interesting.. Eastwood putting his former Directors names on the headstones in this movie?
very Hitchcock! ... personally I liked it-found it entertaining and from a Psychology point of view could write a book about it..bible verses etc.. but reviewers have also provided an insight...
The Stranger uses the town's fear and guilt to manipulate and humiliate them. Sergio Leone is not the only Italian director whose influence is apparent in this film: the Stranger turns the town into a Fellini-esque carnival, setting up a midget as mayor and sheriff. The lengths to which the town will submit to avoid the retribution that they deserve turns this Western into a dark farce. The eerie score by Dee Barton works with the dark flashbacks to hang an ominous shadow over the townspeople’s comical interactions.
The supporting cast includes Billy Curtis as the Stranger’s protege Mordecai, Verna Bloom as the object of the Stranger's rather perverse affections, and Mitch Ryan (Dharma & Greg) as the manager of a mine--the source of Lago’s livelihood. Frequent Eastwood costar Geoffrey Lewis (Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Bronco Billy, and Every Which Way But Loose) plays Stacey Bridges, the leader of the trio who've vowed to burn the town to the ground for framing them and sending them to jail.
Though Westerns often show the injury and recuperation of the hero as an essential step toward his triumph, this film goes further by showing the humiliating death of an inadequate lawman who is then "reincarnated" into an imposing and seemingly omnipotent torturer. Instead of linking this film to earlier Westerns, High Plains Drifter may actually be more significant as a bridge to Vietnam films like First Blood (Ted Kotcheff, 1983) that display the powerful rage of the abused and discarded hero.
Geoff Lewis seemed to be in every movie made in the 80's..
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