IMMP 169 - HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER === [00:00:00] Matthew: Hello all and welcome to another episode of the Inter Millennium Media Project, the IMMP. My name is Matthew Porter. And I'm Ian Porter, and we're still in the West. And I made Ian watch another movie. Ian: Well, we've kind of always been in the west, let's be honest here. Matthew: This is true. Ian: This is Us. But that we're, we're doing another Western story this time. Matthew: We are, we're, we're staying with Clint Eastwood, Ian: Yeah, a very different [00:01:00] era of him. It feels like. Matthew: It is. we're skipping over a couple of movies that you might expect us to do, and I think we're gonna go back to those. 'cause last time we talked about A Fistful of Dollars and that is considered the beginning of a trilogy of movies that Eastwood made with Sergio Leone, the, the classic Spaghetti westerns that kind of opened that up in the US and we're skipping over the other two "dollars" movies also sometimes called The Man With No Name Trilogy, because I wanted to go into that next kind of era partly because it, it is such a change and yet it clearly is stuff that he learned working with Leone. And it's also a movie directed by Clint Eastwood. Ian: Yeah. It's one of those director is also the lead actor pieces, which has a very different tone to, it changes how the focus feels, Matthew: and we get so much more of that in Eastwood's later career. It's interesting to go back here to where this started and that's [00:02:00] why we watched High Plains Drifter. Ian: This is a name I kind of, I hear it and I'm like, oh, that makes sense and it doesn't grab me at all. See, I knew a fist full of dollars as a brand name for all. It was. I knew the Dollars Trilogy in that sense, but High Plains Drifter had no grab in terms of name recognition for me. And I find that interesting. Matthew: It is, and I would would say that that is about right in terms of how the movies are regarded today and how, what people know about. When I first saw this, I saw it. It's another one that I saw on tv, so I saw a very edited version. Back to things like Zardoz, where getting to see the unedited original version was a very different experience than watching the TV edit when I was probably around 11 or 12 years old. And yeah, it's a very different kind of movie. And those spaghetti westerns are so much more known, the Fistful of Dollars. I'd say the third of [00:03:00] those, , Italian movies, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. It might be the most well known, at least from its title being recognized. Ian: Okay. Matthew: But this one less so, but it's the first one that I saw. I saw this movie, and then later I was able to go back and watch those Italian movies. Ian: Oh, interesting. So you've got more connection to this one in that sense. Matthew: Yeah. It was more of a cultural item, more well known. At the time I was becoming aware of movies and stuff. Ian: Hmm. But you can see how this draws from some of those same ideas and some of those themes and styles from the Dollars Trilogy. And this came out, , 10 years after A Fistful of Dollars. Yeah,, just about 10 years and it immediately hit me with it being a movie for whom those 10 years of cinema change were evident. This visually hits different, it's got a very different tone in terms of its color, in terms of, framing, [00:04:00] there's just a difference to the environment because, well, you know, the previous movies and a lot of the westerns you think of have those wide rolling spaces. Ian: This one's set in a town next to a lake. There's a lot more colors coming at you, a lot greener environments. It's very different in that sense. Matthew: It, yeah. For, for a movie set in this location, it's got high plains in its title and yet it feels very claustrophobic so much of the time. Ian: Mm-hmm. Matthew: And if you summarize the story, it is not going to sound unfamiliar at all. A stranger rides into town. Everybody's a little nervous. He immediately has a fight with the three toughest guys in town and shoots them. And because of that, he gets a job as a professional gunfighter. Matthew: That sounds a whole lot like A Fistful of Dollars. Ian: Yes. I will also say, though, I can summarize this in a different way and make it [00:05:00] sound like a different set of movies quite easily. Matthew: Oh, definitely. Ian: Which is a person walks into a major town immediately, has enough charisma and such to gain a group of people behind them. And a large midpoint of the movie is a major shopping spree before this person with their charisma and skills wanders out off to greater potential successes Am I describing High Plains Drifter or Legally Blonde. It's very different parallel, but there's some differences in here. Matthew: You just killed the best gunfighters in the territory. What? Like that's hard. Ian: Exactly. It's, it's, it's different. But it definitely has that same through line, A Fistful of Dollars. You can see it rise to the surface in [00:06:00] High Plains Drifter. It's very, very much the core. Matthew: Yes. Ian: But High Plains swaps out plenty of scenes and tacks a lot of other moments that I was very surprised by in all directions. I would not call Clint Eastwood's character in this movie, the same sort of person as Clint Eastwood's character in A Fistful of Dollars. They're two different interpretations of that sort of wandering gun slinger. Matthew: Yes. And you were saying before how this is clearly reflecting 10 years of change in movies. I think I mentioned how movies like Sergio Leone's westerns helped get us to the gritty, dark realism of the seventies. This movie is very much embedded in that. Yeah, there are really no genuinely, completely good people in this movie. And certainly the main characters that we are following