"High Plains Drifter" was the second film directed by Clint Eastwood (after "Play Misty for Me"), and the first Western. The theme- the efforts of a small mining town to defend itself against a gang of criminals with the help of a mysterious outsider- is very similar to that of a later Eastwood Western, "Pale Rider". The character played here by Eastwood, referred to only as The Stranger, is also reminiscent of an earlier Eastwood hero, the Man with No Name in the "Dollars" trilogy of spaghetti Westerns he made with Sergio Leone. Not only is he nameless, he is also laconic, soft-spoken, cigar-chewing and capable of ruthlessness when it suits his interests.
The differences between "High Plains Drifter" and "Pale Rider" perhaps reflect the differences between the periods in which they were made. In the sixties and early seventies there was a trend towards "revisionist" Westerns such as Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch" or Altman's "McCabe and Mrs Miller", films which called into question the moral certainties on which many earlier Westerns had been based. The causes of this tendency have been debated, but one influence seems to have been a decline in American patriotism and self-confidence deriving from factors such as the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal.
"High Plains Drifter", dating from 1973, falls (in some respects at least) within the revisionist tradition. The inhabitants of the mining town of Lago are not innocent victims of a criminal gang but are themselves guilty of corruption and physical cowardice and are, in part, themselves to blame for the predicament in which they find themselves. The Stranger is no clean-cut, all-American hero; within a short while of his arrival in Lago he has shot dead three men in circumstances which only doubtfully amount to self-defence and has raped a woman. (Like a number of Eastwood's other films- "The Beguiled", "Play Misty for Me" and "The Gauntlet" come to mind- this one has a misogynistic streak running through it).
By the time "Pale Rider" was made in the Reagan era of the mid-eighties, America's self-confidence was reviving, and although very few Westerns were being made during that period the old moral certainties were being revived in other genres, with movies like the "Star Wars", "Superman" and "Indiana Jones" franchises. It is therefore perhaps not surprising that "Pale Rider", like Lawrence Kasdan's "Silverado" made around the same time, is much less revisionist than "High Plains Drifter". There is a much sharper moral distinction between the miners and their villainous adversaries and the mysterious gunfighter who comes to their aid is much more unambiguously heroic.
Both films have supernatural overtones, with a suggestion that the characters played by Eastwood are ghosts returned from the dead to seek revenge on those who wronged them in their lifetimes. In "Pale Rider" those overtones are not only supernatural but also religious; Eastwood's character is referred to as The Preacher and he is explicitly linked with one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. ("Behold a pale horse, and his name that sat upon him was Death"). No direct suggestion is made in "Pale Rider" as to who The Preacher might have been in his lifetime, but in "High Plains Drifter" The Stranger is identified with Jim Duncan, the former Marshal of Lago who was whipped to death to prevent him from revealing that the mine upon which the town's prosperity depends had been illegally sunk on Government land. Eastwood, in fact, has said that the Stranger was originally to have been the dead man's brother, but he preferred a more mystical interpretation.
The film is attractively photographed and competently directed; Eastwood's directorial style was clearly influenced by the directors he had previously worked with such as Leone and Don Siegel. The film-makers clearly went to some expense, building a complete Western town on the shores of Mono Lake, California; hence the name Lago. (The actors do not seem to have been in agreement as to how this name should be pronounced- most use the correct Spanish pronunciation, but some anglicise it to Lay-go).
