Film Review: "High Plains Drifter" (dir. C. Eastwood, 1973)

I think that the Clint Eastwood Westerns film festival has just about run its course. But I had to finish up with this one, which is a favorite of mine because (1) it has such a tight narrative structure: rider rides into town, plot, rider rides back out; and (2) the plot device of painting the entire town red, transforming it into an earthly version of hell, is so great. The story tracks the "high plains drifter" as avenging angel, or vengeful spirit, returning to a town where Marshall Jim Duncan was killed because he had discovered the town's secret. The secret itself is not so interesting--the mine around which the town's economy is based is actually on government land. Ho hum. Would that matter? Aren't there plenty of privately operated mines on government land? The townspeople conspire with a band of outlaws to do the marshall in, but then double-cross the outlaws. Now the outlaws are being released from prison and are going to come back to get their revenge. The townspeople are afraid, but then the Stranger rides into town . . . after some acts of violence to prove his mettle, the townspeople promise him "anything he wants" if he will protect them.

Ah, there's the deal. Is it a deal with the Devil? The Stranger becomes a kind of Devil, but given the sins of the townspeople, this Devil is less the source of temptation than the dispenser of divine justice (Hell in a classically Christian sense).

Worth a look, if you haven't seen it in awhile.