death in the town square as everyone watched, none of the men lifting a finger to help him or to stop the killers. So, when the stranger shows up, the Marshal's killers are about to be released from prison. The cowardly town Sheriff tries to hire the newcomer as a gunfighter to face down the killers, but Eastwood turns the tables on him and the town and soon has conscripted the town's spineless men in a local volunteer regiment to ambush the killers when they ride into town. This is a neat twist on "High Noon," in which Gary Cooper's Sheriff Will Kane had to face the men who swore to kill him alone, because no one in the town had the guts to help him; in "High Plains Drifter," no-one has the guts to refuse the Man With No Name, for fear _he'd_ kill them. What is so compelling about "High Plains Drifter" is Eastwood's complex portrayal of executioner and avenging angel: Unlike in "Shadow of a Doubt," Eastwood is no sociopathic murderer, as was Cotten's Charlie Oakley; Rather, the town of Lago *deserves* its violent demise, and -- as in "The Count of Monte Cristo" -- the Man With No Name icily exacts his revenge on the town ruthlessly, methodically. In ripping the facade of religiosity and respectability away from the town, he makes the only man with any courage in Lago -- the town midget, played by Bill Curtis -- the Mayor and Sheriff. The sets -- designed and built by Hitchcock set designers Henry Bumstead and George Milo -- play a key role in this movie. Like any other frontier town in any Western, the buildings are standard issue: General store, hotel, church, saloon, livery stable, etc. But, they are all constructed of bare wooden planks, without a drop of paint on them, save for the signs denoting their function. Clearly, these buildings are naked citadels of greed, earmarked for gouging every last dollar and squeezing every last penny out of their customers and parishoners. Only the mining office -- which hides the town's dark secret -- is whitewashed over to cover its sins. It's a brilliant example of Bumstead's minimalistic Expressionism. The Man With No Name takes note of this, and before the killers' return, he orders the townsfolk to paint it a shocking, scarlet red. The hotel owner protests, exclaiming "it's going to look like Hell!" Of course, all Eastwood does in response is squint and form an impish, ironic smile with his parched lips. The final scene is a brilliant deja-vu montage which recalls the Marshal's murder: On a pitch-black night, the stranger horsewhips one of the killers to death, and guns his two partners down in intensely emotionless vengeance. The stranger slowly walks away, finally cleansing Lago of its sin as the entire town burns in flames in a baptism by fire. I consider this movie to be Eastwood's greatest directorial effort, slightly above "Bird" and "The Unforgiven." Singular in purpose, relentless in its dark vision of humanity, "High Plains Drifter" is the ultimate revenge tale.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling, Powerful Western
Review: Just who is this "stranger", portrayed by Clint Eastwood, who has entered Lago, and what is his purpose? From the time he arrives, until he leaves, we are left wondering about this shadowy individual. Lago is a small Texas town where not to long ago a brutal murder of a sheriff occurred, while the whole town watched, too cowardly to come to his aid. "Help me," he utters again and again, while his attackers whip him to death. Now enter the man with no name. Is he the spirit of the dead sheriff, his brother perhaps, or maybe some kind of ghoulish devil? Who ever he is, he quickly takes over the town, then takes charge of it, preparing for the return of the three men who killed the sheriff. It seems his real attempt, other than to avenge the death of the sheriff, is to run the town into the ground; retribution for their earlier cowardice. The most fitting reprisal being, perhaps, having the townspeople paint the town red, and then rename it "Hell". Eastwood's character has no compassion for the people, and as much as he abuses them, we cannot somehow feel sorry the way in which they are being treated. And even after trying to build up their defense, and train them to shoot at their targets properly and effectively, he still comes to their aid at the end - the bad man shouting out "Who are you", and never given a reply. Most westerns are the shoot 'em up kind, which we enjoy. The difference between them and "High Plains Drifter" is that this movie hangs on our moral conscience; and we don't soon forget it.
Rating: 
Summary: A Very Well-Done Western......One of Eastwood's Best!
