HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (Is It Horror?) in '70s Horror and Sci-Fi Forum

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HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (Is It Horror?)

Author	Comment
Rakshasa	Re: HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (Is It Horror?)	#21	[-]
Jan 5 07 12:41 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The sheriff was at one point going to be -
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Tonyspiders	Re: HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (Is It Horror?)	#22	[-]
Jan 5 07 4:45 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Like a lot of posters here, I remember seeing this as a kid. I never considered it a horror film then, but it's intriguing how others have interpreted it. What I honestly remember thinking during an early viewing was "this is a sub-par take on a Leone western." In retrospect, I don't feel it's a bad film. It's certainly very, very entertaining. And I suspect my love of THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY and the other Leone/Morricone teamings tainted my view. It's odd how I can recall having this idea at such an early age. Guess I already recognized the gold standard and refused to accept what I felt was imitation, heartfelt or otherwise. Good thing I've softened over the years. I would have missed out on a tremendous amount of fun!
MikeTheMook	Re: HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (Is It Horror?)	#23	[-]
Jan 5 07 7:06 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Eastwood learned his craft well on RAWHIDE, then later with Leone and even later with Don Siegel. Based on this film, PLAY MISTY FOR ME, and the tail-end of UNFORGIVEN, I feel that if there's one director who could make a damn good horror movie, maybe even a great one, it's Clint Eastwood. His films are often dark, in mood and visually. While I feel that HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER may qualify as a horror film, (and I said may), or that it at least exists on the fringes of horror (I haven't yet made up my mind), technically Eastwood has never directed a straight-forward horror movie, and I'd like to see him do it. I'm not talking blood and guts like everyone else today. But mood, atmosphere, suspense, and outright horror. Who knows, perhaps if the right script comes along....
captainmarvel1957	High Plains Drifter	#24	[-]
Jan 6 07 12:27 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	So, now that it's been refreshed in my memory, yes, I would agree that High Plains Drifter is a horror film, or at the very least a gothic ghost story set in the old West. Eastwood fades away at the end of the film suggesting that he was an avenging spirit. And, with Eastwood's character having a back full of bullet holes in Pale Rider I think the same could be said of that film. Both films are ghost stories. No two ways about it.
CAPTAINCOMPANY	Re: High Plains Drifter	#25	[-]
Jan 8 07 5:13 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Hey guys! Although I would argue that "High Plains" could have a supernatural interpretation (it is definitely more ambiguous than its predecessor "Django the Bastard"), I always read "Pale Rider" as a fairly straightfoward adaptation of the classic "Shane". The title itself alludes to a potentially supernatural protaganist, but I never felt that was the intention of Eastwood in this case. Bryan
Monsterpal	Re: High Plains Drifter	#26	[-]
Jan 8 07 5:49 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. Revelation 6:8
Rakshasa	Re: High Plains Drifter	#27	[-]
Jan 8 07 6:37 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	OK, so I re-watched Clint's appearance on Inside The Actor's Studio last night (I own it on a DVD set). In the interview, Clint refers to High Plains Drifter as "allegorical". Also, (get ready Mike The Mook), he ACTUALLY DOES SAY (hahaha) that in the original script, his character was "clearly the sheriff's brother" and that he opted rather to "play it for ambiguity" and to "let the audience decide if he was the brother or some kind of avenging angel".
MikeTheMook	Re: High Plains Drifter	#28	[-]
Jan 8 07 9:20 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I never knew that. Hmmmm
Rakshasa	Re: High Plains Drifter	#29	[-]
Jan 8 07 9:50 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	(:
captainmarvel1957	Re: High Plains Drifter	#30	[-]
Jan 8 07 11:47 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Monsterpal- Duh! I never made the connection between the movie and the passage from Revelations. Wow! Very nice! What I'll never understand is why we never heard of any litigation over Pale Rider. It lifts entire scenes from Shane. And it is not listed as a derivitive of the original Jack Schaefer novel.