throughout, including absolutely including Clint Eastwood's character are, are bad [00:07:00] people. He's an anti-hero at best. He's a protagonist. We're watching to see what he does and what his challenges are and what he accomplishes. But he is not a hero. Ian: He is not a hero at all. And that is clear, and that is important. That is a part of what makes this story function Matthew: And that fits given the fact that most of the story is about at the, at the base of it. What does fear drive people to do? Yes, The big difference between this and A Fistful of Dollars is there's fear in this town when he rides in what they're afraid of is not clear. And there's no one who explains right away. Well, there are these guys on this side of town and those guys on that side of town and they're always fighting. No. There is some unspoken fear. Everybody in this town has Ian: Yeah. Matthew: And they are, nervous about this stranger. You get the impression they would be just as nervous and afraid if he hadn't ridden into town. It's just baked into this town, and we [00:08:00] learned mm-hmm. The, the story is a mystery, not in a whodunit, but in a what's happened and what is, what is the reason for the condition. And we do learn that we, they reveal what happened and who's responsible for what over the course of the movie. Ian: Yes. But it's, it's bits and pieces and I only got to watch it once for this, but I get the feeling that this is a movie that is very much different on the second viewing. Because of that, I know all the pieces and I'll catch things that are going to happen. Matthew: Yeah. There's that second viewing foreshadowing of, oh, now that makes sense. It seemed like it was just a bit of business or catchy dialogue. Instead. Oh, that was meaningful. Ian: Mm-hmm. That's definitely one of the pieces to this. I'm trying to think in my head, if A Fistful of Dollars or any other Western I've had has had as strong a wander into town scene, though I'll say High Plains Drifter, that that wander [00:09:00] into town is powerful. Because there's every single person watching from every single location. Matthew: Yeah. I've got here in my notes, running time. One hour, 45 minutes. 45 minutes is him riding into town. Yeah. That's what it felt like. That is such a long sequence. Longer than it needs to be, perhaps. But we get a lot of, we get introductions, silent introductions to so many characters. We then have to follow just by seeing them stare at him as he rides into town. And he's not causing any trouble. He's just being quiet, riding into town. He wants to go to the saloon, get a drink. He wants to go to the barbershop to get a shave and a bath. And then you get the impression he would be on his way maybe, Ian: but maybe, Matthew: but that's, that's all he seems to want. But the three guys who seem to be bossing everybody else in the town around, they confront him. Ian: They pick a fight and he kills all of them. He [00:10:00] kills all of them. . Not in a very honest way. And during a shave, the most awkward barber shop scene I've ever seen. Matthew: Yes. Yeah. This is not a a standup gunfight, the western equivalent of jousting. This is, he's got a gun hidden under the barber's, cloth. And everything about this barber and this barbershop makes me nervous. It's, it's well directed and it's well shot in that this barber, he is the most nervous person in town, so he's about to give somebody a shave and his hand is trembling so much. It's like that's the most horrifying thing in this movie in some ways. Ian: It, it absolutely is. I also love the fact that this means we do, in fact, get a gunfight on a swivel chair. Matthew: Yes, we do. Ian: Just seeing Clint Eastwood's character kick off and spin and then halt and fire for all three of these, it's. It's weirdly enough, it feels this is one of those other [00:11:00] movies taking reference to this or this communicating with other movies. There's something about that scene that reminds me of shots in war movies or sci-fi movies where someone's on a gun turret. Mm-hmm. It makes Lin Eastwood's character seem cold and mechanical in a way that not even the acting is the, the way he's first gunfight goes is a stiffer and darker version. Yeah. It doesn't have the, the skillful flourish of uh, an artist that you see for like the spinning gun slinger character, you get a man who just pivot fire, pivot fire. He is disturbing. He is. Unnatural in that almost. And that ties into some later stuff. I think. Matthew: Yes, it definitely sets up the fact that he may be a gunfighter, he's very skilled with a firearm, but he is, he's not just a gunfighter, he is a fighter and a killer. He will [00:12:00] use everything in the environment to achieve the objective. And often the objective is certain people need to die. Ian: Yeah. Matthew: And immediately the town's response to this, there doesn't seem to be any legal repercussion because their sheriff, is completely ineffectual. But they seem to be wondering, do we, do we arrest him? Do we shoot him? Do we hire him? And they decide to hire him because as we later learned, these three guys wandering around with their guns and bossing everyone around, they were hired by the town for protection. Ian: Yeah. Matthew: And he has just taken them out and, and they were, they were hired by the town for protection and then they started to swagger around and try to run the place. And the town didn't like that, but they were stuck. Now this guy's come in and gotten rid of that problem. Do we hire him to solve the problem we had hoped they would solve or is he a bigger problem? They decide to hire him. Ian: Yeah. They, it's like we, we needed three gunfighters and they did [00:13:00] nothing except die. Right. The first, so I guess we hire the guy that killed them. Yep. And Okay. Matthew: And it's even before they hire him, we