High Plains Drifter (1973)

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  • HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER


    DIRECTED BY CLINT EASTWOOD
    PRODUCED BY ROBERT DALEY
    MALPASO/UNIVERSAL



    Information From IMDb


    Full Cast
    Clint Eastwood ... The Stranger
    Verna Bloom ... Sarah Belding
    Marianna Hill ... Callie Travers (as Mariana Hill)
    Mitch Ryan ... Dave Drake (as Mitchell Ryan)
    Jack Ging ... Morgan Allen
    Stefan Gierasch ... Mayor Jason Hobart
    Ted Hartley ... Lewis Belding
    Billy Curtis ... Mordecai
    Geoffrey Lewis ... Stacey Bridges
    Scott Walker ... Bill Borders
    Walter Barnes ... Sheriff Sam Shaw
    Paul Brinegar ... Lutie Naylor
    Richard Bull ... Asa Goodwin
    Robert Donner ... Preacher
    John Hillerman ... Bootmaker
    Anthony James ... Cole Carlin
    William O'Connell ... Barber
    John Quade ... Jake Ross
    Dan Vadis ... Dan Carlin
    Buddy Van Horn ... Marshal Jim Duncan
    Jane Aull ... Townswoman
    Reid Cruickshanks ... Gunsmith
    Jim Gosa ... Tommy Morris (as James Gosa)
    Jack Kosslyn ... Saddlemaker
    Russ McCubbin ... Fred Short
    Belle Mitchell ... Mrs. Lake
    John Mitchum ... Warden
    Carl Pitti ... Teamster (as Carl C. Pitti)
    Alex Tinne
    Chuck Waters ... Stableman


    Stunts
    Buddy Van Horn .... stunt coordinator
    Mario Arteaga .... stunts (uncredited)
    Blair Burrows .... stunts (uncredited)
    Richard Farnsworth .... stunts (uncredited)
    Chuck Hayward .... stunts (uncredited)
    John Hudkins .... stunts (uncredited)
    George Orrison .... stunt double: Clint Eastwood (uncredited)
    George Orrison .... stunts (uncredited)
    Carl Pitti .... stunts (uncredited)
    Bob Terhune .... stunts (uncredited)
    Buddy Van Horn .... stunt double (uncredited)
    Chuck Waters .... stunts (uncredited)
    George P. Wilbur .... stunts (uncredited)

    Writing Credits
    Ernest Tidyman (written by)
    Dean Riesner uncredited


    Produced
    Robert Daley .... producer
    Jennings Lang .... executive producer

    Cinematography
    Bruce Surtees


    Music
    Dee Barton


    Trivia
    One of the headstones in the graveyard bears the name Sergio Leone as a tribute.


    Other headstones bear the names of Don Siegel (Clint Eastwood's director on five films, four of which preceded this one) and Brian G. Hutton (director of Where Eagles Dare (1968) and Kelly's Heroes (1970)). Patrick McGilligan's 2002 Eastwood biography quotes the star as saying, "I buried my directors."


    Editing of the film was done in a log cabin on the shores of Mono Lake.


    Universal Pictures wanted the film to be shot on the studio lot. Instead, Clint Eastwood had a whole town built in the desert near Mono Lake in the California Sierras. Many of the buildings were complete and three-dimensional, so that interiors could be shot on location.


    The Bible verse on the wall of the church is Isaiah 53:3-4 which reads, "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted"


    Shortly after the film's release, Clint Eastwood wrote to John Wayne, suggesting that they make a western together. Wayne sent back an angry letter in reply, in which he denounced this film for its violence and revisionist portrayal of the Old West. Eastwood did not bother to answer his criticisms, and consequently they did not work together.


    There is no spoken dialogue until six minutes into the film.


    We only learn The Stranger's name at the end. Marshal Jim Duncan.


    Filmed in six weeks.


    The character of Marshal Duncan was played by stuntman Buddy Van Horn, a long-time stunt coordinator for Clint Eastwood, in order to create some ambiguity over whether he and The Stranger are one and the same.


    During an interview on "Inside the Actors Studio" (1994), Clint Eastwood commented that earlier versions of the script made The Stranger the dead marshal's brother. He favoured a less explicit and more supernatural interpretation and excised the reference. Although the Italian, Spanish, French and German dubbings retain it.


