Directed by Clint Eastwood
Written by Ernest Tidyman
1973/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
Sarah Belding: I knew you were cruel, but I didn’t know how far you could go.
The Stranger: Well, you still don’t.
This movie lost me after the violent rape at the beginning. It proceeds to get more violent, bloody and cruel.
Clint Eastwood known only as “The Stranger” rides into the little Western town of Lago. He first kills the three gunmen who have been protecting the town. Then pretty young Callie Travers (Marianna Hill) deliberately runs into him. She complains he tore her dress. Then she gives him some lip so he takes her to a barn and violently rapes her. Later she voluntarily sleeps with her rapist, though with ill intent.
The Stranger has nightmares about the town’s former Marshall who was horrifically whipped to death in Lago by multiple men (we see this in excruciating detail) because he threatened to reveal the town’s secret.
After the killing of their gunmen, the town’s leaders decide that The Stranger is the man to take care of three outlaws who have been released from prison and have threatened to burn down the town. The Stranger is initially reluctant but an offer of anything/anything he wants convinces him to take on the job. What he wants especially is to destroy the town along with the outlaws. He forces the people to do many incomprehensible things. The movie builds to an elaborate violent climax in which the the Stranger’s plan comes together.
I really didn’t want to watch this after the rape. But I persevered and saw the entire thing, which was also too violent and cruel for me. Obviously this is on The List and seems to have many fans on IMDb. So I am in the minority here. Actually, there is nothing really wrong with the movie and those with thicker skin than mine might love it.
Garbage! I bet most of the creeps who stormed the Capital like this movie.
Yeah, they love cocksure bullies.
Famously, John Wayne hated this movie – he publicly wrote to Eastwood complaining that that “was not what the West was about”
I haven’t seen it in so long, but from what I remember, Eastwood was trying to merge the mentality and style of Italian Westerns with American Westerns – having seen all his westerns, all he really picked up from Italy was nihilism.
I’ve been wondering why I love the Leone Westerns but not this movie. Haven’t quite figured it out yet.
Yeah, the rape is a bit of a stunner. It threw me a bit as well and it took a while to get back into the movie again, but when I started seeing the movie as a moral and political tale and not take it so literal it came back big time.
Activistic morality says that inaction is complicity and so they are all guilty and the stranger is justice. Note that there are no children there because children are implicitely innocent. This is Bunuel on speed.
I know I should not like this, but, well, Clint is Clint.
You have a right to like whatever it is you like! I may have not caught all the message because I was too busy averting my eyes from all the violence. And Clint is Clint for sure.