High Plains Drifter 1973
Clint Eastwood’s second film as a star director (after “Play Misty for Me”) offers an American-style Gothic pseudo-spaghetti western. A scruffy, horse-riding drifter emerges from the mists of the desert to Lago, a town where an old sheriff has been beaten to death. In this supernatural reimagining of High Noon, the townspeople beg the ghost of the murdered man, especially his brother Eastwood, to fight against three criminals who have just been released from state prison and are returning to town for ruthless revenge. Around 1972, a mysterious man displays his power by forcing everyone to attend a strange feast that doesn’t live up to the expectations of gunshots and evil. Eastwood, embodying the oddball hero-antihero cowboy, assigns the roles of sheriff and mayor to a dwarf, paints the town red, and changes its name to “Hell.” The stranger ultimately burns the town, evoking memories of Vietnam’s “we had to destroy the village to save it” slogan. This comedic and wild horror film borrows themes from Luis Bunuel as well as Sergio Leone; with a mix of Western and horror themes, it offers poignant personal insights alongside boldly bizarre moments.
