The Film Review and Bond Link/Connection Thread *SPOILERS*
This is based on a theory that most, if not all, movies can be linked/connected in some way to the Bond films, novels, world.
Review a movie you've seen that isn't a Bond movie and make a link/connection (no matter how tenuous or convoluted) between it and Bond.
HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (1973)
Clint Eastwood's allegorical western is a genre classic. At the time of its release it was unlike any other western that had come before it. And it remains one of the best films ever made in that genre to this very day.
The plot is simple and set in a gorgeously stark lakeside location. A stranger (Eastwood) passing through the mining town of Lago stops for refreshment and is almost immediately provoked into killing three hired guns. He is then accosted by the town bike and proceeds to rape her in a stable for her rudeness. Not your average travelling salesman then.
The townsfolk of Lago were previously complicit in the murder of the town sheriff. He was killed by a trio of mining company employed hoods. They whipped him to death in the street. These three killers were then framed for theft by the townspeople and conveniently imprisoned. Bad news is they have just been released from the pen and are heading back to town with payback on their minds.
The townsfolk, noting the stranger's prowess with a gun and his mercenary attitude to life in general, ask him to help defend them from the returning thugs. In return he can have anything he wants. And that's a big mistake. He agrees the deal and sets about teaching them a lesson they will never forget.
The set-up is simple, but within this straightforward framework resides a complex and multi-layered allegorical fable about morality, sin, cowardice, greed, hell, revenge and redemption. This is not your typical horse opera, no sir.
People who have seen the film are all, to some degree, hung up on the question of the stranger's identity. There are several possibilities and theories.
He's the Devil. This is based on his almost supernatural ability to avoid certain death and the scene in which he refuses to help the townsfolk until they offer him anything he wants. The suggestion being that this is the key moment when they have willingly sold him their souls, and he is then free to take them to hell. One character points out: "This couldn't be any worse if the devil himself had ridden into Lago."
He could be an avenging angel on a mission to teach the sinful populace of the town a lesson.
Or, he is the restless spirit of Jim Duncan, the murdered sheriff, returning in another guise to take revenge against the town and the men who killed him. The stranger has dreams of Duncan's death. Some critics point to the closing scenes when Eastwood is leaving town and the midget Mordecai, who is putting a name on the sheriff's grave marker states: "I never did know your name..." to which the stranger replies: "Yes you do". As Eastwood rides away, the camera pans to the name of the sheriff on the grave marker.
Perhaps he is really just a footloose traveller passing through who, by a twist of fate, gets caught up in events and everything else is just smoke and mirrors. "I was just riding through looking for a drink and a hot bath."
The identity of the stranger doesn't really matter. It is never specified but the script provides plenty of clues and cues to generate speculation and it is therefore in the eye of the beholder. You pay your money, you take your choice. Deliberately left open to interpretation. Me, I like the Satan idea, and sometimes I think that's the most likely interpretation. Then I watch it again and I'm pretty much sold on the ghost of the dead sheriff idea. It varies.
Whoever or whatever the stranger is, his actions are more significant he rides into Lago, he clearly has an agenda whether that is ultimately pre-defined or off the cuff. His mission is to mess with them, show them the error of their ways and orchestrate punishment. That's what he does and then he's gone. Like a ghost, melting into the heat haze as he rides into the distance in the closing scenes.
How he rolls is, he makes the local midget the sheriff and the mayor. Takes serious advantage of the offer of anything he wants; has them paint the town red (Preacher: "You can't mean the church?" Stranger: "I mean especially the church."). He changes the name of the town from Lago to Hell. Then he deserts them to the mercies of the vengeful killers, later returning in a night of flame, whiplash, gunfire and reckoning to wipe out the bad guys; finally leaving Lago a chastened and ruined husk that either needs to be reconstructed or abandoned.
Reasons why you should watch it? It's provocative, stimulating, intriguing and a fabulous example of the creative invention going on in American mainstream cinema in the early seventies. The violent action still has the power to shock even now and it is directed by Eastwood with the skill and flair of a major creative talent. He extends the western mythology re-envisioned by the likes of Leone and Peckinpah and elevates it to another level. The screenplay by Ernest (Shaft) Tidyman is blackly humorous, laconic and smart, littered with some classic Eastwood one-liners, and there is not a single dud performance from the very accomplished cast. Great atmospheric score from Dee Barton and haunting cinematography by Bruce Surtees. Even if you don't like westerns, watch it for the sheer thrill of being reminded why cinema is an art form.
The creativity and quality on show is something you won't see replicated in Hollywood movies today. Amazing what could once be achieved back when no one had even imagined CGI could ever exist. And if they had and considered the implications, they wouldn't want it to.
LINK/CONNECTION: Ernest Tidyman scripted HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER and also created the character John Shaft. The advertising tagline for the first SHAFT movie was "Cooler than Bullitt, hotter than Bond." SHAFT probably represents the commercial zenith of early seventies blaxploitation craze. The 1973 Roger Moore debut Bond movie LIVE AND LET DIE was heavily influenced by the success of blaxploitation cinema.
"What a helpful Chap."