How a woman can be dragged into a barn, forcibly raped and then end up moaning and clinging to her attacker is beyond me. I guess Clint Eastwood has the power to woo the women whom he disgusts the most. I personally found him to be quite the hunk at first. There just is something about bad boys.....
However, when he attacked the blond woman (and no one did anything but WATCH) I felt very uncomfortable. When he first grabbed her and started dragging her, I couldn't help but laugh. She antagonized him right off the bat and smacked the cigar out of his mouth after telling him he needs to learn some manners. I thought he was just dragging her away to hush her up. But then when he tossed her into the barn stall and got on top of her, I realized what was happening. It was very strange to see the main character (seemingly the future hero) force himself sexually upon a woman. I was hoping someone would stop him or that he would stop himself... but that didn't happen. And then the woman started to moan and stop fighting back and even started to hug him. That was really freaking bizarre to me. I wasn't sure how to feel about it. Was that supposed to make people feel better about Clint Eastwood raping the woman? She ended up enjoying it so it doesn't count as rape? I don't know, but it really made me uncomfortable and confused.
And then the hotel-owner's wife ended up being seduced by Clint after trying to stab him with scissors?! Granted, Clint Eastwood was pretty sexy in this movie, but she'd seen him murder several men, he was taking over the entire town like a big jerk, and she knew what had happened with the other woman. I'm not really sure what it means. I could tell she had something going on in her head about him from the beginning. She was always watching him strangely... but I don't know. I guess women can't resist a sexy bad boy? Is that the message?
I can see what Professor McRae was saying when she mentioned the anti-hero. Clint Eastwood's character was anything but charming. He took anything he wanted, including women. He didn't hesitate to kill. Everyone in the town hated him (except for the "runt"), yet they were all looking to him to protect them. The only ones who tried to stop him were the ones who would be losing money because they profited from the mine. And they just wanted to kill him. No one else really stood up to him when he was being a jerk and taking everything for free and tearing down barns and such.
I still wanted Clint Eastwood's character to be successful, though. I'm not a proponent of violent revenge but I wanted the towns people to get what was coming to them. Once we saw the scene of Clint Eastwood being whipped by the three men, all the while everyone is watching, but no one is moving to help him. The one woman, Sarah, tries to do something but she is silenced and shoved into her home. I think it's interesting that Clint Eastwood was making a statement about Kitty Genovese's 1964 murder. Dozens of people heard her being attacked but didn't do anything about it. Anyone could have stopped her murder very easily, but no one did. It makes me sick because I cannot comprehend it at all. None of them even got in trouble because of the American Bystander Rule. This is a legal rule that says that no person has to step in to help, or summon help for another person who is in danger, even if no harm will come to the person trying to help. No one can be held legally responsible for not doing something to help someone, unless they have a legal responsibility to do so (lifeguard, caretaker, policeman). I think that's abhorrent. Just the name and content of that rule says a lot about American society, I think....
That's why I wanted Clint Eastwood's character to get back at the townspeople. They were so corrupt and cowardly. As was said in class, he first humiliated the town by making Mordecai the sheriff and mayor. The town treated Mordecai badly and bullied him and Eastwood stuck it to them by putting him in charge. Then he took whatever material thing he wanted. Eastwood then had them paint the town all red, which was silly and he left when the 3 bad guys entered town. They all expected him to help them fight off the bad guys. He taught them what to do and then they didn't even do it themselves. They all ran off, even when they had the upper hand. That was so frustrating. How 3 losers can take over an entire town is bizarre to me. It's like when one dude comes in to rob a bank and everyone cowers on the floor. If a few other people attacked the guy, the situation could be ended very quickly and probably with minimum violence. But a single person has the power to paralyze a group of people. It's always confused me.
I still don't get how they didn't recognize the Stranger as Marshall Jim Duncan. And I guess I missed the reason why Duncan was whipped in the first place. The whole whipping scene twisted my stomach. It was so violent and seems like it would be horribly painful. I don't know how Duncan would be able to keep standing up to fight them off after being whipped so many times. The 39 lashes of Jesus came to my mind during this part.
Overall, I thought High Plains Drifter was a terrific movie and Clint Eastwood is obviously a wonderful actor and director. I really really really like that he was making a political statement here about Vietnam, Nixon and Kitty Genovese. Everything is better to me when there is meaning behind it. I am going to make it a point to see more movies directed by Eastwood.
Some nice observations here. Amusing title too! Though he'd only be a pimp if he was selling the woman to the other townspeople.
ReplyDeleteI think that we were supposed to feel really uncomfortable with that scene. Up until the 1970s, people were used to the main characters in movies being heroes, not rapists--especially not within the first 15 minutes of the movie. There'd been two generations of Hayes Code movies before this, so it was probably an even bigger shocker back then (though lots of 70s movies were violent, and stuff about women was pretty messed up.
I'd have liked to see you use the reading a bit.
The town had Duncan killed because he found out it was on government land and they didn't want to report it.
ReplyDeleteSome women like to role play. Just a thought. In the movie Dogville, Nicole Kidman gets raped by all of the men in the town she was hiding in and at first, you're like "wtf???" and you get angry at whoever suggested you should watch it. But later on, her gangster dad shows up (who she was running from) with his henchmen and they kill everyone.
I find it interesting that you think that Clint Eastwood’s character is the man that was being whipped in the flashback. When I was watching the film, I couldn’t figure out who The Stranger actually was and after I did some research I discovered that there is quite a bit of debate on this subject. I don’t know how I feel about it, whether The Stranger is in fact the man who was being whipped, or a relative, or some demon from hell that was sent to avenge the death and punish the townspeople. But I like that Eastwood made it ambiguous. It allows for these types of discussions to happen.
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading your post and after I read the comments that were made, I was reminded of A Clockwork Orange and wished that I thought of the connection sooner. There are ties between the character of Alex and The Stranger in that they are both anti-heroes who, right off the bat, shock us with their horrible behavior (both violence and rape). Both Eastwood and Kubrick do interesting things with how we perceive heroes. They also comment on the government and different social and political issues of the times. If you haven’t seen A Clockwork Orange I suggest you see it.
The reading seemed to suggest that this role was a typical Eastwood role and I think you point out perfectly that this is not. Have you seen any of Eastwood's other westerns? There is usual a sense of chivalry in alot of his characters. Here he just seems like an agressor, no morals what so ever.
ReplyDeleteAnd i really enjoy your point about how 3 people can take over an entire town. There seems to be no sense of self worth at all throughout the whole town... just a bunch of morons. The Stranger seems to be the only one with common sense and guts...
I don't think the Stranger lacks chivalry... he hands over a stack of blankets and candy to the old man and 2 kids who are in the store. Now I know it can be said that he did it just to piss of the store owner but it could also be a gentle heart hidden by the gruff exterior and (if he really is Marshal) almost extinguished by brutality.
ReplyDeleteI don't think you can necessarily read into the movie that Eastwood was a ghost, I always interpreted it that he was Duncan's brother, but that's up to the viewer. In any event, he was also a rapist, and nothing else about the movie makes that forgiveable. This was a movie without heros, only villains and the weak, and a good number of weak villains.
ReplyDelete