High Plains Drifter

John Chard

February 16, 2014

9/10

Supernatural Western? A lone gunman with no name and seemingly with no past, rides into the dusky town of Lago. The residents of Lago at first view the stranger with suspicion, but when news that some outlaws that are out for blood are on their way to town, they ask the stranger for his help. This is Clint Eastwood's first Western film that he directed, and it's clear and evident that the guy not only loves the genre that made his name, he also knows what makes it work. Obviously having w…

r96sk

January 27, 2022

7/10

I don't have much to say about <em>'High Plains Drifter'</em>. It didn't thrill me or anything, but it did keep my attention from start-to-finish so it's evidently a good film. Clint Eastwood is the only cast member worth talking about, he gives a commanding performance in the lead role. Geoffrey Lewis, a frequent castmate of Eastwood's, is the best of the rest, if I had to pick. The film does feature dark themes, which helps the film's pacing out a lot. It's nothing special in my eyes, th…

drystyx

April 18, 2023

2/10

Another Hollywood (spaghetti) formula Western where homicidal maniacs abound. Here, Clint plays a homicidal maniac who obviously comes back from the dead after being killed by three bad guys and betrayed by an entire town of people. So, the first thing he does is murder the only three men who weren't part of that. Makes sense? Not if you're looking for credible motivation. But credible motivation isn't a part of most of Eastwood's Westerns. Certainly not the spaghetti ones. So, the rest of t…

Wuchak

March 13, 2024

7/10

**_Clint paints the Western town red, like Gehenna_** A mysterious Stranger (Eastwood) trots into a remote town in west-central California, a dozen miles from the Nevada border. The townspeople desperately need his help to prepare for the release of three vengeful men from the territorial prison. "High Plains Drifter" (1973) was Clint’s third directorial effort (although he also did some uncredited work on “Dirty Harry”). It parallels his “Pale Rider” from a dozen years later with the diff…

CinemaSerf

January 15, 2026

7/10

Now we are used to Clint Eastwood playing the poncho-clad man of few words in westerns, but this one has an altogether spookier thread to it. When he arrives into a dead end town he is immediately challenged by three ne’er do wells whom he effortlessly despatches. The townsfolk are not so much terrified as they are impressed and so they ask him to stick around and help protect them from three more thugs who have threatened to burn down their town. Now you’d have thought that had these townspeopl…