In High Plains Drifter, Clint Eastwood already shows off his promising talents as a filmmaker in only his second directing gig.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 5, 2023

A nasty, eerie Clint Eastwood Western...

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 11, 2023

The difference between this and all those “Dollars” pictures is that Clint has gone and refined the art of steel-eyed enigma. Eastwood directed this one himself and, like his earlier Play Misty for Me, it shows he has some savvy behind the camera.

| Jun 14, 2022

I admit Mono looks phenomenal in this memorable piece where Eastwood spins off his Spaghetti Western persona during a violent round of vengeance.

| Aug 10, 2021

A better black comedy-cum-allegory in which Eastwood (as both actor and director) expanded on the spaghetti template.

| Dec 4, 2020

HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER is perhaps Eastwood's most mean-spirited film that deals with supernatural elements and quite literally burning down every cliche, the Western cliche that had predated "The Man With No Name.

| Original Score: A- | Nov 19, 2020

A shaky sophomore effort for Eastwood. Ernest Tidyman's script all too often plays like an extended -- and inferior -- episode of The Twilight Zone.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 30, 2020

Mysterious, sporadically comical, and classically Eastwood, High Plains Drifter is a wholly satisfying revenge saga that's askew enough to surprise as it exercises known elements.

| Original Score: B+ | Nov 23, 2013

Eastwood holds fast to the rebel spirit of the spaghetti Westerns and revisionist "New Hollywood" Westerns of the previous decade, but packages it in a film that's slicker and more mainstream-friendly.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 28, 2013

Clint Eastwood's first Western as director is rather fascinating due to its quasi-supernatural component.

| Jul 3, 2009

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.

| Oct 26, 2008

One of the best Westerns of the 1970s.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 26, 2008

Whatever the reasoning, it is a gripping work, harsh and ahead of its time.

| Oct 26, 2008

Eastwood's second directorial effort is mechanically stylish.

| May 21, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 28, 2007

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

| Original Score: B+ | Apr 13, 2007

This 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.

| Feb 9, 2006

Clint Eastwood is the ultimate thinking man's cinematic killing machine.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 6, 2005

Savory Eastwood western.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 14, 2005

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.

| May 10, 2005