High Plains Drifter Review

The stroy goes that Clint Eastwood approached John Wayne about working together, not long after the 1973 release of High Plains Drifter, and was rebuffed. Apparently, the Duke took offense at Clint's ultra-violent vision of the Old West. 

While I hold John Wayne in the highest regard for his contribution to Western Movies, I've always loved this picture, Eastwood's second directorial effort. Contemporary critics branded him a fascist, but the years have been kind to this film, politics aside.

Clint plays as a nastier variation on The Man With No Name character, who rapes, pillages, and paints the town red exacting his merciless revenge upon cowardly citizens and bad hombres alike. The scene where he blows away several bad guys while getting a shave and a haircut is a brilliantly executed homage to the master, Sergio Leone, who directed Clint in the "Man With No Name" Spaghetti Westerns that made his name in the mid-'60s.

In fact, Clint's character is just a slightly meaner variation on The Man With No Name, or as he's billed here, the Stranger. The solid supporting cast is led by Billy Curtis, Verna Bloom, and John Hillerman. Geoffrey Lewis, veteran of many a Clint pic, bellows the immortal line, "Who are you?!?" shortly before getting blown away by the Stranger.

Number seven in my Top Ten Clint Eastwood Westerns, High Plains Drifter can be seen as pure nihilism, or as a purty durn good Western with lots of killings. Either way, it's a classic in my book.

Available on DVD separately, or as part of the Clint Eastwood: Western Icon collection from Universal Home Entertainment.