- published: 10 Jan 2012
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High Plains Drifter is a 1973 American Western film, with a hint of the supernatural, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood and produced by Robert Daley for The Malpaso Company and Universal Pictures. Eastwood plays a mysterious gunfighter hired by the residents of a corrupt frontier mining town to defend them against a group of criminals. The film was influenced by the work of Eastwood's two major collaborators Sergio Leone and Don Siegel.
The film was shot on location on the shores of Mono Lake, California. The screenplay was written by Ernest Tidyman and an uncredited Dean Riesner. Tidyman wrote the novelization. Dee Barton provided the film's eerie musical score. The film was critically acclaimed at the time of its initial release and still is, holding a score of 96% on Rotten Tomatoes.
The story depicts the efforts of a small mining town to defend itself against a group of rogue gunfighters with the help of a mysterious outsider, referred to as the Stranger. The town reveals its timidity and corruption when they hire the Stranger to protect them.
A stranger rides out of the hot desert into a small town in the wild west. The towns people are scared of him, and 3 gunmen try, unsuccessfully, to kill him. He takes a room and decides to stay. Meanwhile, a group of outlaws are about to return to the town and take their revenge - will the towns leaders convince the mysterious man to help ?
Keywords: 1880s, 19th-century, adultery, ambush, anger, anti-hero, arizona, arson, assault, barber
Stacey Bridges, Outlaw: Now, Morg. You just give us the combination to that safe in the mining office and we'll slip right in, get the money that's owed us and slip right back out again.::Morgan Allen: [dying] I wouldn't give you the combination to the gates of hell. [Stacy stabs him in the throat with a sharpened stick]
Sheriff Dan Shaw: [after the Stranger blows up the hotel and shoots four men] What the hell happened?::The Stranger: Somebody left the door open and the wrong dogs came home.
Warden: Bridges, you Carlin boys, don't forget your tickets back to my little hotel [throws their guns and gun belts on the ground] Don't worry, they ain't loaded.::Stacey Bridges, Outlaw: What about our horses? We rode in here on three good animals.::Warden: What do you think you been eatin' the last six months. [goes back in and closes the door]::Cole Carlin, Outlaw: Damn him! I didn't think I was eatin' my own horse! He's lying. That slop he fed us wasn't our horses. He stole 'em and sold 'em, that's what he done!::Stacey Bridges, Outlaw: Shut up! [smiles] When we get to Lago, you can have the mayor's horse, fried or barbecued.
Mordecai: What happens after?::The Stranger: Hmm?::Mordecai: What do we do when it's over?::The Stranger: Then you live with it.
Sarah Belding: Be careful. You're a man who makes people afraid, and that's dangerous.::The Stranger: It's what people know about themselves inside that makes 'em afraid.
The Stranger: A lot faster than you'll ever live to be.
Preacher: See here, you can't turn all these people out into the night. It is inhuman, brother. Inhuman!::The Stranger: I'm not your brother.::Preacher: We are all brothers in the eyes of God.::The Stranger: All these people, are they your sisters and brothers?::Preacher: They most certainly are.::The Stranger: ...Then you won't mind if they come over and stay at your place, will ya?
Sheriff Dan Shaw: Billy, he wasn't a loved man. He didn't have much personality and what he did have was all bad.
The Stranger: Wonder what took her so long to get mad?::Mordecai: Because maybe you didn't go back for more?
Callie Travers: Just what do you consider going too far? Isn't forcible rape in broad daylight a misdemeanor in this town?
Cuz I'm the high plains drifter, and I'm the drifter
The high plains drifter, and I'm the drifter
They can't find me they're never gonna catch me
They're never gonna know that I'm the high plains drifter
Pulled over to the river, to take a rest
Pulled out a pair of pliers pulled a bullet out of my chest
Fear and loathing 'cross the country listenin' to my 8-track
I reached behind the seat and snatched a Kool from the pack
I'm long-distance from my girl and I'm talking on my cellular
She said that she was sorry and I said yeah the hell you were
check the rear view mirror check the gold tooth display
check the odometer and I was on my way
Cuz I'm the high plains drifter the best that you can get
A strapped shoplifter a pirate on cassette
Bust a Travis Bickle when I feel that I'm getting pushed
Don't step to me cuz you could be gettin' mushed
I'm doing 120 plowin' over mailboxes
Radar detector to tell me where the cops is
Spend another night at the Motel 6
It's five dollars extra to get the porno flicks
And then I concoct a black and tan in my brandy snifter
I'ma kleptomaniac K-mart shoplifter
Cash flow gettin low so I had to pull a job
Found a nice place to visit but a better place to rob
I left the car outside and the engine still revving
Time to take care of business at 7-eleven
And the I went inside to make my withdrawl
I saw what he had had but I had to take it all
Knuclehead deli tried to gyp me off the price
So I clocked him on the turban with a bag of ice
Cuz I mellow like Jell-O cool like lemonade
I made my get a way and then I thought that I had it made
I feel like Steve McQueen, a Former movie star
Looked in the rear view mirror seen the police car
Ballentine quarts with the puzzle on the cap
I couldn't help to notice I was caught in a speed trap
Dirty Mary Crazy Larry on the run from Dirty Harry
Stash the cash in the dash, but my gun I did carry
I'm seeing blue and red flashing deep in the night
I got my alibi straight and I pulled over to the right
The cop knocked on my window and said Boy, where's the fire?
You got a mailbox on your bumper and a bald front tire
"Outta the car longhair!" Your goose is cooked
Read me my rights fingerprinted and booked
Making like a DT, driving a grand fury
Wherever I hang my hat's my home and my past is kind of blurry
Every dog has his day mine will be in front of a jury
High plains drifter you know that I'm never in a hurry
Read me my rights as if I didn't know this
Threw me in the tank with a drunk called Otis
With his 5 o'clock shadow he smelled of 3 day old beer
My man turned to me and said, "Why are you here?"
I said I'm charming I'm dashing I'm rental-car bashing
I'm phony-paper passing at Nick's Check and Cashing
I went before the judge he sent my to the Brooklyn house of D.
He said, "You behave or we'll throw away the key"
Houdini'd out the cuffs, kicked the screw in the knee
I took the Bailiff's wallet and went straight to OTB
I had a good feeling easy come easy go
I bet on one horse to win and another and so
And sure enough, that nag came in
Brought my ticket to the window and collected my win
And I broke into my new car with a wire coat hanger