    The first time Clint Eastwood directs one of his Westerns.


    Goofs
    * Continuity: The level of The Stranger's beer while watching the carriage as the men practice shooting at the dummies.


    * Anachronisms: All houses in the city (Lago) have modern window glass of the type float glass and not "handmade" as they were until the mid-19th century.


    * Continuity: At the ambush, the stranger places the stick of dynamite just back from the edge of the slope. When it explodes, the explosion is a couple of feet down the slope from the edge, not where the dynamite was placed.


    * Continuity: When the Stranger is first sipping his beer at the saloon, the bottle of whiskey is placed on the bar to the left of his glass of beer. When he reaches for his beer while saying the line "Faster than you'll ever live to be" to the one gunfighter, the bottle of whiskey "jumps" to the right of his glass of beer so he can pretend to draw his gun yet reach for the bottle of whiskey instead.


    * Factual errors: When the town men are in the church debating their predicament, there is a plaque on the wall that quotes a scripture. Isaiah 53:3-4 is the scripture address written at the bottom of the plaque, but the scripture written out on the plaque is only Isaiah 53:3 (kjv); verse 4 is missing.


    * Crew or equipment visible: Regarding one of the three bad guys who confront the Stranger in the barber shop. The tall guy with the beard who is shot and crashes through the window into the street. As he attempts to support himself against the hitching post one can clearly see the shape of an elbow protector for his left arm under his shirt.


    * Continuity: The morning after his first night in Lago the stranger steps out of the hotel and the mayor says "good morning." The shadows on the ground clearly show that it is late afternoon as Lago is located on the western shore of Mono Lake.


    * Continuity: The amount of shaving cream on The Stranger's face during the shooting of the three bad dudes in the barber shop.


    * Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When Stacey, Cole and Dan come across three campers in the mountains, they have plenty of ammo despite their guns being given back to them empty when they left prison. However, it can be seen that their gun-belts still had ammunition in them.


    * Continuity: The clouds in the sky appear and disappear between shots in several scenes.


    * Revealing mistakes: When the next to last bad guy is hanged with a bull whip, as he is first hoisted he spins a little and you can clearly see that is is a rope around his neck (not a bull whip), and that it is tied in a knot with some other ropes going down the back of his shirt (obviously attached to a supporting harness).

    Filming Locations
    Inyo National Forest - 351 Pacu Lane, Bishop, California, USA
    Mono Lake, California, USA (town: Lago)
    Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, USA
    Winnemucca Lake, Nevada, USA (Winnemucca Dry Lake)


    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

    Edited 2 times, last by ethanedwards ().

  • High Plains Drifter is a 1973 American Western film directed by and starring Clint Eastwood,
    written by Ernest Tidyman, and produced by Robert Daley for Malpaso Company and Universal Pictures.
    Eastwood plays a mysterious, prepotent stranger,
    meting out justice in a corrupt frontier mining town.[3]
    The film was influenced by the work of Eastwood's two major collaborators,
    film directors Sergio Leone and Don Siegel.



    The film was critically acclaimed at the time of its initial release and remains popular today,


    holding a score of 96% at the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes
    .


    I thought this a great film, verging on the supernatural.
    Clint Eastwood's first western which he directed, that starred himself.
    Great action, well cast and great fun to watch.
    Even at the end Marshall Duncan is played by Clint's stand-in
    so as to make us wonder, if they are the same person!


    The music by Dee Barton adds that eeire feel to the movie.
    To make the location even more realistic
    (against the wishes of Universal Pictures),
    Clint had the whole town Lago built on
    the shore of Mono Lake, California.

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

    Edited 6 times, last by ethanedwards ().

  • I found this to be a good movie, especially for its photography and eerie scenes. The sound was excellent as well - note the sound of the stranger's saddle when he first rides into town.

    Cheers - Jay:beer:
    "Not hardly!!!"

