HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER

He's as good a director as he is an actor

Received the item before the dates given which was very good. Brand new in cellophane wrapping. Excellent film, always been on my Top 10 list of favourites.

Clint Eastwood is probably the most important person in the development of the Western after John Ford and John Wayne. Not only did he star in Sergio Leone's three brilliant 'Dollars' films that re-energised the genre in the sixties, he went on to star and direct in four American westerns. Three of those - Unforgiven, The Outlaw Josey Wales and this one - are classics, while the fourth, Pale Rider, isn't half bad. In High Plains Drifter, Eastwood imagines what might have happened in High Noon if the marshall had not been triumphant. A rider drifts into the terrified town of Lago and kills the three hired guns the town's folk have engaged to defend them from the villains they previously paid to whip the previous marshall to death. Eastwood's un-named character is told he can do anything - anything - as long as he fights the soon-to-be-returning killers. He takes this very literally, wandering through the brilliantly-realised lake side town causing chaos and helping himself to boots, whiskey and women. That the mysterious stranger is a supernatural presence is hinted at through the discordant, disconcerting score as well as flashbacks to the death of the marshall who discovered the town's mine was on government land. This is a nightmare. When the stranger decides the town should be painted red - literally - and it's name changed to Hell, you don't actually need a background in semiotics to work out the symbolism. Vengeance is coming to the people of Lago. The climactic scenes, particularly when the stranger whips a man to death as the towns folk remain - transfixed - in the saloon are terrifying. After the chaos and death, of course, like any archtypal western hero, the Stranger rides off, saying, 'you know my name' to the midget he has installed as sheriff and mayor. His name is Death. In short, a classic film, dripping with quality. The design, the score, the minimalist script and the impressive artistic control for a second-time director combine to make a compelling statement on the nature of personal responsibility and vengeance. Wonderful.

Sara - "I knew you were cruel but I didn't know how far you could go." The Stranger - "You still don't." ------------------------------------------------------------- Sara - "You are the kind of man that makes people afraid, and that's dangerous." The Stranger - "It's what people know about themselves inside that makes them afraid" I only have limited space in which to store DVD's, so I choose the ones I do purchase carefully. Choosing High Plains Drifter was an easy decision, as it has all the attributes of a great western and a good flick. The barren landscape is as haunting as the opening music. A tale is told, a situation resolved, and yet a bit of mystery remains, causing you to question what you have just seen. Classic Clint... The cast does a very fine job in creating characters that fully support the premise of the movie and portray the towns dynamic. From beginning to end, however, it is Clint Eastwood as "The Stranger" who is the star and makes the movie memorable. Eastwood is the quintessential strong/silent type, a soft-spoken man of few words who explodes into action to deliver justice, whether to a gunslinger or an insolent woman. The character, however, is more than squinting, delivering one-liners, and pulling the trigger. He's a thinker, a planner, he creates a psychological advantage against the bad guys... whether it be using dynamite or red paint. He can also turn on the charm, using those famous blue eyes to twinkle and speak without dialogue, as Vera Bloom (Sara Belding) discovers first hand. The DVD... The DVD comes with subtitles in 14 languages (Including English) and spoken languages in English, Deutsch, Italiano, French, and Castellano. The menu allows you to search by scene, and includes production notes as well as a theatrical trailer and information about the cast. I knew I wanted to own a copy of High Plains Drifter, but it was not until I saw it again that I realized that I had forgotten how good it really is. I wish that I could give it 4 1/2 stars, Enjoy!

Awesome Film

Clint at it agsin

Classic western by Clint Eastwood.

I have lost count how many times I have see this movie! I will rank this in top ten films directed by Eastwood. Everything about it is remarkable - the story, screenplay, direction, acting and the atmosphere in which this strange revenge drama unfolds. Clint Eastwood as director makes as great a job as the hero of the movie. Imagine, just the second directorial venture of his long and successful career! The location - a desolate tract of land near a lake adds to the eeriness of the atmosphere. Clint with his intensity and the ensemble of actors around him seem just appropriate for the story and the final climax. Geoffrey Lewis, as Stacey, - one of the regulars with Eastwood - looks and sounds menacing. Never to be missed motion picture for all those who love Eastwood and great Westerns!

