Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4088 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-05-05
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Widescreen, Mono, Subtitled, PAL
• Original language: English, Arabic
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 101 minutes

Synopsis
Clint Eastwood once again portrays the 'Man With No Name' in this bleak morality play about a man who protects a frontier town from outlaws, more out of contempt for the outlaws than love for the cowardly townspeople. This dark, moody, almost supernatural western was Eastwood's second directorial effort following the very successful PLAY MISTY FOR ME.

Customer Reviews

Worth Watching
High Plains Drifter is a cracking western not for the easily offended,it definately deserves its 18 rating.Clints performance as the Stranger is excellent,a rather nasty hero to say the least.The film flows well throughout and is well directed by Clint himself.Not Eastwoods best but well worth a watch.

Excellent, profoundly creepy, post-Leone Western
Clint Eastwood is probably the most important person in the development of the Western after John Ford and John Wayne.

Not only did he star in Sergio Leone's three brilliant 'Dollars' films that re-energised the genre in the sixties, he went on to star and direct in four American westerns. Three of those - Unforgiven, The Outlaw Josey Wales and this one - are classics, while the fourth, Pale Rider, isn't half bad.

In High Plains Drifter, Eastwood imagines what might have happened in High Noon if the marshall had not been triumphant. A rider drifts into the terrified town of Lago and kills the three hired guns the town's folk have engaged to defend them from the villains they previously paid to whip the previous marshall to death.

Eastwood's un-named character is told he can do anything - anything - as long as he fights the soon-to-be-returning killers. He takes this very literally, wandering through the brilliantly-realised lake side town causing chaos and helping himself to boots, whiskey and women.

That the mysterious stranger is a supernatural presence is hinted at through the discordant, disconcerting score as well as flashbacks to the death of the marshall who discovered the town's mine was on government land.

This is a nightmare. When the stranger decides the town should be painted red - literally - and it's name changed to Hell, you don't actually need a background in semiotics to work out the symbolism. Vengeance is coming to the people of Lago.

The climactic scenes, particularly when the stranger whips a man to death as the towns folk remain - transfixed - in the saloon are terrifying.

After the chaos and death, of course, like any archtypal western hero, the Stranger rides off, saying, 'you know my name' to the midget he has installed as sheriff and mayor. His name is Death.

In short, a classic film, dripping with quality. The design, the score, the minimalist script and the impressive artistic control for a second-time director combine to make a compelling statement on the nature of personal responsibility and vengeance.

Wonderful.

A Great Film
This is The Man With No Name at his taciturn, brutal and confident best. At least as good as the "Dollars" trio, but with a bit more mystery. If you're into Clint in the "Dollars" then you'll love this. Yes, it's stylised, and yes, it's implausible, but that doesn't matter - it's very good entertainment, and a great film.