Review: True, Clint has played the role of a "Man With No Name" some umpteen times, but he's so darn good at it that it seems just as fresh and original every time. This time 'round, in his first directorial western, there's an extremely effective supernatural mood to the film; is the Stranger the ghost of the sherrif? Is he his brother? You never can tell, and this only helps to enhance your viewing experience. Aside from that, HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER is actually a little short on action. But it saves it for some brief but brutal moments throughout the film (especially the climax, which I felt to be a litle anitclimatic.) The acting ranges from first-rate to mediocre, but most of the cast is fairly decent. Billy Barty is the most memorable as the pushed-around dwarf who, via the Stanger's unique form of persuasion, becomes both mayor and sheriff. The soundtrack is really weird; while the main theme during the opening and closing credits is very eerie, the rest of it kinds [stinks]. The landscape, however, makes up for it, as it is some of the best I've ever seen. I mean this in the sense that in a Western, the landscape is usually meant to enhance the movie's atmosphere and story; and Eastwood obviously possesses an incredible eye for this. I was hoping for some improvements on the old disc (transfer, extras, etc.) with this new "Universal Western Collection" edition. But alas, I'm afraid all they changed is the disc and cover art. Oh well . . . . it looks great on my shelf next to my other Eastwood DVDs in this series (TWO MULES FOR SISTER SARA and JOE KIDD).
Rating:
Summary: Vengence rides into town
Review: In "High Plains Drifter", Clint Eastwood stars and directs this really dark western. He plays an amoral drifter known only as 'The Stranger". He rolls into Logo and quickly kills three losers and seemingly rapes a local lady. He is then asked to be sheriff to protect the town cowards (the whole population) from three killers the town wronged years ago. Who the Stranger is is a major part of the mystery of the movie. Eastwood is pretty good as 'the man with no name' taken the millionth degree. He is cold and eccentric as he's givin free reign, then leaves at the moment they need him mst. The town's people are horrible people, who's corruption reaches into the collective conscience; not only is it rotting them to death, they have gladly sold their souls for gold. The vengence at the end is grim, but then so is the whole movie. It is not your John Wayne western; in fact Wayne himself walked out of the movie saying Eastwood owed his fans an apology. But that is not so, it wasn't that bad. But they still don't make movies this grim ofter. Not for everyone, but OK.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling, Powerful Western
Review: Just who is this "stranger", portrayed by Clint Eastwood, who has entered Lago, and what is his purpose? From the time he arrives, until he leaves, we are left wondering about this shadowy individual. Lago is a small Texas town where not to long ago a brutal murder of a sheriff occurred, while the whole town watched, too cowardly to come to his aid. "Help me," he utters again and again, while his attackers whip him to death. Now enter the man with no name. Is he the spirit of the dead sheriff, his brother perhaps, or maybe some kind of ghoulish devil? Who ever he is, he quickly takes over the town, then takes charge of it, preparing for the return of the three men who killed the sheriff. It seems his real attempt, other than to avenge the death of the sheriff, is to run the town into the ground; retribution for their earlier cowardice. The most fitting reprisal being, perhaps, having the townspeople paint the town red, and then rename it "Hell". Eastwood's character has no compassion for the people, and as much as he abuses them, we cannot somehow feel sorry the way in which they are being treated. And even after trying to build up their defense, and train them to shoot at their targets properly and effectively, he still comes to their aid at the end - the bad man shouting out "Who are you", and never given a reply. Most westerns are the shoot 'em up kind, which we enjoy. The difference between them and "High Plains Drifter" is that this movie hangs on our moral conscience; and we don't soon forget it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: I remember seeing this for the first time back in the day. It was probably the fascination with the "man with no name trilogy" but this film is just as classic as those. The story is your typical "revenge" tail but this adds a bit more to it. First of all the character is dark and aloof which really helps set the mood for this film. Its dark its fun its ultra cool! If you liked the man with no name trilogy, hang em high or pale rider see this!
Rating:
Summary: Eastwood turns in his typical performance
Review:
This gives the old saying, "painting the town red," a whole new meaning. Eastwood is portraying a gunman wreaking vengeance on an entire Western town for standing by while a gang of nasties brutally kills the sheriff. One gets the impression, at the end, that he is the reincarnation of the murdered sheriff, himself. This is, in no way, intended as a criticism: Eastwood, like John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable and a host of other fine actors, always plays himself. His stock in trade is his "tough guy" impression, and he does it flawlessly. His films are always well-done, and he always plays the same basic part, which his audience obviously loves. Joseph (Joe) Pierre
author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books
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