The Legend of Clint Eastwood
High Plains Drifter, 1973
Ernest Tidyman, who in 1971 had written the seminal urban-cop movies The French Connection (winning an Oscar) and Shaft), penned Eastwood's first Western that he directed as well as starred in. This time he really is a man with no name — he may be a ghost gunman, or a vindictive Jesus — with a wild metaphorical streak: he forces the locals to paint the town red and rename the place Hell. "Part of the time The Stranger is Dirty Harry in cowboy boots, a good cop trying to do his duty in a world ungrateful for his sadistic efforts," wrote Richard Schickel in TIME. "Part of the time he is Christ reincarnated; in another life (a recurring dream informs us), he suffered a version of Calvary inflicted on him by this very town." After dismissing Eastwood as a galoot with troglodyte political tendencies and too much power, the critics began perking up to Eastwood, as a director and actor, with this mean, majestic parable.