High Plains Drifter (High Plains Drifter, 1973) was, in fact, the second film where Eastwood not only played the main role, but also completely controlled the shooting process as a director. But “Play Misty for Me” (1971), which was a success with both viewers and elite critics, was an experience in the genre of a psychological thriller, the script of which involved the same authors who worked on the cult “Dirty Harry”, released the same year. Clint’s first western, created by his film company Malpaso, is rather a student homage to the masters who made Eastwood an actor of the highest standard. So fans of the westerns of Sergio Leone and Don Siegel will immediately feel the direct dependence of the “Tramp” with their classic tapes.
The director himself and the performer of the role of the mysterious stranger offered to interpret his screen story in an allegorical way. This is a film about a place, or rather about an avenger who does not establish the law, but does the highest justice. You can even see in the deep background of the tape a reference to one of the pearls of Mark Twain‘s short prose – the story “The Man who seduced Gadliberg.”
The town of Lago, where the nameless hero of Eastwood visits, opens up to the audience from the most disgusting sides. And first of all, not by its hospitality, although, as we learn in the course of the action, the small hotel is not even empty at all. And what the rest of the inhabitants of this God-forsaken, it seems, in the truest sense, of the village live, one can only guess. His godfathers are pining over their gold, perhaps of oil origin, and are terribly afraid of a certain trio of scumbags who will soon be released from prison and descend on the owners of local life who have offended them with something… We will not further unfold the plot twists and turns, in which a random passerby, the same tramp with the face of a cowboy from the dollar trilogy, is directly involved. However, in the original version of the script, his appearance in the city and the dreams-obsessions that he sees too directly indicated his non-accidental appearance here.
Fans of westerns, especially the two classics mentioned above, who had their own Clint Eastwood film universities, will see a lot of references to their tapes that have not even been filmed yet, such as “My Name Is Nobody.” However, this picture was officially shot in the same 1973 as “High Plains Drifter” by Tonino Valeri, but Maestro Leone himself acted as its inspiration and director of the brightest scenes. The scenes in the barber shop and in the cemetery in The “Tramp” seem to directly refer to the great Sergio’s farewell western, which was filmed at the same time. And the city, paralyzed by fear of the bandits that should soon descend, seems to be a double of the one where the action of Fred Zinneman’s classic western “Exactly at Noon” (1952) takes place.
One can quite agree with the British film critic Nigel Andrews that “The Tramp from the High Plains” is too much an exercise in style, but not yet found its own, but borrowed from mature masters. And most of all, this lack of its own presentation of film history is visible in the lack of elaboration of negative characters, who are too formulaic and actions (rather, even counteraction to the hero) are mostly not motivated in any way. However, the actors give their best in the fullness of their creative powers, but it doesn’t really help to revive their characters so that the audience feels real emotions for them. But the reproach of John Wayne, who created for several generations of viewers the image of a “one hundred percent American,” which he expressed in a message to his cinematic successor in the rank of cowboy No. 1, does not seem so justified.
In his letter to Eastwood, he criticized the revisionist approach of the aspiring director, who allegedly did not show on the screen the people who populated the West and created a great country. Apparently, the king of classic westerns was convinced that the image of the West of the second half of the XIX century that the great John Ford created in his classic films and the real world are absolutely identical. In those westerns where Wayne was filmed, the best marksman was always the law enforcer. But in the westerns of Leone and, who succeeded him, Clint Eastwood, it was sometimes difficult to understand who the hero is, who is by no means perfect in the moral dimension. In “The Tramp”, Eastwood’s character sometimes seems to be a twin of Woland, who gets maximum pleasure from being able to mock the inhabitants of the town who are mired in vices, which he renames Hell with a smear of red paint, and forces the townspeople to repaint all the buildings in the color of hellfire.
It is worth paying attention to the excellent camerawork for which Bruce Certis was responsible here, who previously shot Eastwood’s first director’s tape and several of his later tapes, including “Josie Wales – Outlaw Man” and “The Pale Rider”, a film similar in plot to “The Tramp”, but in which Eastwood has already honed his masterful style. Despite the age limit at the box office of 18+, Eastwood’s tape had very good box office receipts and, in fact, ensured the continuation of his western career not only as a performer of the roles of mysterious strangers who flawlessly wield weapons, but also a director who created his recognizable style in subsequent films of his already more than half a century of directorial career.
