I found this film to be very entertaining from start to finish. I picked it up off of the recent AMC marathon. It starred Clint Eastwood as, well, a drifter. It was also directed by Clint Eastwood, his second time directing a film, the first time directing a western. He apparently wonders into this small town that had been harassed by three hoodlums. After getting in an altercation, which demonstrates his gunfighting skills, the town hires him to fend off a pending attack.
There was a rape scene in this film where Eastwood rapes a local woman that was badgering him. There was a vertically challenged man that looked up to Eastwood. His name was Mordecai and he was pretty interesting. In this movie, people called Eastwood’s character, “The Stranger”. There were a couple of scenes in which Eastwood was having a flashback of being whipped by the townspeople. It was later implied the man in the flashbacks was killed and buried in an unmarked grave. The locals had said the soul could not rest until a name was placed on the marker. “The Stranger” ends up attempting to train the locals on how to defend themselves and has them paint the entire town red. He also renames the town from “Lago” to “Hell“. I had read this took 380 gallons of red paint to accomplish. On the day of the attack, “The stranger” rode out of town, forcing the locals to fend for themselves. When the attack ensued, the locals were useless, easily overridden by the more experienced gunslingers. As night fell, “the stranger” returned, personally killing the three main hoodlums, two of which in the same manner as was done to him in flashbacks, IE whips.
In the end, as Mordecai was etching the proper name on the previously unmarked grave, he says to the stranger, “I don’t even know your name?” to which he replies, “Yes you do” and rides off on the horse, credits start rolling. As he disappears into the heatwave, a bit early, the implication is he was the ghost of the man in the unmarked grave, coming back for vengeance. In his previous life, he was the town marshal and was going to turn in some of the townspeople who had done something illegal, providing the motive for the initial beating. There is some confusion on the internet as to whether the man in the flashbacks was “The Stranger’s” brother or “The Stranger” himself. But being that the stranger himself was having these flashbacks, to me, makes the case that “The Stranger” was in-fact the man in the flashbacks. At least that is my interpretation.
In all, as I said, this was entertaining, a lot deeper than I thought it would be. It was shot, not in a fancy Hollywood studio, but on location about 300 miles outside of Los Angeles, in the desert next to Mono lake. A great decision adding to it’s authenticity and making for great cinematic scenes. The soundtrack was also spot on, eerie and spooky sounding.
Highly recommended.
****