By the late 1960s Academy Award winner Clint Eastwood (Pale Rider, Unforgiven) had certainly established himself as an actor with such features as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), Hang 'Em High (1968), Where Eagles Dare (1968) before also taking on the role as director in his film Play Misty for Me (1971). High Plains Drifter (1973) was Eastwood's 2nd directing gig, written by Ernest Tidyman (Shaft, The French Connection) and featuring Eastwood himself. Also appearing is Verna Bloom (Animal House), Geoffrey Lewis (Every Which Way But Loose), Marianna Hill (Schizoid), Mitch Ryan (Lethal Weapon), Jack Ging (SSSSSSS), Stefan Gierasch (Silver Streak), Ted Hartley (Ice Station Zebra), Walter Barnes (Every Which Way But Loose), Anthony James (Unforgiven), Dan Vadis (Bronco Billy), and Billy Curtis, one of many little people featured in the film The Wizard of Oz (1939). The film, which takes place in a seaside mining town known as Lago, begins as we see a lone horseback rider (Eastwood) traveling across a shimmering desert landscape, making his way towards town. His arrival draws much attention, particularly in three gun-toting yahoos who, after getting uppity with the stranger, soon find themselves dead. Turns out the trio weren't just you run of the mill riff raff, but gunmen hired by the town for protection, specifically against three other men, soon to be released from prison, who the townsfolk believe will return for revenge (seems the three men currently in prison once held the position the three now deceased men held, that is before a particular incident occurred and they were railroaded into jail). Anyway, the town leaders, now without their hired guns, decide to offer the stranger the position of protectorate, given the ease in which he dispatched their previous choices, and the stranger accepts only after being promised complete run of the town. The deal seems like a good one, that is until the stranger starts taking liberties above and beyond what they believe to be fair and equitable, causing consternation among more than a few residents (as a result the townspeople start turning on each other). As the stranger begins making good on his end of the bargain (setting up drills and such with the men in the town), the three men, including Stacey Bridges (Lewis) and his cousins Cole and Dan Carlin (James and Vadis, respectively) are released from prison and proceed to make their way towards Lago, their intent being to seek reparations against the town that had done them wrong. As the town prepares for their arrival (including a spiffy, new paint job, at the stranger's behest), we continue to learn more and more of a past incident within the town, one that gruesome secret shared by all, rationalized away by most. For me this was a very straightforward tale of what goes around, comes around, especially in terms of everyone in Lago getting exactly what they deserved based on their level of involvement in past, unspeakable events. I've had stuff in my life come back to bite me in the ash, but never to the extent depicted here...then again I never found myself in the position of either participating or witnessing a brutal crime (and doing nothing to help). At various points in the film Eastwood's character's identity is questioned, to which it's never flat out specified but given key aspects of the film it seemed pretty obvious to me. The short dream sequence early one should provide a good idea of where his character is coming from and if not, then the final sequence should (hint, there's a metaphysical element involved). While Eastwood's character here does not have a name, that aspect is not meant to reflect on some of his earlier Italian made westerns where his character was generally not identified as the characters there and here are not the same. There's plenty of nastiness in the film including some whippings, cold-blooded murders, acts of misogyny, and so on, but interestingly enough, they all seem to have their place within the story, especially given what we learn in terms of despicable secret most all in the town share. That's not to say all the actions by the stranger were justified but given the underlying circumstances they weren't entirely unexpected. Overall I think I had a pretty good handle on the characters (their motivations, where they were coming from, etc.), except for the one female character played by Marianna Hill, who seemed a real weirdo. Her character would glom onto the most dominant male figure present to which she would then seem to resent them, particularly so with the stranger, but perhaps this was a result that Eastwood's character's interest in her was superficial at best, something which she felt and wasn't accustomed. Regardless, she was one of those women who should wear a sign around her neck stating `Look, but don't touch'. As far as Eastwood, well, he's Eastwood, and presents himself a much as one would expect in a role like this (cool, distant, and enigmatic). I thought his direction wonderful along with his performance. As far as the rest of the cast, primarily made up of character actors, I thought they all did very well, and the story provided just enough material and attention on each given their respective roles within the film. My favorite part of the film, besides the confrontation sequence at the end, comes near the beginning as Eastwood's character arrives into town, enters the saloon, and begins getting verbally hassled by the three roughnecks to which he brushes them off and heads off for a shave and a bath, the three troublemakers not far behind. They continue with the verbal jabs, and when they fail to get a rise out of him, they turn violent, forcing the stranger to react, resulting in a lesson learned by all not to mess with the bull lest you get the horns. All in all I thought this a great film, and one of the better westerns to come out of the 1970s. The picture, presented in widescreen (2.35:1), looks pretty decent, but could have used a little cleaning up, in my opinion, as there's slight flaws present throughout (when I say `slight flaws', I mean minor dust flecks and such, but nothing overly obvious). The audio, presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, in both English and French, comes through very well. As far as extras there's production notes, cast and crew biographies, a theatrical trailer, and subtitles in English and Spanish. Cookieman108

