| High Plains Drifter | 
 enlarge | Actors: Walter Barnes, Verna Bloom, Paul Brinegar, Richard Bull, Billy Curtis
Studio: Universal Studios
Category: DVD
List Price: $12.98
Buy Used: $4.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  93 reviews
Sales Rank: 12198
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Letterboxed, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 105
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.1 x 0.6
MPN: MCAD20152D
ISBN: 0783225725
UPC: 025192015229
EAN: 9780783225722
ASIN: 0783225725
Theatrical Release Date: August 22, 1973
Release Date: February 24, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Free upgrade to 1st Class Mail. From private collection. DVD plays great. Not a copy or bootleg. Official US release. Delivery Confirmation number will be obtained if Expedited Shipment is purchased.
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Amazon.com essential video
Clint Eastwood's second film as a director (and his first Western) is a variation on the "man with no name" theme, starring Eastwood as the drifter known only as "the Stranger." He rides into the desert town of Lagos and is quickly attacked by three gunmen. Recovering with the aid of a local dwarf (a memorable role for Billy Curtis), the Stranger is hired by the intimidated townsfolk to fend off a band of violent ex-convicts. After teaching the citizens self-defense and instructing them to paint the entire town red and rename it "Hell," the Stranger vanishes. He reappears when the marauding criminals arrive, and delivers justice and teaches the townsfolk a harsh lesson about moral obligation. Is he a figure from their past or a kind of supernatural avenger? Combining humor with action, High Plains Drifter is both a serious and tongue-in-cheek tribute to the Westerns that made Eastwood a household name. --Jeff Shannon
Product Description
Eastwood plays the man with no name the mysterious stranger who emerges out of the desert and rides into a guilt-ridden midwestern town saving it from three gunmen or does he? Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 05/23/2006 Starring: Clint Eastwood Verna Bloom Run time: 105 minutes Rating: R
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| Customer Reviews: Read 88 more reviews...
 High Plains Drifter October 5, 2008
This is Clint Eastwood at his imcomparable best. To me, it even outranks "Unforgiven."
"Urghh, He Sure Had A Lot of Blood Left In Him, Didn't He?" July 26, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
'High Plains Drifter' is my very favourite Eastwood movie.(and that's saying something) I especially like the dark humour and ambiguity, but in truth, there's not much I don't like.
You just know something bad is gonna happen, as soon as you see him appearing through the desert heat-haze in the eerie title sequence, and by the time the film ends, with the same shot in reverse (a la 'the Searchers') something bad has!
In between, we're treated to much violence, sexism, adultery, hypocrisy and general wretchedness from the Lago townsfolk, and they're supposed to be the victims!
These people are dire, far worse than the actual villains, (who are gold-star nasty in a traditional sense.) they stood and watched as their sheriff, the only honest character in the film, was whipped to death in the street.
In essence, 'High Plains Drifter' is a cross between 'Witchfinder General', 'High Noon' and 'the Omen', only with lashings more unpleasantness. The main difference being, there's people to cheer for in those films. There's no-one here. Even the 'hero' is a cruel, merciless killer, who is himself in no moral position to deliver salvation OR retribution to the cowering townsfolk.
And who is he? The murdered sheriff's avenging kin? His ghost? The devil? The plot leads us up all the various avenues and alleyways but in the end, it doesn't really matter. We're just glad that everyone who deserves retribution - gets it! The doing-good-via-bad cliche is hammered home, but again we don't really care. We know right will out eventually, however perversely,(hopefully brutally!) because Eastwood's with the programme.
Visually, the films superb. The town appears condensed, like a vacuum, especially when Eastwood demands it be painted red. It's not the traditional homely Western hamlet, which deserves to be defended by brave men for whom it's worthwhile giving their lives. It's a bleak, soul-less outpost, desperate and afraid of it's own shadowy secrets and the fact they're returning to haunt it when it thought they were buried with the sheriff. Bruce Surtees camerawork effortlessly conveys this - and more.(let's not give Eastwood ALL the credit) We get a very real sense of the artless, cuboid structures and the creepy inhabitants deserving each other.
Performance-wise, Eastwood plays Eastwood with a twisted comic bravado, (he knows he's distorting the western myth, by subverting the very iconography and legend that built it in the first place) he prowls the streets like Ann Coulter on the look-out for liberals, a cold glint as another low-life bites the dust.
Geoffrey Lewis is grotesquely brilliant as the drunken, heartless, leering chief-baddy, and the rare Verna Bloom is handsome and sassy as the rebellious wife of one of Lago's slimy conspirators.
There's blood by the bucket, roaring gun-fights, an inevitable,(but well-staged) all consuming fire, seriously nasty whippings and there's even a squalid, squeaky-voiced dwarf who, along with some 'pesky injun savages', are the only people to benefit from the 'drifter's' brief tenure.
'High Plains Drifter' is a delirious amalgam of all that's small and sleazy in our sugar-veneered world. A cynical, yet not completely hopeless vision of mankind in general, which is as valid and relevant now as when Eastwood shot it.
 Classic Eastwood February 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a classic Eastwood film. If you're a fan of others such as Hang 'Em High, or the Man with No Name trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good The Bad and The Ugly), then this is a good one for you.
eastwood again February 6, 2008
what can a man say, about eastwod? you just know I added this to my westerns collection,...
classic January 21, 2008
One of the all time best westerns. Even if you don't like westerns, you might enjoy this one.
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