High Plains Drifter

High Plains Drifter
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Clint Eastwood
Produced by	Robert Daley
Written by	Ernest Tidyman Dean Riesner
Starring	Clint Eastwood Verna Bloom Marianna Hill Billy Curtis
Music by	Dee Barton
Cinematography	Bruce Surtees
Editing by	Ferris Webster
Studio	The Malpaso Company
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	August 22, 1973
Running time	105 min.
Country	United States
Language	English

High Plains Drifter is a 1973 Western film, with a hint of the supernatural, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Eastwood as a mysterious gunfighter who wreaks havoc in a frontier mining town. The film was influenced by the work of Eastwood's two major collaborators Sergio Leone and Don Siegel.^[1]

High Plains Drifter was filmed on location on the shores of Mono Lake, California. The screenplay was written by Ernest Tidyman and an uncredited Dean Riesner, with Tidyman authoring the novelization. Dee Barton provided the film's eerie musical score.

Plot

The story depicts the efforts of a small mining town to defend itself against a group of rogue gunfighters with the help of a mysterious outsider (Eastwood), referred to as the Stranger. Having betrayed both their marshal and the gunfighters, the town reveals its timidity and corruption when they hire the Stranger to protect them.

As the film begins, the Stranger rides into the fictional mining town of Lago, in a setting similar to the Arizona territory. When he enters the saloon, he is followed by three gun-toting men who taunt him. He then goes to the barbershop, but the men continue to follow and ridicule him. When one man swivels him around in the barber's chair, he shoots them dead.

Panorama of Lago as the stranger approaches the town at the beginning of the film.

Impressed with this performance, a dwarf named Mordecai (Curtis) befriends the Stranger. Then an attractive townswoman named Callie Travers (Hill) bumps into him in the street and insults and badgers him. When she slaps him, he drags her into the livery stable and rapes her. Next, he goes to the hotel and rents a room. When he lies down to sleep, he remembers a scene in which a man is brutally whipped. It is revealed later in the film that Marshal Jim Duncan was whipped to death by gunfighters Stacey Bridges (Lewis), Dan Carlin (Vadis), and Cole Carlin (James) while the people of Lago looked on. Only Sarah Belding (Bloom), wife of hotelier Lewis Belding (Hartley), made any attempt to rescue Marshal Duncan. Various indications throughout the film suggest that the Stranger is some sort of reincarnation or embodiment of Duncan's spirit.

The next day, Sheriff Shaw (Barnes) tells the stranger he will not be charged for killing the three men. Meanwhile, the townsmen discuss Bridges and the Carlin brothers, who are due to be released from prison that day. The town double-crossed the three gunfighters after they killed Duncan, who had discovered that the Lago Mining Company was operating on government land, and the men are expected to seek vengeance against the town. Since the men slain by the Stranger were the mining company's new protectors, the townsmen decide to hire the Stranger as their replacement.

The Stranger riding into town.

Presenting the job offer to the Stranger, Shaw explains that the three gunfighters were caught stealing gold from the mining company, although he admits the gold was poorly protected, suggesting that the company's managers may have framed the men. The Stranger declines the job until Shaw tells him he can have anything he wants. Accepting these terms, the Stranger indulges in the town's products and services, makes Mordecai both sheriff and mayor, has the entire town painted red, and paints the word "HELL" on the "LAGO" sign just outside of town.

While the Stranger trains the townspeople to defend themselves, Bridges and the Carlin brothers are released from prison and make their way to Lago. They begin on foot but kill three other men on the way and take their horses.

At this point, the townsmen begin quarreling about the Stranger. A group of men try to kill him, but he escapes and kills most of them. After Belding inadvertently divulges his complicity in the attack, the Stranger drags Belding's wife Sarah into the Beldings's room and she sleeps with him willingly.

Lago is painted red and the name changed to Hell before the gunfighters return.

In the morning, the Stranger rides out to meet the gunfighters, has a brief shootout with them, and returns to Lago. With the town painted red, townsmen with rifles stationed on rooftops, and a picnic and welcoming banner set up for the gunfighters, the Stranger mounts his horse and rides out the back end of town. When the gunfighters arrive, they encounter almost no resistance at all, and by nightfall they have the townspeople collected in the saloon with the rest of the town in flames. However, the Stranger kills the gunfighters one by one, whipping and strangling Cole Carlin, hanging Dan Carlin, and gunning down Bridges. In the only act of courage taken by any of the townspeople, Mordecai shoots Belding after Belding points his rifle at the Stranger's back. The next day, the Stranger rides out of the ruined town as Mordecai carves a headstone for Duncan's grave.

Cast

Production notes

Lago (Mono Lake).

• Eastwood had an entire town built on the shores of Mono Lake for the project.
• Filming was completed in only six weeks.
• Eastwood has noted that the graveyard set featured in the film's finale had tombstones reading "Sergio Leone" and "Don Siegel," intended as a comical tribute to the two directors.^[1]
• The character of Marshal Duncan was played by stuntman Buddy Van Horn, a long-time stunt coordinator for Clint Eastwood, in order to create some ambiguity as to whether he and the Stranger are one and the same.
• During an interview on Inside the Actors Studio, Eastwood commented that earlier versions of the script made the Stranger the dead marshal's brother. He favored a less explicit and more supernatural interpretation, however, and excised the reference^{[citation needed]}, although the Italian, Spanish, French and German dubbings retain it.

See also

• List of American films of 1973

References

Other source

• Guérif, François (1986). Clint Eastwood, p. 94. St Martins Pr. ISB

External links

• High Plains Drifter at the Internet Movie Database
• High Plains Drifter at Rotten Tomatoes
• Movie Location Found on the Shores of Mono Lake - September 2007
• Cast of High Plains Drifter