  • To paraphrase a line from "Vera Cruz", I string with Ringo.
    I don't know exactly why, but the blending of genres in this and "Pale Rider" doesn't appeal to me. It may be because the heroes are invincible - like a comic book hero - and there is no real suspense. You just know that the mysterious stranger will triumph and ride/fade away. There is no danger to him, he's a demigod and has powers beyond your ordinary gunslinger. He ain't gonna bleed or be taken by surprise and, like James Bond, it's just a question of his technique in disposing of the villains.
    Granted, Clint wins in Josie, Undefeated, the Leone trilogy, Hang 'em High, etc., but at least he gets the snot beaten out of him along the way. You anticipate that he'll ride away at the end, but it's not chiseled in stone.
    Mind you, I'm not dumping these in with "Billy the Kid vs Dracula" or "Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter", but some combo platters just don't mesh.


    We deal in lead, friend.

  • I didn't know that Clint Eastwood wrote John Wayne first proposing to make a movie together, and then got that angry reply from him. I've always heard a different story, that The Duke sent Clint an angry letter after having seen the movie and thinking it was too violent. A Wayne/Clint movie would have been so cool I'm having problems imagining it.


    This was the very first Clint Eastwood western I ever saw and to this day it's one of my favorites of his. Love the creepy feel throughout the whole movie and the way he runs the whole town the way he does adds a lot of humor and ending the movie with a very satisfying climax. Outside the Dollar-trilogy and Unforgiven, I reckon this is the best western of Clint's.

    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

  • I didn't know that Clint Eastwood wrote John Wayne first proposing to make a movie together, and then got that angry reply from him. I've always heard a different story, that The Duke sent Clint an angry letter after having seen the movie and thinking it was too violent. A Wayne/Clint movie would have been so cool I'm having problems imagining it.


    This was the very first Clint Eastwood western I ever saw and to this day it's one of my favorites of his. Love the creepy feel throughout the whole movie and the way he runs the whole town the way he does adds a lot of humor and ending the movie with a very satisfying climax. Outside the Dollar-trilogy and Unforgiven, I reckon this is the best western of Clint's.


    We named this movie "The Man With the Bullwhip" in Sweden, which I think is a pretty good title.

    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

  • I don't know exactly why, but the blending of genres in this and "Pale Rider" doesn't appeal to me. It may be because the heroes are invincible - like a comic book hero - and there is no real suspense. You just know that the mysterious stranger will triumph and ride/fade away. There is no danger to him, he's a demigod and has powers beyond your ordinary gunslinger. He ain't gonna bleed or be taken by surprise and, like James Bond, it's just a question of his technique in disposing of the villains.



    But it is the suspense and anticipation as to just how he is going to go about his justice. To my mind at least!

    Cheers - Jay:beer:
    "Not hardly!!!"

  • I think if it was the first time this movie was viewed we would be on the edge of our seats, its a great movie in true Clint Eastwood style with an eerie sound track.

  • High Plains Drifter, I have watched this movie often and I still can't make my mind up if he is a spirit that can't rest untill he is avenged, because he appears at the start of the movie out of a heat haze and leaves the same way at the end of the movie.



    As a lifelong fan of supernatural movies, I always went with the "Avenging Spirit"angle.
    But Eastwood did say in an interview, that in the original script, The Stranger was the dead marshals brother.
    Eastwood himself took that out of the story so that fans could make up their own minds, and like I said earlier, I went with the "spooky" story.

    They'd never forget the day,the stranger rode into town

  • It is a different kind of movie. I know that Clint is going to make it work out. I like how the runt is appointed Sheriff.
    Thanks to Sergio Leone for this kind of film. For me it comes to this, it's Clint Eastwood, a western, I like it. I buy movies
    just if Sergio directed it. I will watch it.

    "A people that values their Privileges above it's Principles. Soon looses both." Dwight Eisenhower

  • In my opinion its a great movie, the music is very chilling, way say John Wayne always gets is mane so does Clint but in a meaner way. I have watched this movie many times and I can't wait until the last killer is standing and Clint walks in front of the burning building and again we hear the eerie music as the man turns and asks who are you, but no answer comes from the stranger.

  • I am truly happy that quite a few of you enjoy this film. I like Eastwood and think he's a superior actor and director. It's my own personal hangups about mixing genres (as I see I posted three years ago - holy ***t)
    that prevent me from embracing this and Pale Rider. They seem like cop outs to me.
    As Stumpy once replied to my defense of The Wild Bunch - one man's treasure is another man's trash. I regret that I can't share your enthusiasm about this one. I saw it when it was first released and felt cheated then.


    We deal in lead, friend.