HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER

US, 1973,100 minutes, Colour.
Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom, Mitchell Ryan.
Directed by Clint Eastwood.

High Plains Drifter is Clint Eastwood’s second film in which he acted and directed. He also directed Breezy but did not appear in it.

On one level this film is a revenge western and is fairly successful within the genre. It is fairly brutal, but the violence is worked into the story. The film would probably please most western fans and those who like Clint Eastwood -either from his Sergio Leone silent-stranger westerns (A Fistful of Dollars, A Few Dollars More, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly) or his American westerns (Hang 'Em High, Joe Kidd).

On another level the film is highly symbolic. Some reviewers even said it was pretentious. The silent stranger who rides out of the haze and back into it after wreaking vengeance on a town is a judge and executioner. As he punishes, he has painted the town (literally) red and renamed it - Hell. At night, the town in flames, he whips those he punishes - a Devil figure. This is complicated by the fact that, although the stranger is a Devil-figure, he nevertheless has some good followers and saves them. if one follows this line of thought about the film's theme and symbols, there is much to discuss.

1. Was this a good western? On the level of competent adventure did it succeed? Why?

2. As a revenge-western, showing Clint Eastwood's skill as actor and director, did it succeed? Why?

3. What were its principal successes,failures?

4. As well as being an action drama, the film was symbolic. How obvious was this? Obtrusive, subtle?

5. The significance of the title? The initial haze and appearance of the stranger out of nowhere and his final return there? His lengthy ride into the town, our estimate of the town and its people through his eyes; the similar ride out after his impact on the town and people?

6. Who was the stranger - his dream of the whipping; the memory of the dwarf about the whipping; the gravestone at the end?

7. What were your first impressions of the town - God-fearing, law-abiding? How did the impressions change - by cowardice, fear or sharing in cruelty?

8. Your first impressions of the stranger, especially compared with the townspeople - the killings, his sullen manner, raping of the whore? Did your impressions of and feelings towards him change?

9. Why did the town think he ought to be Marshall - what did this show about their predicament and fear? How callous was he? Why was the dwarf his disciple?

10. The changing relationships with the people - training to defend themselves, the duplicity and then enmity of the mining people?

11. Painting the town red and calling it Hell? The significance and meaning of this for the film?

12. Why did the stranger let the townspeople defend themselves and suffer, personally and in the destruction of the town?

13. The symbolism of the black figure against the flames of 'Hell' whipping the murderers?

14. How had the stranger changed people's lives - punishing the wicked, saving the good, leaving the rest to live with their guilt and pain of their punishment?

15. How helpful is it to describe the film as a "Devil-figure" western?