get to see what horrible behavior he has in that. Yeah. Yeah. This is one of the, you see this in seventies movies too often. It's part of that gritty realism, supposedly in that sexual assault is just used as a plot point. And he has this confrontation with a, a woman who sorts of picks an argument with him, but his response is sexual assault. Again, we're watching that from the 21st century. It's like, oh, this is a absolutely horrendous person. I wonder if that's really the re response that this had from a lot of moviegoers in the early seventies. Ian: Yeah. I, I, that was the moment where I was a saying immediately, oh, he is not a good character. He is not a good person. We're not like, [00:14:00] I, I'm not to root for him. I understand. Mm-hmm. And I also thought, I am, I am immediately marking that I might not be comfortable enough to finish this movie. Right. Because it was a har it was a. A, a harsh enough scene and a disturbing enough depiction that I was uncomfortable in that moment. Matthew: And, you know, a combination of it being, having been decades ago and me having seen the the TV, broadcast TV edit of this movie that shocked me as well. And I was wondering, she, and we wanna watch this movie, but it's it still has its place in cinema and is worth talking about. Ian: Yeah. So we're going to keep talking about it, but it's, this is also like a, a major warning of what this entails and what there, what is part of this. Yep. Matthew: In spite of all of this, and this is not a big secret to the town either. They decide to hire him and he wants nothing of it until they say, [00:15:00] essentially we will give you literally anything you want. Ian: Mm-hmm. Matthew: And that includes some of the men running the city saying, you know, you need a woman, we'll arrange that too. But he has essentially an open line of credit that he never has to pay back everywhere in the town. And everybody in the town has to pitch in by giving them whatever he wants. So he wants to go into the saloon and buy drinks for himself and everybody else. He does that and it's on the, the saloon owner, he wants to go into the, the boot shop and buy the two of the best. They, everything. They've got a brand new saddle and, and clothes and all of it. He gets whatever he wants. He wants the best room in the hotel. He gets it. And we also see something interesting and I maybe this is their attempt to say, well, he's kind of maybe sort of a good person. As the general store owner tries to shoo away some of the, the Native Americans who have, have come into the shop to pick up some supplies the stranger, [00:16:00] Clint Eastwood's character picks up a giant stack of blankets and gives them to the Native American and gives jars of candy to the two kids, and that's on the store. Keep. Ian: Mm-hmm. Matthew: It doesn't undo the evil that we've seen from this character before, but I think that was their effort to say, and it, it was even unclear. Is he doing this to be kind to the people he's giving these things to, or is he doing this just to further punish the person who owns the store? It's not even clear about that. Ian: It's not clear. It is interesting to see every single store owner, every single person in town following along in a crowd. As he does this shopping trip and every single one of them is Akay when it's anyone else's shop. But the moment it's theirs, they're unhappy with it. Yes. And they don't like it. And it's the I was fine when it was someone else's stuff he got, but it wasn't when it was mine. There's that [00:17:00] immediate greed and that immediate tension as all of these shopkeepers have something, they're now mad at the other shopkeepers about everyone in town is now unhappy with each other, and we watched the stranger sowing more discontent in the town between everyone else , because of the choices they made to give him free reign. Matthew: Yeah. It definitely shows up the, the ethics and the personalities of the people in the town, the people who own all these businesses because it's, it's such a deal with the devil situation and this seems great. I'm gonna get what I need. Oh, there's a price. I don't wanna have to pay the price. I just thought I was gonna get what I need. For what I thought I need. And that is the conflict that we see in this town. Ian: Yes. Matthew: And the other character we haven't mentioned is Mordecai. Yeah. Played by Billy Curtis, who is a, a little person actor who's been in so many movies. Billy Curtis's first movie I have to mention was [00:18:00] Terror in the Tiny Town. Ian: Uhhuh Matthew: a Western cast entirely with little people. Ian: Okay. Matthew: And this is not the first movie in which Billy Curtis appeared that we have talked about on the IMMP. Ian: What have we seen him in before? Matthew: Well, I'm not sure you could say we saw him. 'cause he has an uncredited appearance as an ape child in Planet of the Apes. Ian: Oh, you're kidding me. Matthew: I think, I think that's the only other movie of his that we have seen so far on the IMMP. Ian: Okay. Matthew: But he is so good and he is such an expressive actor and he does a lot of interesting things with this character because he's sort of the town mascot. Ian: He works for the barber, he does jobs for people around the town and nobody takes him seriously. And e ways he, so he is the closest thing that the stranger gets as a [00:19:00] sidekick. Yeah. Yeah. Matthew: And maybe I'm just reading too much into things, but he's sort of, if, if Eastwood's character is the devil, Mordecai is kind of a fire imp because what do we see him doing? All the business that he's doing, he is the one always there. With a, a match to light the stranger's cigar, they need to stoke the stove in the barbershop for hot water. Mordecai is the one making things hot. He, for this struck me watching this. He is