Movie: High Plains Drifter (1973)
Directed by Clint Eastwood
As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL
Plot:
A wandering stranger arrives in Lago and is hired to protect the town from outlaws heading their way. But is he the town's salvation -- or its damnation? Hilarity ensues.
Background and Reaction:
Once again, Keith kicked off the year with a month devoted to Spaghetti Westerns. This time it's Westerns inspired by Spaghetti Westerns, and he kicked things off with this Clint Eastwood effort. And I was psyched. I've been meaning to see HPD for a long time now, and had never gotten around to it. Seeing it in Keith's class setting was perfect.
Eastwood, having acted in three of Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns, learned the form well. It had all the ingredients, and if you didn't know that it was an American production you'd swear it was Spaghetti. If anything, it's more Spaghetti than the Spaghetti Westerns -- people being whipped to death, the hero establishing his bona fides by raping a woman...yeah, this isn't a John Wayne flick.
The story contains some ambiguity, which we loved. It didn't hit you in the face with things. We discussed the fact that it would have been easy to have Eastwood's character be the brother of the murdered Marshall. The movie would have worked just as well. But, of course, that would have put it in the realm of so many standard revenge films -- Death Rides a Horse comes to mind. By giving it a supernatural twist, Eastwood elevated it. In fact, even the next day we were still exchanging emails discussing possible interpretations of events.
I liked the use of flashbacks for the backstory -- something similar to the way I've been thinking for my Bleed Me a River project. Of course, I don't envision adding a supernatural element to that -- unless I need to fill some plot holes.
Of interest to me, at one point early on the film reminded me of the infamous Kitty Genovese murder. I mention this only because, after the film, Keith asked if any of us knew what real-life case was an inspiration for this. I immediately invoked Genovese' name, thereby impressing (or shocking -- I'm not sure which) Keith. Of course, while we were watching it, I mentioned the name, but Keith must not have heard me.
Also, to Joe's delight (and Dave's annoyance), I mentioned an odd parallel between this movie and the Plato's Stepchildren" episode of Star Trek. In that episode, Kirk and crew find themselves on a planet where nearly everyone has telekentic abilities. The one person who doesn't is Alexander, a short person who (by virtue of lacking such abilities) is bullied by his whole society. Kirk and company figure out what's causing the telekenesis, and empower Alexander with stronger abilities than everyone else, thus elevating him above the rest. In similar manner, Eastwood's character in HPD elevates Mordecai -- the town's little person -- by making him mayor and sherrif.
Ratings:
Me: 9.9
Dave: 10
Ethan: 8.5
Joe: 10
Scott: 9
Sean: 2 out of 4
Bonus line from the conversation that I'll present without context:
"Turtle. Is that another word for a small turd?"
But did it pass the Bechdel Test? I'd say no.
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