The small mining town of Lago is under threat from three outlaws and is looking for help. Then a nameless stranger (Clint Eastwood) rides down the high street and doesn't waste much time in shooting down three local bullies who try to pick a fight with him - could the town have found their saviour? Or their Nemesis?
Eastwood had made his directorial debut with the thriller Play Misty for Me, but for his second film in the driving seat he returned to the Western genre that had made him famous. Ernest Tidyman's screenplay was inspired by the real-life Kitty Genovese murder, where people ignored the killing of a young woman one night (even turning up the volume on their televisions to drown out her screams), but with uncredited script additions by Dean Reisner, High Plains Drifter became a more mythic tale.
By taking the traditional "town with a guilty secret" cliché, Eastwood and company create a cynical story where, not only did the townsfolk stand by and allow their sheriff to die at the hands of the outlaws, but they are also directly responsible for his demise. And that's not all that brings down vengeance upon them: their willingness to let others do their dirty work without taking responsibility for their own wrongs also implicates them.
Eastwood plays one of his nastiest characters: a twist on The Man With No Name, he calmly and contemptuously sets himself up as head of the town while making its lowliest citizen, Mordecai the dwarf (Billy Curtis), sheriff and mayor, renaming it Hell, painting it red (literally) and effortlessly destroying all who oppose him as he turns Lago's self-inflicted need for a saviour against them. Is he an avenging angel or the ghost of the dead sheriff? Or both?
The Stranger's treatment of women is problematic. When he rapes a woman (Mariana Hill) who deliberately crosses him, are we supposed to think she deserved it (she's in cahoots with the villains) or is it to show the lack of guts the town leaders have in not standing up to the Stranger's misdemeanours? Will they allow any moral outrage as long as things go their way? The other female character, Sarah (Verna Bloom) is one of the few decent people in the film, but even she reluctantly relents to the Stranger's dubious charms.
High Plains Drifter is a peculiar Western which almost sends up the genre with its sardonic humour, but has a slow, dreamlike approach. Add the plentiful violence and bizarre details and you have one of the strangest hits of the seventies, and one that would be another addtion to Eastwood's interesting takes in his iconic screen roles. Music by Dee Barton.
Becoming a superstar in the late 1960s gave Clint Eastwood the freedom to direct in the seventies. Thriller Play Misty for Me was a success, and following films such as High Plains Drifter and The Outlaw Josey Wales showed a real talent behind the camera as well as in front of it. He won an Oscar for his downbeat Western Unforgiven, which showed his tendency to subvert his tough guy status in intriguing ways. Another Oscar was awarded for boxing drama Million Dollar Baby, which he also starred in.
Also a big jazz fan, as is reflected in his choice of directing the Charlie Parker biopic Bird. Other films as director include the romantic Breezy, The Gauntlet, good natured comedy Bronco Billy, Honkytonk Man, White Hunter Black Heart, The Bridges of Madison County, OAPs-in-space adventure Space Cowboys, acclaimed murder drama Mystic River, complementary war dramas Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima and harrowing true life drama Changeling. Many considered his Gran Torino, which he promised would be his last starring role, one of the finest of his career.