always, for the first half of the movie, he is connected to fire and heat, and that seems to be what binds him to this satanic character, this devil like character that we see at Clint Eastwood. Ian: Yeah. Matthew: I love finding symbolism like that. I have no illusions that this was necessarily intended, but it's fun to be able to find dots to connect like that. Ian: That is, I I like that. Honestly, that's very [00:20:00] poignant and it fits so well with, because we do see that like the. The interaction and the wandering into town breaks so many systems Matthew: Yes. Ian: Changes so much of what's happening. And so suddenly this person who'd had no opportunity before is getting a chance and he revels in it as much as anything else. Ev everyone else is there complaining, upset. He's the one guy, I think he's actually getting a better deal now than he used to. Matthew: He is, but even he is in a position where he can enjoy this now, but there's going to be a reckoning later. Yeah. And that becomes more clear as time goes on. And this is because in addition to showing that he just wants whatever he can get, the stranger makes it very clear that his use of this power he's been given in this town is not just to get stuff for himself, it is also to sow discord, as you mentioned. And he, he takes the badge off the marshal and, and makes makes Mordecai the new sheriff [00:21:00] and he takes the hat off the mayor's head and puts it on Mordecai Mordecai's also the mayor, and Mordecai is reveling in this. He finally has some position of power. He doesn't necessarily acknowledge that this is not necessarily about him, it's about humiliating the other people in town, but it still elevates him in a way that he's never been elevated before. Ian: Mm-hmm. And, and that's the thing. It's not even just he does those two things immediately. The stranger reaches over and takes a. The sheriff's badge, when the sheriff was taunting the tavern owner, the, the bar keep 'cause of this deal. It's like, hey, you agreed to it reaches over, takes it, and it's this immediate humiliation and consequence for having the attitude the sheriff was having. Matthew: That's true. And that's the first real cost to the sheriff. The sheriff doesn't own a business. Mm-hmm. Who had to give stuff away free. The sheriff doesn't have a hotel. What does the [00:22:00] sheriff have? He's, he's got his title, he's got his position, which he didn't do anything with, and that was taken away from him. That was his price. Ian: And immediately upon that being the mayor laughs at the sheriff and then the mayor's hat goes. And so everything is seen to be a consequence. Yeah. It's not great, but every single action that the stranger does is a consequence. He is some, he is continually. Implementing a form of justice, I guess. Yeah, he is. He's an awful guy. And we have established that he is doing things in a terrible way, but that is the way he is going about like what he's selecting to do. It seems right Matthew: and no one gets to avoid having to pay a price. If you've got boots and saddles, you've gotta give away boots and saddles. If you've got booze, you've gotta give away booze. If all you have is status and power, you've gotta give away status and power. Ian: [00:23:00] Mm-hmm. So the entire town is just slowly becoming more and more unhinged as this continues Matthew: and we learn why the town needed to hire Gunfighters for protection and why it's so nervous, and that is something in their past that there are three guys who are about to get out of prison. Who have a grudge against this town, and they're, the town is expecting them to come back for revenge as soon as they're out of the territorial prison. And we get through flashbacks and dream sequences and things. The fact that the secret this town has is it had an a sheriff before the, the totally ineffectual sheriff we see here. It had Marshall Duncan, who mm-hmm. Who was was killed right in the middle of town, was whipped to death and no one in the town did anything to stop it. Ian: Interesting that [00:24:00] our stranger has been, we're getting dream sequences from our stranger of an event. Very much like that. Matthew: Yes. And slowly bit by bit. Over the course of the movie, more pieces of information are leaked out, and the strangers sort of our, our primary surrogate in terms of getting this information. Though we do see some backroom conversations among the other characters, things that the, the stranger is not necessarily learning, but these guys who were sent to prison, they were sent to prison for stealing gold from the mining office. And this is a mining town and that's, the source of its wealth and for a small town it's fairly wealthy. And the circumstances under which they were found to have stolen this gold ingot seem kind of fishy. It seems like kind of a setup. And the stranger acknowledges this with some of the very pointed questions [00:25:00] that he asks. And then later on we learn. Over the course of this movie, as this happens and, and throughout the movie, the the stranger is training the men of the town to defend the town and tactically setting them up where their positions should be, having them practice shooting people riding into town by having dummies pulled by a a, a wagon. Nobody in the town is any good at this, the, whereas the the stranger can take out three guys in a heartbeat. But throughout all the time that this takes, we learn more and more and we eventually learn that the town arrange to have Marshall Duncan killed. Ian: Yep. Matthew: And those three guys worked for them. So they essentially hired three guys to kill the Marshall and then seemingly set up those three guys with a completely different crime to make, get them outta the way and send them to [00:26:00] prison. Ian: So this is a giant coverup. Matthew: Yes. And the reason they