High Plains Drifter (1973)

By 1973, Clint Eastwood had spent the better part of a decade building one of the most recognisable screen personas in cinema. From his early work alongside Sergio Leone in pictures like For a Few Dollars More through to his American western outings such as Hang 'em High, he had refined a particular brand of laconic, morally ambiguous heroism that audiences had come to expect and, largely, to enjoy. High Plains Drifter sits at a curious and somewhat unsettling point in that trajectory. It is a film that takes the mythological lone gunman figure and pushes him somewhere considerably darker than the genre had typically dared.

The film was produced through Eastwood's own Malpaso Productions in association with Universal Pictures, and marks only his second feature as director (following Play Misty for Me in 1971). The premise is simple enough on its surface: a nameless stranger drifts into the isolated lakeside settlement of Lago, dispatches three hired guns with almost supernatural ease, and is then reluctantly recruited by the townspeople to protect them from a trio of outlaws due to arrive on their release from prison. The screenplay, written by Ernest Tidyman (best known at the time for his work on The French Connection), leans heavily into allegory and a dreamlike, almost hallucinatory atmosphere that sets it apart from the more straightforward revenge westerns of the period. There are strong suggestions of the supernatural woven through the story, giving the whole thing an air that sits somewhere between a traditional western and something closer to a fable or a ghost story. Whether that ambiguity enriches the film or obscures its moral shortcomings is precisely the kind of question the picture refuses to settle for you.

Eastwood leads the cast as the unnamed Stranger, a role that leans entirely on his established screen presence, often to striking effect. Verna Bloom plays Sarah Belding, one of the few Lago residents who seems to genuinely register what the Stranger represents, and she brings a quiet, considered weight to what could easily have been a peripheral part. Marianna Hill appears as Callie Travers, and Mitchell Ryan and Jack Ging round out a supporting cast that is polished but unremarkable, functional in the service of a film whose real focus is almost entirely on the atmosphere Eastwood is constructing around his central figure. For a sense of how Eastwood's directorial voice would develop across subsequent decades, it is worth comparing this early work to later efforts like Unforgiven or Mystic River, films in which moral complexity is handled with considerably more self-awareness. It is also worth noting that High Plains Drifter arrived the same year as another western reworking genre conventions, the science-fiction inflected Westworld, suggesting 1973 was a moment when filmmakers on both sides of the Atlantic were in the mood to test what the genre could carry.

Clint Eastwood rides again… but why are we supposed to root for this guy? Eastwood’s signature style is all over this: cool, moody, and steeped in that classic spaghetti-western vibe. The cinematography is striking, the tone is darkly surreal at times, and the score by Dee Barton is fantastic. It’s got style in spades. But man… the main character is straight-up reprehensible. He manipulates, intimidates, and yes, rapes, and the film seems to want us to see him as some kind of avenging angel. That’s hard to swallow, especially when his actions aren’t really confronted or condemned by the story. It’s an interesting, atmospheric western, no doubt, but it’s tough to get past how troubling the hero is. Admirable as a piece of 70s genre filmmaking, but hard to recommend without major caveats.

What lingers for me, after everything, is that tension between genuine craft and genuine discomfort. There is real filmmaking talent on display here, and I can appreciate the atmosphere Eastwood creates, the sun-baked dread of Lago, the score, the sheer confidence of the whole production. But appreciation and enjoyment are different things, and I find it difficult to switch off the part of my brain that keeps asking what this film actually thinks it is doing with its central character. Some films earn their darkness by reckoning with it. This one, for the most part, seems content to let it ride on through.

Rating: ★★★  | Year: 1973  | Watched: 2025-07-16

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Trailer

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Clint Eastwood: Mystic River (2003) · Million Dollar Baby (2004) · Unforgiven (1992)
More with Clint Eastwood: Million Dollar Baby (2004) · Hang 'em High (1968) · Unforgiven (1992) · A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
More from the 1970s: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Here and Elsewhere (1976) · Italianamerican (1974) · Punishment Park (1971)
More western: The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) · Rio Bravo (1959) · Ride Lonesome (1959) · The Great Train Robbery (1903)
More drama: Viy (1967) · Wonder (2017) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Beautiful Boy (2018)