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High Plains Drifter (1973) 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 of 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 worked for Sergio Leone, Eastwood was making notes because High Plains Drifter oozes the mythical aura of many of Leone's best films, and thankfully the result is one of the best offerings in the 70s for the Western genre.The film opens with our mysterious drifter slowly coming out of the beautiful sprawling haze and into Lago, just the sound of the horse breathing and the clop of its hooves can be heard {the sound mix here is incredible}, it's a gloriously mysterious opening. Yet Eastwood is just toying with us tho, for a quick jolt of sex and violence snaps us out of the beatific warmth and into a quite hauntingly cold and morally challenged place. From here on in the stranger will demand all manner of odd things from the residents of Lago, he seems to be toying with them and revelling in their discomfort, Lago quickly resembles an arid hellhole. You see, Lago has a dark secret, and our mysterious stranger has a purpose, and it's this purpose that makes High Plains Drifter a truly wonderful picture.A well known fact now is that the great man of the genre, John Wayne, wrote Eastwood to strongly complain about his harsh vision of the West, one can only think the Duke failed to grasp the post Vietnam feel of a 70s made Western. It's a great directorial effort from Eastwood, and doubly it's a great performance from him as well, the perfect role which accentuates his rugged Western leanings. Eastwood would direct the similarly themed Pale Rider in the 80s and then the magnificent Unforgiven in the 90s, a Western great in each decade for sure.Mysterious and magnificent, High Plains Drifter 9/10.
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