decided they had to kill Marshall Duncan is that the mine was on government property and was therefore illegal and Duncan was going to blow the whistle. He was going to tell the authorities about this, and that would've meant the end for this town and all of the wealth that it had accumulated. And they made a choice back then. Ian: Mm-hmm. And that adds to this, this layering where suddenly that's why those big pivot points where we figure that out because suddenly the stranger's actions seem more confusing. What is he doing here? What is he making happen? Matthew: The only two people in town who didn't just watch and do nothing, or who hadn't really set up this to happen in the first place while the Marshall was being killed. There was Mordecai Ian: mm-hmm. Who Matthew: was horrified by this, but had absolutely no power to do anything about it. And there was the wife [00:27:00] of the hotel owner, and she wanted to stop this and spoke out against it and tried to stop it until she was prevented from doing so. They are the only two people in town who expressed any kind of, of objection or regret or remorse about what had happened. And you get the impression that the, the attitude, the mood of this town isn't just. Fear that these guys who have a grudge against us are about to get out of jail. It's also that this event has poisoned the soul of this town, that this collective guilt has meant that they cannot enjoy any of the, the wealth and prosperity they have. And throughout, as we're learning these things, the stranger keeps preparing the town for the return of these outlaws, and we do see them get outta prison that partway through the movie we start to follow them on their trek across the high plains to go back to the town of Lago and, [00:28:00] and and get what's theirs. They want to enact revenge and they want the money that's in the mining company safe that belongs to them yep. In, in payment for, for their their having been set up and for having been, been hired previously to kill this Marshall, Ian: they honestly feel like characters from a different movie that wandered in at some point. Yeah. There's something very, like in the middle of this very grim and gritty Plin Eastwood film. There's a, a strange buddy cop you know, buddy Road movie about these three guys who got slighted by an entire town who are making their way back. Matthew: And these are awful characters too. There is really nothing, but in most of this movie, they're exactly the kind of characters you would expect to be able to hire to gang up on somebody and murder them. Yeah. And on their way back, they are constantly killing people for their horses or their clothes or their equipment and, and making their way back to Lago that way. Ian: Mm-hmm. It also does make those [00:29:00] three a little bit more like a force of nature. Like there is a thunderstorm that was just released from prison over here that is wandering towards the town in a straight line. Matthew: That's a great point. That is kind of how it feels in the town that they're trying to prepare for the biggest hurricane ever. And Yeah. And what can they do? How much can they prepare and how much do they just have to ride it out once it comes? That is a great comparison. Ian: Well, thank you. Matthew: And the things that the stranger is doing in the town to prepare them, he says, keep getting stranger and stranger, no pun intended. He starts out with things that make sense. How do we tactically defend this and how do we teach you guys to shoot or find out if you can shoot? And then it's things like, I need big tables set up in the middle of town, like for a [00:30:00] big church picnic, and I need hundreds of gallons of red paint. Yeah. Because eventually he has every single building in the town painted red. Yes. And he never explains why he needs this, but it's kind of like they're all in and they can't do anything about it. They asked him for his help and. They, they've paid the price. So they're by and large going along with what he says. And there are some dissenters, some are saying this has gone too far. He's wrong and crazy and he's humiliating us and he's not gonna help us. Let's just kill him and defend ourselves. And that doesn't go well for them. Ian: Mm-hmm. Matthew: Of the people who try to, to do that. But eventually it starts to at least feel as if there's a plan behind this. And we don't know what it is yet, but the stranger isn't just giving random orders. Ian: Yeah. It feels like there's something he's trying to get done. Yes. Matthew: The people who have changed their mind about the [00:31:00] stranger tried to come in and kill him. And he deals with that, with dynamite blowing up a quarter of the hotel. And before that he has insisted, stranger has insisted that the hotel be emptied out. Everybody who's in the hotel needs to be somewhere else. Ian: Yes. Matthew: And I wondered about that to some extent. It's that it's another exercise of power. He wants to have the hotel to himself and have the best room in the hotel. And it also seemed to me like, was this a way of getting out of the way anyone who wasn't from this town, anyone who was staying in the hotel because they were passing through or something. Now it, it doesn't quite work because eventually he has this confrontation with the preacher I. And says, well, if these are all your brothers, you're complaining about what I'm doing to your brothers and sisters. I'm sure you won't mind just having them over at your place. And if he, the preacher says, yeah, we're gonna bring them into our own homes, that doesn't necessarily make them safe from whatever's happening. But I did seem [00:32:00] as if the stranger might be trying to get out of danger. The people who weren't actually part of this town. Ian: I think he might have been. 