High Plains Drifter (1973)

Overview

High Plains Drifter is Clint Eastwood’s second directorial feature, following Play Misty for Me (1971), and it is arguably one of his boldest early works. On the surface, it is a revenge Western in the tradition of Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Westerns, but it quickly reveals itself to be something darker, stranger, and more allegorical. Part Gothic morality tale, part supernatural fable, High Plains Drifter subverts classic Western tropes with brutality, mystery, and eerie symbolism.

This is not the heroic West of John Wayne or the moral ambiguity of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Instead, it’s a cinematic purgatory where justice is neither clean nor redemptive, and where guilt lingers like a ghost.

Plot Summary

The film opens with a lone rider—played by Clint Eastwood—emerging from the shimmering heat of the desert and into the small lakeside mining town of Lago. Silent, enigmatic, and dressed in black, he is a familiar figure: the "man with no name." But this time, he’s not just a gunslinger—he’s something more ominous.

Shortly after arriving, the stranger kills three men and rapes a local woman (a scene that remains controversial). The town elders, desperate and terrified of three outlaws who are about to be released from prison and are expected to seek revenge, plead with the stranger to defend the town.

He agrees—but on his terms. He humiliates the townspeople, drinks heavily, renames the town "Hell" by painting it red, and appoints a dwarf named Mordecai (Billy Curtis) as mayor and sheriff. As the story progresses, it becomes clear that the stranger’s motives are not altruistic—he’s not there to protect the town, but to punish it.

Through dreamlike flashbacks and growing unease, the audience learns that the town’s former marshal, Jim Duncan, was brutally whipped to death by the outlaws—while the townspeople watched and did nothing. The stranger’s eerie resemblance to Duncan, or perhaps his ghost, suggests that his vengeance is not only righteous, but supernatural.

Themes and Analysis

Vengeance as a Moral Force

High Plains Drifter is often misunderstood as a standard revenge Western. In fact, it's a bleak meditation on guilt, collective sin, and retribution. The stranger doesn’t merely avenge the marshal’s murder—he forces the townspeople to confront their complicity. His vengeance is cosmic in scope, more wrath-of-God than gunslinger justice.

The Supernatural Element

Eastwood plays the stranger with a ghostly detachment. Is he Marshal Duncan reincarnated? A spirit of vengeance? A demon? The film never answers definitively, but the signs are clear: the red town, the cryptic warnings, the dream-like atmosphere. High Plains Drifter functions almost like a Western ghost story—making it unique in the genre.

This interpretation is supported by the film’s tone and imagery: dream sequences, unsettling music by Dee Barton, and the stranger’s almost magical knowledge of what happened and what is to come.

The Cowardice of Community

Lago is not a town of rugged individuals—it’s a portrait of moral cowardice. The townspeople not only allowed their marshal to be murdered but actively orchestrated it for economic reasons. The film is a scathing critique of self-interest, mob psychology, and the way people absolve themselves by delegating violence.

Subversion of Western Tropes

Eastwood, who rose to fame with Leone’s spaghetti Westerns, uses that mystique and flips it. His protagonist is not a classic anti-hero; he's something more primal and malevolent. There is no clear moral compass—only the punishment of wrongdoing. This is the West stripped of romanticism, and instead haunted by what it has tried to bury.

Direction and Style

Clint Eastwood, still early in his directorial career, demonstrates remarkable confidence behind the camera. His pacing is deliberate, the atmosphere thick with dread, and the landscapes—filmed at Mono Lake, California—evoke isolation and desolation. The surreal visual design, especially the painting of the town in red and the final shot of the grave, heighten the feeling that we are watching not history, but myth.

Eastwood’s decision to let the violence feel uncomfortable, even ugly, further distances the film from heroic Westerns. He doesn’t glorify gunfights or killings; rather, they are abrupt, cruel, and sometimes senseless.

Performances

Clint Eastwood is deliberately enigmatic. His performance is stoic and restrained, letting silence, posture, and presence communicate more than words. He becomes a symbol rather than a man—an embodiment of justice, or wrath.

Billy Curtis as Mordecai delivers one of the film’s most poignant performances. A marginalized figure who is mocked and dismissed, he becomes a symbol of overlooked wisdom and moral clarity, rising as a conscience to the town’s collective corruption.

Verna Bloom and Marianna Hill give strong performances as women trapped in the town’s hypocrisy, though their characters are not spared the harsh treatment Eastwood metes out to everyone.

Controversies

The film has generated considerable debate over its depiction of violence, particularly the rape scene early in the film. Eastwood, while directing and starring, offers no moral resolution for the act. It’s unclear whether it’s meant as a commentary on the stranger’s own moral decay or part of the broader theme of retributive cruelty.

Some critics argue that this act undermines audience sympathy, while others contend it reinforces the stranger’s inhuman, avenging nature—he’s not a hero, but a force.

Legacy and Influence

High Plains Drifter remains one of the most unusual entries in the Western canon. Though it initially received mixed reviews, it has since been reappraised as a bold, revisionist Western. It paved the way for more morally ambiguous Westerns and directly influenced Eastwood’s later masterpiece, Unforgiven (1992), which revisits many of the same themes with more emotional nuance.

The film also fits within a broader 1970s American trend of reckoning with national myths—mirroring the disillusionment of the Vietnam era and a growing distrust of American exceptionalism. The American West, once a canvas for heroism, becomes a graveyard for moral failures.

Conclusion

High Plains Drifter is a dark, morally complex, and stylistically daring Western that stands out for its surreal atmosphere, allegorical storytelling, and unflinching exploration of guilt and vengeance. Clint Eastwood, both in front of and behind the camera, reshapes the Western not as a celebration of justice, but as a grim parable about the consequences of collective sin.

Whether you view the stranger as a ghost, a devil, or simply a man with a purpose, his presence lingers long after the credits roll—like a warning whispered on the wind.

Recommended for: Fans of revisionist Westerns, psychological thrillers, and supernatural allegories. Not for viewers seeking traditional heroism or clean resolutions. A haunting, bold film that dares to ask: What happens when justice comes too late—and from the wrong hand?