Whatever the reasoning, it is a gripping work, harsh and ahead of its time.
Comment
10/26/08
High Plains Drifter (1973)
96
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:24
Fresh:23
Rotten:1
Average Rating:7.7/10
Runtime: 1 hr 46 mins
Genre: Westerns
Synopsis: In Eastwood's supernatural homage to his own cinematic roots -- the films of Sergio Leone and Don Siegel -- the residents of a greedy mining town conspire to murder their own sheriff when he... [More]
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom, Marianna Hill, Billy Curtis
Director: Clint Eastwood
Reviews for High Plains Drifter
Top CriticThis was supposed to be Eastwood's fond adieu to the worlds of Sergio Leone and Don Siegel; and indeed he cuts the operatic excess of the former with the punchy economy of the latter.
02/09/06
Top CriticA funny, brutal, scary movie, daringly surreal in its mix of Western and horror themes.
01/01/00
Top CriticClint Eastwood's first Western as director is rather fascinating due to its quasi-supernatural component.
07/03/09
As a director, Eastwood is not as good as he seems to think he is. As an actor, he is probably better than he allows himself to be.
10/26/08
Top CriticOne of the best Westerns of the 1970s.
10/26/08
Top CriticEastwood's second directorial effort is mechanically stylish.
05/21/08
Top CriticNo review available.
07/28/07
Eastwood registers strongly as actor and director of this revenge Western (yet another critique of High Noon), with a style that's influenced by his mentors, the economic efficiency of Don Siegel with touches of Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns
04/13/07
Clint Eastwood is the ultimate thinking man's cinematic killing machine.
12/06/05
Savory Eastwood western.
11/14/05
Part ghost story, part revenge Western, more than a little silly, and often quite entertaining in a way that may make you wonder if you have lost your good sense.
05/10/05
Top CriticClint Eastwood's second film as a director -- and his first western -- is a minor classic.
04/03/05
Clint's a supernatural amoral mythical hero (of the pulp novel kind), bent on cruelty and getting revenge for a past misdeed.
03/16/05
No review available.
01/25/05
Paint the town red, Clint. It's your strangest and one of your best westerns.
10/15/04
Revenge doesn't do much for your claims to nobility, but more often than not it makes for some pretty good stories and lots of guilty pleasure.
01/23/03
High Plains Drifter will make an excellent double bill along with Eastwood's other post-modern Western, the 1992 Unforgiven.
01/22/03
There's some nice action here, and the whole thing is cloaked in an archetypal spookiness that makes High Plains Drifter work not only as a 'man with no name' Western but also as something a little deeper.
11/07/02
Dark, bloody, and uncompromising; the ultimate deconstruction of the Western genre.
10/03/02
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