'cause that's, that's another one of those. It's very much seen like the giving the blankets where it feels like they're trying to make this character. They're realizing that some of his recent things have not made him good enough as a protagonist. So they're trying to go back and fix that quick. But definitely the dynamite. A part of the hotel and killing the men who came to kill him. It's like, that's, that's another one of those action scenes. But it has almost a looney tune tilt to it with the immediate Oh, okay. Dynamite, Matthew: right? Yeah. There's a certain sense of, well, if you're gonna kill you might as well. Overkill. Yes. Oh, and in, in the meantime, he's all, we've already talked about Mordecai. There is the hotel owner's wife, Sarah Belding, played by Verna Bloom. [00:33:00] Again, there's a scene that is, it's one of these awful scenes that's sexual assault, and yet she ends up realizing this was a good thing. It's horrible movie stuff from the seventies. But in as far as the story and the characters go, she was one of the only people who had any remorse or any attempt to stop what happened to Marshall Duncan. And this whole interaction between them, it's essentially what lets her know that she is free. She is not stuck here, she does not have to stay with this evil person who doesn't really love her the hotel owner, and she decides she's gonna leave. And that's kind of a side story with her. Ian: Yeah. Matthew: and this is the night before a final confrontation where he's had everybody get all the stuff together the next day for the big festival in the middle of town. And we see the next day, they've, they've painted everything red. Every single exterior of every single building is painted bright red. They've got [00:34:00] this picnic set up in the middle of town. They hang a banner over the entrance to town. Saying Welcome home boys. Ian: Mm-hmm. Matthew: And meanwhile, he's had the men of the village dig three graves just outside of town, and he takes a little of the red paint. I don't think any other characters see this, but we do. And paints over the, the sign for the town of Lago, he paints hell. Ian: Yep. Matthew: And eventually after this, the same day when they were expecting them, the three outlaws ride up. And it's a great shot from the a distance we see the outlaws look at this town and it, it kind of almost looks like it's on fire already because it's standing next to the lake on the plains and it's bright red. Ian: Yep. Matthew: And they ride past the sign that says hell, and under the banner that says, welcome home boys. And they're, they're confused and angry, but still set on their mission of [00:35:00] revenge against the town and getting their money. Ian: And the stranger's kind of backed away. Now it's like the town is gonna defend itself. I trained you. Right. Everyone's like, you trained us to do what? Matthew: Yeah. So he just rides away and he's not there when these guys ride into town and trash everything and shoot a bunch of people and take everybody else prisoner in the saloon and insist that they get their money. Mm-hmm. And they, they've, they have already set buildings on fire. And then you talked about them seeming like they were in a different movie. This whole nighttime sequence seems like a very different movie. Ian: Yes. Matthew: This seems like an alien movie. Ian: I was gonna say, this feels like alien. This, I was having such flashbacks to, to the, we're looking for the cat back in the engine room scene. Yes. Yes. Where it's like you turn around and one of your friends has just been yanked by the neck into the air and is dying. Matthew: Right. This whip reaches through over the saloon door and [00:36:00] pulls him outside by the neck as somebody else gets, gets grabbed from above by a whip, and it's one by one. There just this horror creature from the darkness reaches out. Ian: I'm just imagining Clint Eastwood opening his mouth in a little smaller. Clint Eastwood popping up and shooting someone. Matthew: I don't know that we have ever requested fan art on this podcast in over 160 episodes, but I think we are now. I Ian: I think we are we that any artist Matthew: listening can make us a picture of, of that, that image that Ian just described. Ian: Yeah. Goodness. Absolutely. Yeah. He's using a bull whip. He's using the weapon used to kill the marshal. And he takes out each of the Carlin Brothers one by one. Matthew: And eventually he gets to the leader, and it's one of these, [00:37:00] like, I want you to see me while I'm killing you, and I want you to know that I'm the guy who took out your, brothers. Mm-hmm. And eventually shoots the last of the the outlaws. Yep. The outlaws are gone, but the town is practically destroyed. It is utterly devastated. Ian: Yeah. And like they got what they asked for. They wanted to get rid of the, the three men coming back into town for vengeance, but they did not make it out rich and unscathed the way they thought they would. No. Matthew: And we get another scene of the, the stranger riding through town this time on his way out. Yeah. And Mrs. Belding is leaving town going off , to create a new life. There's a little exchange of looks between them as if she's, she's hoping for an instant that he might say, come with me, and he doesn't. Yeah. But she accepts that. And I think there's, there's so much communicated in that look and she knows that she's gotta go find her own way, not just [00:38:00] follow some other man. Ian: Mm. Absolutely. This is a, this is your chance to leave. Yeah. This is your chance to go start fresh. Yep. Mm. Matthew: And she's the one who really earlier on told the stranger about what had happened to Marshall Duncan, and that he's on an in, in an unmarked grave out there. And I think she's the one who talked about the fact that it's, it said that, that the dead can't rest unless there's a marker of some kind. Ian: So that puts this final discussion between the stranger and Mordecai as he leaves Yep. Into context. Matthew: He rides past Mordecai. Mordecai says, I'm almost done captain. Ian: Yep. Matthew: And Mordecai is carving a, grave marker. Ian: Yep. For, for Marshall Duncan. Mm-hmm. And it's a Never did learn your name. Yes, you do. Yeah. And they'd made such a point before of him never giving [00:39:00] his name. Yep. And it, so it ends with the stranger riding off and we see the name of Marshall, Jim Duncan, rest in peace. And the stranger vanishes as he rides off. Matthew: Is this a ghost story is of course, key question? That's a big question. 