From The Good, The Bad & The Ugly (1966)
to Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970)
to Unforgiven (1992), Clint Eastwood
has made all kinds of westerns. High
Plains Drifter (1973) is one of his more intriguing efforts in the genre –
it takes the enigmatic Man with No Name gunslinger from Sergio Leone films such
as A Fistful of Dollars (1964),
fusing it with the gothic sensibilities of the Don Siegel film, The Beguiled (1971). It starts off as a
typical lone gunfighter-for-hire story. In this film, Eastwood’s mysterious
character is part avenging angel and part vengeance demon, determined to punish
the people of a town for a crime that is gradually revealed.
The Stranger
(as he is referred to in the credits) literally materializes out of the hazy,
shimmering horizon like an apparition while Dee Barton’s eerie music plays on the
soundtrack. After Eastwood’s credit and the film’s title appears, the score
transitions into a more traditional western motif, reminiscent of Ennio
Morricone’s Spaghetti Western soundtracks.
High Plains Drifter starts in typical
western fashion with a hired gun wandering into the town of Lago looking for
work. After quickly and efficiently dispatching three mercenaries who challenge
him, he’s offered a job by the town elders. Stacey Bridges (Geoffrey Lewis) and
the Carlin brothers, Dan (Dan Vadis) and Cole (Anthony James), have just been
released from prison. They tried to steal gold from the town and whipped
Marshal Jim Duncan (Buddy Van Horn) to death. Now, they aim to return, take the
gold, and exact revenge on the townsfolk.
The
Stranger agrees and is given unlimited credit at all of the town’s stores and
proceeds to exploit their goodwill, starting off by giving two American Indian
children candy they were eyeing and a pile of blankets to their grandfather,
right after the store owner berated them with racial slurs. He goes on to
accumulate material items for free – new boots, a saddle, and cigars. He then
uses his leverage to humiliate the town elders by making Mordecai (Billy
Curtis), the town dwarf, the new sheriff and mayor, and has the hotel owner’s
barn stripped of its wood to build picnic tables, much to their chagrin. They
have to go along with it, lest they lose the only person standing between them
and the vengeful outlaws headed their way.
The
film’s big question: who is The Stranger and what is his motivation? Within
minutes of being in Lago he has killed three men and raped a woman (Marianna
Hill). Initially, it appears to be a nasty, misogynistic streak in the
character but, as we learn more about the town and in its denizens, the more we
understand what this mysterious gunslinger is doing. His motivation begins to
shift into focus early on when he dreams of the Marshal being whipped to death
while the whole town watched and did nothing. The haunting music from the start
of the film comes on as we see Bridges and the Carlin brothers whip Duncan at
night. He pleads for help while all the townsfolk stand and stare, the camera
framing them in near-dark shots, some almost in silhouette, which creates an
ominous mood. As the poor man is whipped to death he mutters, “Damn you all to
hell,” which is exactly what The Stranger plans to do to the complicit
townsfolk.
Interestingly,
the second flashback to what happened to the Marshal that fateful night is
predominantly from Mordecai’s perspective. He takes us back and this time, we
see the townsfolk’s faces more clearly. Unlike The Stranger, he was there and
saw what happened. Eastwood also cuts back and forth from shots of the outlaws’
evil faces, the residents, and the Marshal’s point-of-view. In doing so, he makes
the man’s pain and suffering more personal and we see the townsfolk’s reaction
to what is happening more clearly – some are indifferent, some afraid, and some
malevolently approving. It is Mordecai, however, who seems the most upset and
remorseful.
Who is
the Marshal to The Stranger? It is never clear. The hotel owner’s wife, Sarah
(Verna Bloom) even asks him: he is coy with the answer, refusing to confirm or
deny his relationship with the dead man. Everything he does in the town, from
making a mockery of its elders to getting carte blanche with all of their
resources, is to punish the townsfolk, not just for their complacency but for
their sins. As the film progresses, we also learn more about what motivates the
town elders – why they are so distrustful of outsiders, why they are so eager
to cover things up, and why they hired The Stranger to protect them from
Bridges and the Carlin brothers. The scenes with them illustrate the corruption
inherent in the authoritarian structure – something Eastwood has been distrustful
of his entire career – as The Stranger’s abuse of power eats away at the
relationship among the town elders until they begin to turn on each other.
Future
members of Eastwood’s informal repertory company of actors, Geoffrey Lewis, Anthony
James, and Dan Vadis are well cast as the grungy, amoral outlaws that kill
three men in cold blood as soon as they are released from prison, stealing
their horses and clothes. These consummate character actors have no problem
playing dirty, unrepentant, evil criminals and, over the course of the film, we
anticipate their inevitable confrontation with Eastwood’s gunfighter. The key
to his films is to have someone who is a formidable threat to his character and
Lewis, with his character’s ruthless drive to exact revenge, is completely
believable in that role.