Love Clint Eastwood. He made the best movies.

Clint fra Sergio Leone e il futuro, film spartiacque del Nostro, cavaliere solitario che proviene e torna al mistero lasciando questo splendido film nell interspazio.

Superbe film et surtout cette superbe vengeance extrême j'adore 🙂

Clint Eastwood machte nie einen Hehl daraus das einer seiner Lieblingsfilme "Shane - Mein großer Freund Shane" ist! Shane erscheint als mythische, märchenhafte Figur. Die Farmer benötigen Hilfe gegen den Großgrundbesitzer Rufus Ryker und da taucht ein Fremder mit den Namen "Shane" auf. "Shane" ist die englische Form von Johannes und bedeutet soviel wie "Gott hat Gnade erwiesen". Das zeigt das Shane genauso wie der Fremde in "Ein Fremder ohne Namen" eine mythische Gestalt, aus der christlichen Sicht der Auferstehung sein könnte. In "Ein Fremder ohne Namen" erfahren wir nur im Original, dass der Fremde nicht der Bruder von dem getöteten Marshal ist, sondern er selbst, denn am Ende sagt er zu den "Neuen" Sheriff (Mordecai) "Du kennst meinen Namen"! Der Fremde ist also, quasi, in einer neuen Gestalt wieder Auferstanden. Er nimmt sich alles und tötet alles was sich in den Weg stellt und nimmt Rache an seinen Peinigern...Er ist der Racheengel aus dem Totenreich! Am Anfang sehen wir wie der Fremde eine Frau vergewaltigt. Wenig später sehen wir die Frau in den Erinnerungsszenen des Fremden (Flashback), wie sie ebenfalls tatenlos zusieht wie der Marshal getötete wird. Folglich könnte die Vergewaltigung auch als Racheakt gesehen werden. Die Art der mythischen und märchenhaften Figur erweiterte Clint Eastwood in dem Film "Pale Rider – Der namenlose Reiter", der mehr ein Remake von "Shane - Mein Großer Freund Shane" ist! Die englische DVD ist mit deutschen Untertiteln die sich an das Original halten und mit der sinnentstellten, deutschen Sprachfassung ausgestattet, sowie der englischen Sprachfassung dem Originaltrailer und als Texttafeln gibt es Hintergründe über die Stars und die Macher, des Filmes, zu erfahen. Fazit: Gelungene DVD, mit der ungekürzten Originalfassung (bisher geschnittene Szenen der deutschen Fassung wurden deutsch untertitelt) in sehr guter Bildqualität!