'cause we do get the same kind of shot that we had at the very beginning of long shot over the hot, dusty plains. And eventually he rides to a distance where he fades out. And is it just a trick of the optics of the distance and the hot air? Or did he disappear? Was he a vengeful ghost who has now completed his mission and who now has a marker? Ian: Yeah. Matthew: I lean a little bit towards the ghost theory. I love the fact that the movie does not make it absolutely clear and lets it be intentionally ambiguous. But it's such a fun ending for such a, an interesting ending for such [00:40:00] a a layered movie. Ian: It's interesting 'cause it, that means that this, I thought this was just a, you know, wild West story and then at the very end it turns into a weird west story. Yes. Where it's, it's western, it's western tropes, but with horror and fantasy science. It's got that supernatural element added into the, the West. And I didn't expect that, and I didn't expect that to be this, to be forming so clearly in just nine years-ish from that classic Fistful of Dollars. And here we are with something that kind of fits that different tone. So clearly it was surprised, but it was very fascinating. I. Oh wow. And and so much changed. So much happened in, in cinema and so much changed in culture between 1963 and 1973 that it's interesting, but to see those dramatic differences, but also how [00:41:00] the seeds of this were planted back in those Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns. Its heart still in that era. Ian: Completely. Yep. Matthew: But I think we might be heading towards our final questions now. Ian: I think so. Matthew: So stay tuned listeners for those final questions when we talk about whether we'd recommend this movie and what we would like to see done next with this kind of story. First, if you're enjoying the Inter Millennium Media Project, please go to immproject.com, and that's where you will find all of our back episodes including our episode about Planet of the Apes, and including last episode about A Fistful of Dollars. And you'll also be able to support the podcast by going to our Patreon, where you'll get more bonus content. And if you join at the movie club level, you will periodically get a mystery DVD in the mail for something that's going to be on the podcast in the future Ian: you ever want. Know what it's like to be me on this show. Come join. It's excellent. Honestly, I, I love being able to try out [00:42:00] new media like this, and I'm happy for any of you to come join me on that. Matthew: You'll also find there@immproject.com link to our store, if you like, t-shirts and coffee mugs and other fun things like that, not just the IMMP logo, but also special things for fans of the prisoner and space 1999. And yes, and the like. Whew. And finally, we would love to hear from you. There are many ways to contact us. You'll find those on the contact page on our website, but you can contact us on our Discord by email and also by sending us things in the genuine, honest to goodness us Mail. Ian: Oh my goodness. Matthew: And Ian, where can people find you? Ian: I can be found most places is item crafting. Be that itemcrafting.com or itemcraftinglive on Twitch. Come join me every Thursday for some crafts, some video games, and just fun hangout Matthew: a very cool time. Ian: Well, thank you. And how about you, Dad? Matthew: You can find me at bymatthewporter.com. That's where you will find my blog as well as links to anything else I'm [00:43:00] doing online, like this podcast or my YouTube channel that features the Drafthouse Diaries reviews of movies and movie theater visits. Every time I go to any Alamo Draft house I can find. So well, final questions. Ian: Final questions Matthew: first. One, I'm finding more difficult than I expected. I might, going into this and that is screen or no screen, are we recommending you to watch this movie? Ian: I think I know what I'm gonna say. Yeah. And that is no screen. As much as this was an interesting watch, it was, it dragged in the middle for me. It did not grab me as much as the other ones. And there's that underlying unpleasantness, the fact that they're establishing no one as a good character here. Everyone does something awful and that makes it unpleasant to watch sometimes. I, I didn't, [00:44:00] I, I'm glad I saw it, to be able to like discuss it, but I don't think it's a fun. I don't think it's a fun film to watch in that sense. And so it's not, it's not on my to watch list in that sense. Matthew: I, I absolutely get that. I'm probably going to say screen just because there are things about how it is made that are so fascinating, and the influences that it shows and the influence that it had are so interesting. If you're interested in westerns, if you're interested in this period of cinema history, you kind of can't ignore it. So I would say screen, but absolutely be prepared for the fact that, you know, make your decision as whether this is a movie for you or not. It's definitely not for everybody, and I absolutely understand that. That raises another question, which is, revive, reboot, or rest in peace? Ian: Ooh, Matthew: I can't imagine. Revive. [00:45:00] Yeah, I