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Psychonolfi	Re: HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (Is It Horror?)	#31	[-]
Jan 9 07 1:52 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Caught this diddy on a double bill with American Graffiti at the age of 8. Been a Clint fan since. I would call it a supernatural melodrama.
MikeTheMook	Re: HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (Is It Horror?)	#32	[-]
Jan 9 07 6:58 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* (: :o
Tonyspiders	Re: HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (Is It Horror?)	#33	[-]
Jan 9 07 9:55 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The idea of Eastwood attacking a horror piece is extremely appealing. Nobody would expect it, least of all Hollywood. They might take his star away.
creepycrawley	Re: HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (Is It Horror?)	#34	[-]
Jan 12 07 1:10 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Just to satisfy my curiosity about this film I went to IMDB to check the credit. The name of the Sheriff of Lagos who was whipped to death was Jim Duncan. In the listing they have Jim Duncan played by actor Buddy Van Horn and Clint Eastwood listed simply as The Stranger. IMHO I always felt this movie had a definite supernatural feel to it.
Monsterpal	Re: Re: HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (Is It Horror?)	#35	[-]
Jan 12 07 7:27 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	There's certainly something about it a bit beyond your typical oater.
Jay Maggio	Re: HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (Is It Horror?)	#36	[-]
Mar 3 07 4:13 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Jay here: I always thought HPD was a ghost story, Clint seems to come out of some strange mist/fog and then rides back into it, I think Mordecai (Billy Curtis) knew it too. A vengeful spirit. regards,JM
riotengine	Re: HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (Is It Horror?)	#37	[-]
Mar 11 07 1:55 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* I certainly like to believe Clint is not the sheriff's brother (as I THINK I've heard Clint say was in the original treatment), but rather an avenging angel of death. I've read this in several places and while Clint probably said this, I agree with you guys that the character is an avenging spirit. The movie is just ambiguous enough for arguments to be made for both. GREG ESPINOZA I made it possible for you to come here! I welcomed you to this Earth you made it a charnel house! http://www.comicspace.com/gregespinoza
Mark Redfield	Re: HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (Is It Horror?)	#38	[-]
Mar 11 07 10:13 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	completely off-topic trivia regarding PALE RIDER... Next time you watch PALE RIDER, look-out for Michael Moriarty's vanishing arm cast... Years ago while watching PALE RIDER, I was struck curious by a line that the Preacher speaks when Hul (Moriarty's character) yelps in joy when he finds gold in the stream. The Preacher has a throw-away line like, "What'dya do? Break yer arm?" The NEXT time I watched the film, it jumped out at me, and once you spot it, you'll be surprised that its "hidden in plain sight"--Michael Moriarty broke his hand while shooting the town scenes, and in every town scene, Moriarty is wearing a cast. Sometimes its hidden under a blanket or up camera, but mostly it's right there in the open. They just tried to shoot and edit around it. The scenes in town were obviously shot first, the miners camp later in the schedule, and Eastwood's line an in-joke ad-lib. And I'll take HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER as a supernatural western. Mark Redfield www.redfieldarts.com
Domenick Fraumeni	Re: HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (Is It Horror?)	#39	[-]
Mar 11 07 12:15 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Huh, I always thought that the reason for the different guy in the flashbacks was maybe it was Eastwood's stunt double. But I can see where he might have changed things during shooting, but they had already filmed those sequences. I think HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER is definitely a tale of ghostly revenge. Vengeance from beyond. And definitely ambiguous. That's partly what makes it timeless, imo. It's definitely the closest thing Eastwood has ever, and probably will ever, made that could be called a horror genre film. Not overt horror, but it's there, if you want to find it. It's also one of my personal favourites of his work.
Monsterpal	Re: HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (Is It Horror?)	#40	[-]
Mar 11 07 12:38 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	THE BEGUILED was kind of a horror movie, Southern Gothic style.
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HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (Is It Horror?)