High Plains Drifter

"They'd never forget the day he drifted into town."

1973 1h 46m EN

👍

7.3

SOLID

★7.3TMDB · 1,402

WesternDramaMystery

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A gunfighting stranger comes to the small settlement of Lago. After gunning down three gunmen who tried to kill him, the townsfolk decide to hire the Stranger to hold off three outlaws who are on their way.

“They'd never forget the day he drifted into town.”

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Cast

Clint Eastwood
The Stranger
Verna Bloom
Sarah Belding
Marianna Hill
Callie Travers
Mitchell Ryan
Dave Drake
Jack Ging
Morgan Allen
Stefan Gierasch
Mayor Jason Hobart
Ted Hartley
Lewis Belding
Billy Curtis
Mordecai

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Clint Eastwood
Writers: Ernest Tidyman, Clint Eastwood
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

53 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Clint Eastwood, shot by Bruce Surtees. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Dee Barton. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Ferris Webster shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Clint Eastwood and Verna Bloom and Marianna Hill carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "They'd never forget the day he drifted into town.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0068699 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Clint Eastwood directs. Bruce Surtees behind the camera. Dee Barton scores. Ferris Webster cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

153 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
2Directed by Clint Eastwood, shot by Bruce Surtees. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Original score by Dee Barton. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor Ferris Webster shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Clint Eastwood and Verna Bloom and Marianna Hill carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "They'd never forget the day he drifted into town.".
7IMDB entry: tt0068699 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography: Bruce Surtees
Original score: Dee Barton
Editing: Ferris Webster
Stunt coordinator: Buddy Van Horn
Runtime: 106 min · 1h 46m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $5,500,000
Box office: $15,700,000
Return: 285% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: High Plains Drifter (1973)

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Clint Eastwood

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2014-02-16
★ 9/10
Supernatural Western? A lone gunman with no name and seemingly with no past, rides into the dusky town of Lago. The residents of Lago at first view the stranger with suspicion, but when news that some outlaws that are out for blood are on their way to town, they ask the stranger for his help. This is Clint Eastwood's first Western film that he directed, and it's clear and evident that the guy not only loves the genre that made his name, he also knows what makes it work. Obviously having worked for Sergio Leone, Eastwood was making notes because High Plains Drifter oozes the mythical aura of many of Leone's finest genre offerings. To which, with thanks, the result is one of the best offerings in the 70s for the Oater enthusiast. The film opens with our mysterious drifter slowly coming out of the beautiful sprawling haze and into Lago, it's ethereal, then there's just the sound of the horse breathing and the clop of its hooves that can be heard (the sound mix here is incredible), it's a gloriously mysterious opening that sets the tone perfectly. Yet Eastwood is just toying with us though, for a quick jolt of sex and violence snaps us out of the beatific warmth and into a quite hauntingly cold and morally challenged place. From here on in the stranger will demand all manner of odd things from the residents of Lago, he seems to be toying with them and revelling in their discomfort, with Lago quickly resembling an arid hellhole. You see, Lago has a dark secret, and our mysterious stranger has a purpose, and it's this purpose that makes High Plains Drifter an intriguing and gripping experience. A well known fact now is that the great man of the genre, John Wayne, wrote Eastwood to strongly complain about his harsh vision of the West, one can only think the Duke failed to grasp the post Vietnam feel of a 70s made Western. It's a great directorial effort from Eastwood, more so when you marry up his acting performance to his directorial duties. Very much the perfect role, it lets Eastwood accentuate his rugged Western leanings. Eastwood would direct the similarly themed Pale Rider in the 80s and then the genre crown topper Unforgiven in the 90s. A Western great in each decade? Well that will always be debatable, but what we do know is that the Western genre was considerably lucky to have had such a man to keep the genre going for the newer interested wanderers into the Wild West. Beautifully photographed (Bruce Surtees) on the shores of Mono Lake, California, it's a film pungent with sex, sadism, retribution and risks. High Plains Drifter is mystical and magnificent and essential Western fare. 9/10
r96sk2022-01-27
★ 7/10
I don't have much to say about <em>'High Plains Drifter'</em>. It didn't thrill me or anything, but it did keep my attention from start-to-finish so it's evidently a good film. Clint Eastwood is the only cast member worth talking about, he gives a commanding performance in the lead role. Geoffrey Lewis, a frequent castmate of Eastwood's, is the best of the rest, if I had to pick. The film does feature dark themes, which helps the film's pacing out a lot. It's nothing special in my eyes, though there is entertainment there no doubt. It's a borderline 8* rating for me, but not quite.
drystyx2023-04-18
★ 2/10
Another Hollywood (spaghetti) formula Western where homicidal maniacs abound. Here, Clint plays a homicidal maniac who obviously comes back from the dead after being killed by three bad guys and betrayed by an entire town of people. So, the first thing he does is murder the only three men who weren't part of that. Makes sense? Not if you're looking for credible motivation. But credible motivation isn't a part of most of Eastwood's Westerns. Certainly not the spaghetti ones. So, the rest of the movie is just sound and fury, signifying nothing, and don't try to make sense out of any of it. It's just another movie about homicidal maniacs being everywhere. If the West or East or anywhere was anything like this, there wouldn't be anyone left in one piece to keep a town going. They'd all either be dead or crippled. But Eastwood loved to be in that sort of thing. A hundred years from now, he'll be remembered for many good Westerns like Hang Em High and Joe Kidd, and his Rawhid series, and Dirty Harry, because he played credible characters in those. He doesn't do that here.