High Plains Drifter

[Mr. DS]

I actually grew up watching High Plains Drifter on television with my father.  I've always loved this film for it's eerie and disturbing scenes.  The ending is one of my all time favs too. 

[Neville]

Great Eastwood movie. The misoginy makes for some uncomfortable viewing in these days of PC, but it's otherwise a great movie. Gotta love how Eastwood plays all along the ambivalence of his character. Is he alive? Is he a ghost?

The Spanish dubbers screw it up, for some reason (censorship, maybe) they made Eastwood's character reveal himself as the Sheriff's brother at the very end.

I still prefer "Pale Rider" to this one, though. I think the sobriety of its style and the snowy landscapes suit better the story, which is very similar to this one. 

[akiratubo]

Very good movie, very harsh and violent.  You don't get many movies so rough in tone these days.  I also enjoy the very subtle supernatural touches.  Whether he is a wraith or not is mostly irrelevant, but it adds a layer of horror on top of the western tropes.  Horror westerns are, unfortunately, kind of a neglected genre melding.

[threnody]

I still prefer "Pale Rider" to this one, though. I think the sobriety of its style and the snowy landscapes suit better the story, which is very similar to this one. 

Pale Rider is one of my favorite movies of all time!

I haven't seen this one, but I'm adding it to my list. I love Clint Eastwood.

[BeyondTheGrave]

Midget Sheriff. Nuff said.

[peter johnson]

Neville:
What on Earth are you talking about?
Are you Spanish?  Did you watch this movie in Spain or Paraguay or Mexico?
I'm sorry if I missed the prior threads wherein you said you lived in a Spanish-speaking place.
Others:
In any case, I don't think there's any reason at all to doubt the very harsh/central thesis to the film:  Eastwood is an avenging spirit/ghost that returns to wreak vengeance on those who killed him.  The end.  No mystery. 
How can this be ambivalent?  The dwarf at the end that the ghost deputizes is cleaning the very tombstone of the spirit who is riding off into the distance as the credits roll!!  The camera zooms in on the headstone, fo' Lawd's sake!!
He was whipped to death by the very bad guys he kills at the end of the picture.  He IS the ghost of the dead man who was killed in the picture.  He wreakes vengeance on the town because they were too cowardly to help him.
He rides down from the "High Plains" -- the Netherworld/The Land of The Dead -- in the snow to arrive in a desert environment by the sea.  He is a "High Plains Drifter" because he is a ghost/an entity of the High Plains without a home.
peter duh/denny film?  what film?

[Neville]

Yes, I'm an spaniard.

Here we watch most of our movies dubbed, and while it's often done rather profesionally now and then they make goofs. In the Spanish dub of "Reservoir Dogs", for instance, part of  te offscreen dialogue at the end of the film is gone, changing the fate of one of the central characters.

And prior to 1975 we were under a dictatorship which enforced censorship. One of the preferred methods of censoring was to make alterations to the dubbed dialogue. In this film, for some reason, in the final scene they made Eastwood say he was the brother of the murdered Sheriff. It's too deliberate to be a goof, my guess is that for some reason they though the idea of a ghostly gunfighter to be too disturbing.

BTW, I was one of those who spoke of Eastwood's character being ambivalent. I said that because although it's rather clear that he's a ghost it is never mentioned explicitely. You are allowed to take your own conclusions.

[odinn7]

I love this film....it was this film and the original Dirty Harry that made me become an Eastwood fan when I was a kid.


"What did you say your name was again?"

"I didn't..."

[peter johnson]

Neville:
That's fascinating!!  Authoritarian control by dubbing . . . He who controls the dubbing, controls the culture!!
Your command of written English is such that had you not told me, I never would have known -- You must've had an excellent education, dictatorship or no --
* * *
That really is a whacky concept:  "No!  We cannot have a Ghost Gunfighter!  The threat to the Phalangists is too great!!" . . .
denny franco/peter barcelona

[Neville]

Neville:
That's fascinating!!  Authoritarian control by dubbing . . . He who controls the dubbing, controls the culture!!

...And one dubbing to rule them all! 

Your command of written English is such that had you not told me, I never would have known -- You must've had an excellent education, dictatorship or no --
* * *

Thanks, that's very kind of you. I studied English during several years while on my teens, and later earned an English degree at college. One of the reasons of me posting in "foreign" boards is to avoid getting rusty.

That really is a whacky concept:  "No!  We cannot have a Ghost Gunfighter!  The threat to the Phalangists is too great!!" . . .
denny franco/peter barcelona

The arbitrarity of film censorship left a lot of funny anecdotes. Sometimes they wouldn't "get" obvious attacks to tyranny or authority, and other times alterations of the dubbing would actually make the films even more audacious:

When the film was dubbed into Spanish, Francisco Franco's censors found the adultery between Victor Marswell (Clark Gable) and Linda Nordley (Grace Kelly) immoral, so they changed the dialog to make them incestuous siblings.

(From the IMDB entry of "Mogambo (1953)")

My guess is that in this case censors didn't like the idea of a resurrected (therefore somehow sent by God) bringing down the authorities of the village and exposing them as corrupt. God was supposed to be on the side of the stablishment, not with the revolutionaries.

[Allhallowsday]

I haven't seen this one, but I'm adding it to my list.

Well, you'd better right quick!!  If you're a fan of PALE RIDER, it's nearly a sequel to HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER...
HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER is a savage and brutal film, brilliantly arrogant and touching in its view of cruelty, the haunting bullwhip scene is nearly unbearable and frighteningly poignant... the echo near the end of the film is delectable.  I've always loved this essential flick.  TheDarkSider, you modest lad.   

[Jim H]

BTW, there's a very cheap box set containing High Plains Drifter, Joe Kidd and Two Mules for Sister Sara.  It cost me like $10 at Best Buy, whereas that's the usual price for Drifter by itself. 

And yeah, High Plains Drifter is one of Eastwood's best films.  I like the tribute to Leone and Siegel on the tombstones in the town.