could imagine a really, really dark prequel about. What happened to Marshall Duncan and the the bad guys being set up for theft of gold. But it doesn't sound like a very interesting story. I can't imagine Revive. Ian: Yeah. And so I'm kind of there too. It's like, hmm, do I want the adventures of Mordecai wandering gunslinger? Maybe Do I want a new version of this? Not sure. I think I'm saying rest in peace. Yeah. And that's because it's part of a grander narrative and zeitgeist that will create more media of the same. There is elements of High Plains Drifter now in all sorts of other films and other westerns and I think we might see, we'll see revivals of bursts of westerns coming out as media does going from genre to genre as inspiration strikes across the people. [00:46:00] You'll wind up with more of each thing. I think we're actually probably due for another storm of westerns rolling into town sometime soon in the media landscape based on when we're recording this. But it'll, it'll take time to see High Plains Drifter will be part of what influences those. It doesn't need to be made again. Matthew: I agree. I don't think I need a remake of this, although it, it was interesting for a while there, and I think this is not going to stop. We were getting what were essentially remakes or reboots or re reimaginings of classic Western stories in science fiction. We get a High Noon in the form of Outland with Sean Connery, which we might see one of these days. And I could see partly it's, it's the whole isolated frontier. Once you get into the late 20th century, that's likely to be in space. So it would be interesting to imagine other settings for this kind of story with the stranger and the town's dark secret and all of that. And maybe those have been made and I'm not aware of. Yeah. But I [00:47:00] don't think we need a reboot. Thinking again about revivals, about other things in the same cannon in the same story continuity, where Mrs. Belding ends up and what her life is like after she finally escapes this town could be an interesting story. Again, it's, it's not a, a, a story of a kind that we haven't seen before. So I think that we, we make sure that this has an appropriate marker and we let it rest in peace. Ian: Yeah. Okay. Thinking about it, you're describing there remaking it in a different genre set instead of purely being a Western. Yeah. I'll make one little point there. There is a major media property right now mm-hmm. That is cont that is having more new additions than it has ever had before. Currently. Yeah. That is already established itself with its space Westerny feeling. Its wandering heroes and ghosts. I could [00:48:00] see Disney trying to do a version of High Plains Drifter in Star Wars, and that would not be awful. Matthew: It would not, Ian: if you're going to another High Plains Drifter in Star Wars could work, and I know Disney is trying whatever, so who knows. Matthew: Yeah. That that's, yeah. It's a little bit dark, but they don't have to leave it as dark. This could be interesting. Ian: My name, I did not say Matthew: high plains Yoda, Ian: high plains Yoda, but yeah, you could, I, I could see them doing something with that. If they want to keep pulling from different, different genres, pulling in the western elements that are already there, if this is gonna get remade at all, I think that's where it would fit best, oddly. Yeah. And that's, it's an odd thing to Matthew: stay and it makes sense. It's, again, it's that kind of mythologized frontier and a lot of Star Wars is a mythologized frontier. Ian: Yeah. Matthew: And, and we, we also talked about the connection [00:49:00] between samurai movies and Westerns. Ian: Yes. Matthew: With Yojimbo and a Fistful of Dollars. That's another setting in which this could probably work. Ian: Mm-hmm. And it's another setting where that, you know. You got that. That man with a code who wanders into town aspect is just so clear. That's what they're all based on in that sense. Yeah. Matthew: A huge influence on Star Wars. Ian: Yeah. High Plains Drifter , is more inspired by Westerns than Westerns. Were inspired by Samurai stories in that sense. Yeah. Maybe that means there could be a High Plains Drift or remake set in a Samurai story. Matthew: Yeah. And there again, maybe there has been, and I'm not aware of it, but it would fit. Yeah. I'm not, either way it would Ian: fit. It would. It would fit. I haven't seen, mm-hmm. I can't find anything specifically like that, but I think it got more vague over time as people realized that they need to write them from the ground up more than they had. Yeah. Matthew: And as, as Westerns became something other than the morality plays that they [00:50:00] were in the mid-century. Ian: Mm-hmm. Matthew: Well, this was fun. I wouldn't say it was a fun movie, but it was really interesting conversation. So thanks. It was, I'm glad you stuck with it and we had a chance to talk about it. I Ian: thank you. Yeah, I was, I'm glad we watched this and I, it was fascinating to talk about more for the potentials it had than some of what it actually did, but I love it. Thank you. Matthew: And I'll acknowledge there's a reason why I selected a fist full of dollars followed by High Plains Drifter because there are a couple of other movies coming up that I needed to set up and make sure you had seen what came before in order to make that last movie make any sense. So we're headed for that and I think what we're headed for eventually you're gonna find more fun to watch. Ian: Okay. Matthew: But in the meantime, yeah, we've got I'll say we've got some more Clint Eastwood to deal with, Ian: ah, more Clint Eastwood first, Matthew: and that means that we will be back in a couple of weeks with another tale of some media from the 20th [00:51:00] century. Ian: In the meantime, go find something new to watch.