High Plains Drifter by Clint Eastwood (1973)
Clearly inspired by his work with Sergio Leone in films like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Clint Eastwood set out to make his own spaghetti-style western for his sophomore directorial effort. High Plains Drifter has all of the expected trappings for such a film, including a bleak frontier setting, bloody violence, and amoral characters. (Just how amoral, you might ask? Eastwood’s nameless character rapes a woman in the first 15 minutes, and he’s the protagonist.) But though it does feature some striking visuals, particularly in its final act, High Plains Drifter never quite shakes the feeling that it’s just a lesser copy of Leone’s work. The film clearly aims for a mythical, even supernatural atmosphere concerning Eastwood’s protagonist and his quest for retribution, but that all proves to be less interesting than it probably seemed on paper.
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