The film has been critically acclaimed, but it has never really been my favourite among Eastwood's movies. The makers of "revisionist" Westerns often claimed that, in the name of a greater realism, they were abandoning the sharp black/white moral distinctions which had once characterised the genre in favour of shades of grey. The trouble with "High Plains Drifter" is that there are really no shades of grey; Eastwood has simply abandoned white in favour of various shades of black. Lago may have no clean-cut heroes, but it has plenty of villains. The Stranger and his accomplices are little, if any, better than the outlaws. This may, or may not, be a more "realistic" portrayal of life in the Old West than the one given in films like "High Noon", but the implied supernatural elements in "High Plains Drifter" suggest that realism was not Eastwood's main concern. The film has its virtues, but for me the moral squalor of virtually all its characters means that it does not work as a traditional Western, and its mystical tendencies mean that it does not work as a revisionist one either. 6/10
The differences between "High Plains Drifter" and "Pale Rider" perhaps reflect the differences between the periods in which they were made. In the sixties and early seventies there was a trend towards "revisionist" Westerns such as Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch" or Altman's "McCabe and Mrs Miller", films which called into question the moral certainties on which many earlier Westerns had been based. The causes of this tendency have been debated, but one influence seems to have been a decline in American patriotism and self-confidence deriving from factors such as the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal.
"High Plains Drifter", dating from 1973, falls (in some respects at least) within the revisionist tradition. The inhabitants of the mining town of Lago are not innocent victims of a criminal gang but are themselves guilty of corruption and physical cowardice and are, in part, themselves to blame for the predicament in which they find themselves. The Stranger is no clean-cut, all-American hero; within a short while of his arrival in Lago he has shot dead three men in circumstances which only doubtfully amount to self-defence and has raped a woman. (Like a number of Eastwood's other films- "The Beguiled", "Play Misty for Me" and "The Gauntlet" come to mind- this one has a misogynistic streak running through it).
By the time "Pale Rider" was made in the Reagan era of the mid-eighties, America's self-confidence was reviving, and although very few Westerns were being made during that period the old moral certainties were being revived in other genres, with movies like the "Star Wars", "Superman" and "Indiana Jones" franchises. It is therefore perhaps not surprising that "Pale Rider", like Lawrence Kasdan's "Silverado" made around the same time, is much less revisionist than "High Plains Drifter". There is a much sharper moral distinction between the miners and their villainous adversaries and the mysterious gunfighter who comes to their aid is much more unambiguously heroic.
Both films have supernatural overtones, with a suggestion that the characters played by Eastwood are ghosts returned from the dead to seek revenge on those who wronged them in their lifetimes. In "Pale Rider" those overtones are not only supernatural but also religious; Eastwood's character is referred to as The Preacher and he is explicitly linked with one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. ("Behold a pale horse, and his name that sat upon him was Death"). No direct suggestion is made in "Pale Rider" as to who The Preacher might have been in his lifetime, but in "High Plains Drifter" The Stranger is identified with Jim Duncan, the former Marshal of Lago who was whipped to death to prevent him from revealing that the mine upon which the town's prosperity depends had been illegally sunk on Government land. Eastwood, in fact, has said that the Stranger was originally to have been the dead man's brother, but he preferred a more mystical interpretation.
The film is attractively photographed and competently directed; Eastwood's directorial style was clearly influenced by the directors he had previously worked with such as Leone and Don Siegel. The film-makers clearly went to some expense, building a complete Western town on the shores of Mono Lake, California; hence the name Lago. (The actors do not seem to have been in agreement as to how this name should be pronounced- most use the correct Spanish pronunciation, but some anglicise it to Lay-go).
The film has been critically acclaimed, but it has never really been my favourite among Eastwood's movies. The makers of "revisionist" Westerns often claimed that, in the name of a greater realism, they were abandoning the sharp black/white moral distinctions which had once characterised the genre in favour of shades of grey. The trouble with "High Plains Drifter" is that there are really no shades of grey; Eastwood has simply abandoned white in favour of various shades of black. Lago may have no clean-cut heroes, but it has plenty of villains. The Stranger and his accomplices are little, if any, better than the outlaws. This may, or may not, be a more "realistic" portrayal of life in the Old West than the one given in films like "High Noon", but the implied supernatural elements in "High Plains Drifter" suggest that realism was not Eastwood's main concern. The film has its virtues, but for me the moral squalor of virtually all its characters means that it does not work as a traditional Western, and its mystical tendencies mean that it does not work as a revisionist one either. 6/10