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High Plains Drifter

3 Ratings: 4.7

A movie

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Tags: Movies, Drama Movies

Cast: Billy Curtis, Geoffrey Lewis, Richard Bull, Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom, Paul Brinegar, see all

Director: Clint Eastwood

Genre: Western, Drama

Release Date: August 22, 1973

MPAA Rating: R

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The best film that Eastwood made

Mar 17, 2011

by IsraelDrazin
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More

Rating:

This is the most superb of all Clint Eastwood westerns; he is the star and he directs. A mysterious stranger (Eastwood) rides his horse down a mountain toward the town Largo, out of a mist, as splendid music plays in the background. He passes a graveyard, which is significant, and rides into town, as the inhabitants gather at windows to watch him arrive. They sense something amiss, but do not know what. He is startled as he rides through town when he hears a stage coach driver snap his whip. He walks into a saloon, orders a beer, and is taunted by three thugs. He ignores them, strides across the muddy street to a barber shop for a shave and bath for ninety cents. The thugs follow him and try to shoot him, but he kills all three. The town people are amazed at his skill.

As he falls asleep that night in a hotel, he sees/remembers a man being beaten to death with whips by three men, as he calls out to the town folks for help. They watch, but give no aid. The town leaders arrest the three while they are sleeping drunk, but not for the murder. Why, we wonder, did everyone do what they did? What prompted the beating? Were the citizens cowards or were they complicit in the murder? Who was killed?

The three murderers are released from prison after serving their six month sentence and are returning to Largo for money and revenge. The town people are afraid of these gunfighters. They beg Eastwood to help them. They offer him anything he wants. He looks at the people with contempt. He agrees and takes whatever he wants. Among many other things, he seizes the hotel for himself, clutches expensive cloths,grabs many items and gives them as gifts, enters the saloon and orders free drinks for everybody, removes the mayor and sheriff from their offices and gives their jobs to a man the town despises. He helps the town prepare for the arrival of the three thugs by taking material from its citizens. He has the town painted red and changes its name on the sign that reads Largo to Hell. It is clear that he wants to destroy the town and hurt and perhaps kill its people. We wonder why, and like the town people and the three thugs, we ask: who is this man.