He definitely has fun with them before knocking off the gang. Take a moment to think about that. High Plains Drifter is different: this is a God's-Judgment-on-the-wicked western. A stranger (Clint Eastwood) rides his horse out of the hot undulating waves of the desert and into the mining town of Lago and asks for a beer, a bath, a shave, and a haircut. We briefly discussed GBU, then he brought up High Plains Drifter. His latest, Sully, is the 14th film he’s directed after the age of 70. High Plains Drifter: One of the Most Underrated Westerns Ever. High Plains Drifter is a crude and violent western, shot in a beautiful landscape, where realistic costumes and settings meet with a supernatural atmosphere. High Plains Drifter, Clint Eastwood's second directorial effort, is that universal story in its most basic form. Eastwood plays a mysterious, prepotent stranger, meting out justice in a corrupt frontier mining town. File:High plains drifter 6131.jpg 1973 Supernatural Deconstructionist Western starring and directed by Clint Eastwood . High Plains Drifter 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. Clint Eastwood in High Plains Drifter. High Plains Drifter has none of Leone’s exuberance, it is terse, shadowy, and gothic, as much a ghost story as anything else. As is often the case with a Clint Eastwood western, High Plains Drifter is rather good. We talked about that on the way out to the parking lot. After being shot at by the town's three hired gunmen, the stranger shoots all three and then asks for a room for the night. High Plains Drifter is a very good western. He has no trouble turning the townsfolk against each other … Clint Eastwood's sophomore outing as director sees him back in the saddle as a mysterious stranger, as the result is one of his most memorable Westerns. I love High Plains Drifter, and I adore Eastwood, but the scene conveys the mindset of a writer/director who has zero clue about the psychological implications of sexual assault. So after class once I asked him about the Eastwood Westerns. He is an avenging angel, or just an avenging ghost who somehow has returned to exact death and pain on the townspeople who allowed the evil Bridges gang to torture him to death, as Marshall Jim Duncan. In the Old West, a mysterious drifter referred to only as 'the Stranger' rides into a dismal little mining town called Lago, which is facing a crisis: three ruthless outlaws are making their way to the town to settle scores for an old wrong the townspeople did to them. He grinned and said that they were favorites of his. I asked him what he thought about the finale and the identity of the stranger. It tells the story of the so-called “Miracle on the Hudson” and the safe landing of a passenger jet … This stranger is also very good with a side arm. High Plains Drifter Critics Consensus. The stranger lays it down. The usual scenario opens, with Eastwood (playing an unnamed character again) riding into a small mining town, Lagos, where a small group of thugs unsuccessfully try to kill him.