Clint
Eastwood received a nine-page treatment from Ernest Tidyman, known mostly for
writing the screenplays for urban crime films such as Shaft (1971) and The French
Connection (1971). The primary inspiration for the screenplay was the
real-life murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens, New York in 1964, in which 38
witnesses saw or heard the attack and failed to help her or call the police. The
starting point for Eastwood was, “What would have happened if the sheriff in High Noon had been killed? What would
have happened afterwards?” Once he agreed to do it, Tidyman took these two
ideas and developed the treatment into a script that was subsequently revised
by Eastwood’s go-to script doctor, Dean Riesner, who added, his trademark black
humor: early in the film, one of Lago’s hired guns says to The Stranger, “Maybe
you think you’re fast enough to keep up with us, huh?” to which he replies
curtly, “A lot faster than you’ll ever live to be.” The biggest mystery of the
film is The Stranger’s identity. Eastwood later admitted that the script
identified him as the dead sheriff’s brother and that “I always played it like
he was the brother. I thought about playing it a little bit like he was sort of
an avenging angel, too.”
High Plains Drifter was put into
production in late summer of 1972. The studio wanted Eastwood to shoot the film
on its backlot but Eastwood decided to shoot on location. He originally
considered Pyramid Lake, Nevada but his car ran out of gas before he got there.
The American Indian tribal council were divided about a film crew shooting on
their land. Someone in the production suggested Mono Lake in California, which Eastwood
had visited in the past. Once he arrived, the filmmaker found a point
overlooking the lake and decided that would be the site for the town. He went
on to find all the other locations within a four-minute drive save for the
opening shot, which was done outside of Reno. Production designer Henry
Bumstead and his team built the town of Lago in 28-days. They assembled 14
houses, a church and a two-story hotel. These were complete buildings so that
Eastwood could shoot interior scenes on location.
The
Stranger has the townsfolk literally transform Lago into Hell by painting of
all the buildings red – a striking image to be sure – which not only evokes
hellish imagery but also symbolizes the blood on the hands of the townsfolk who
were all culpable in the Marshal’s death. The climax of High Plains Drifter is where the film goes full-on horror as The
Stranger leaves, letting the ill-prepared townsfolk “handle” Bridges and the
Carlin brothers. Naturally, they put up little to no resistance as they are too
scared to shoot and run away or as in the case of Drake (Mitchell Ryan), the
mining executive, are shot and killed.
Later
that night, Bridges and his crew terrorize the survivors, exposing their hypocrisy.
It is at this point when The Stranger reappears, that, just like the Marshall, as
Cole is mercilessly whipped to death with The Stranger framed with nightmarish
flames of the town burning in the background. The two surviving outlaws walk
through the town on fire – hell on earth indeed – only for Dan to be whipped
around the neck and hung. Bridges still has not seen The Stranger until he
hears the words, “Help me,” (sounding very much like the murdered Marshal) and
turns to see him standing in front of a burning building for the final
showdown. He easily guns down Bridges who asks The Stranger’s identity – and
gets no response.
Late in
the film, the motel keeper’s wife, Sarah (Verna Bloom) says, “They say the dead
don’t rest without a marker of some kind.” High
Plains Drifter ends on an emotional note as The Stranger observes Mordecai
naming the Marshal’s previously unmarked grave before riding out of town,
disappearing into the hazy horizon like a ghost with a reprise of the unnerving
music from the opening credits. The dead Marshal can finally rest: those
responsible for his demise have been punished. The film is a scathing
indictment of how greed can corrupt those in positions of power. It is also a
powerful critique of bystander apathy, as embodied by a town of cowards and
petty, greedy tyrants that let a good man die. The Stranger embodies the dead
man’s spirit and his search for vengeance.
SOURCES
Gentry,
Ric. "Director
Clint Eastwood: Attention to Detail and Involvement for the Audience.” Clint Eastwood: Interviews. University
of Mississippi. 1999.
Hughes,
Howard. Aim for the Heart. I.B.
Tauris. 2009
McGilligan,
Patrick. Clint: The Life and Legend.
Harper Collins. 1999.
Schickel,
Richard. Clint Eastwood: A Biography.
Alfred A. Knopf. 1996.
Wilson,
Michael Henry. “’Whether I Succeed or Fail, I Don’t Want to Owe it to Anyone
but Myself’: From Play Misty for Me
to Honkytonk Man.” Clint Eastwood: Interviews. University
of Mississippi. 1999.