Midweek Mention... High Plains Drifter

High Plains Drifter

Dan: Hi. Hi.

Sidey: Hi.

Cris: Hi, everyone.

Dan: Planes drifter.

Sidey: Yeah. 1973. Clint Eastwood joint.

Dan: Yeah. Clint, the man, he directed this one.

Sidey: Was it his first stab at a director feature?

Reegs: It was his first Western second film.

Dan: Yeah. So yeah, that

Sidey: makes sense. Okay.

Reegs: Western as a director, but second film overall.

Sidey: Definitely when it started had a Sergio Leone spaghetti western vibe to it, I thought.

Reegs: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And a really cool, why are we going straight into

Sidey: it. Yeah.

Reegs: Because the stranger as well come to know him he sort of just appears out of the

Sidey: like that shimmering heat. Yeah. The shimmer oasis kind of thing. Yeah.

Dan: the mirage, yeah.

Sidey: With a cool score as he's just sort of,

Reegs: is just sort of, it's a really, like the score, even hints right then and there that there's something eerie and supernatural going on.

I think really? 'cause it's kind of all, I didn't know if it was a zither, it was likes or

Dan: he's, he's got the air of snake bite about him really, isn't he? He's [00:01:00] got zero fucks going on. He, he's on his horse.

Sidey: Well, we dunno anything about him though, either, do we? It's just a thing that roams

Reegs: he's just a guy riding in. It's I don't know, the late 18.

Sixties, is it Something like that?

Sidey: Yeah, something like that. I mean, so this is a frontier town. It's a mining town, but it's brand new.

Reegs: tiny town Largo. It's in the, it's on the lake.

Sidey: I think it's been built by the Largo Mining Company.

Reegs: Yeah, it's a fictional town. But they built a real one for this movie. And a lot of the beginning part of the movie is kind of devoted to the local town, people watching him arrive.

Some of them look at him with kind of a. Look of recognition. Some of them are sort of almost staring him down defiantly. And then like early on there's a crack of a whip, isn't there? That like, he turns and looks and everybody yeah. Yeah. Almost like has the feeling that it's gonna kick off a blood bath,

Sidey: Yeah.

Dan: Yeah. And

he, he just ties up his horse, goes into the saloon,

Reegs: heads in for a beer or maybe a sa barella. And what is sa Barella?

Dan: [00:02:00] Yeah. I dunno. It's just alcohol back in those days. Guess. But he has that, he sits in a bar and.

Minding his own business. Just come in for a cold one. That's all he

Reegs: Well, yeah,

Sidey: They're properly staring him down and they start. Giving him shit.

Reegs: He calls him a flea bitten range bum. Some guy gets right in his

Dan: which is pretty nuts because he looks hard as nails. Well,

Sidey: they, they bat themselves and there's more of them than there is of him.

Yeah. And they don't know. We don't know. You know, I know. Other than it's Clint, you know, but they don't know that

Reegs: or to be Right. To be fair though, they absolutely shit themselves when he does like a quick draw type maneuver to grab his beer. Yeah. And there's like four of them. They

Sidey: grabs the bottle of Whis and goes over for a shave.

Yeah. I wouldn't want get a shave off that guy 'cause his straight away. 'cause he goes into his

Cris: starts shaking straight

Sidey: I want a shave in a hot bath. And the guy's hand is fucking going like he's got Parkinson's. He like, I don't want that guy with a fucking cutthroat razor anywhere near my neck.

Reegs: No.

Dan: Yeah. And it always seems to be the, the guy in the town who's got the worst haircut is the

Sidey: bar. Yeah. He had a great bobby chart under he,

Dan: a [00:03:00] bobby chart and comb

Reegs: horrendous comb over.

Yeah.

Dan: And as you say, he is, he's shaking like a shitting dog where his, his hand is just fucking all over the place. But he doesn't have time to have a, a shave before these guys come back in and start giving him a bit more grief.

And

Sidey: he's got the, he's. Got the towel on him.

Reegs: Yeah. And he's got a shaving

Sidey: he's in the chair and the guy's just about, and they rock up and you've got this little guy it's about R'S height.

Reegs: Yeah. Mordecai

Sidey: who's been in the bar now, he's in here filling up the tub with water.

Dan: Yeah,

Sidey: they, they come in the

Dan: dog's body,

Sidey: they start giving him a load of shit.

Really like aggressively having a go at him and it all kicks off

Reegs: well, he just spins it. He just spins round. And he just shoots the first guy straight in the forehead.

Sidey: He's kinda like the ringleader who's giving it the most. And then they all tried to react, but it's too late. Bang,

Reegs: got his gun concealed underneath the barber's, gown or whatever.

So he knew those guys were gonna come for him.

Sidey: he cool. As you like, just walks out of there. Yeah.

Dan: Yeah. [00:04:00] Now's not the time to finish my shave. 'cause there's all these dead bodies around. But he takes the bottle of whiskey out with him.

Sa Barella. Yeah. And

Reegs: all the town townspeople come out and they're, they just can't believe it.

Like they're just standing with

Sidey: sort, the undertakes pretty may like another three bodies to sort out.

Dan: Yeah. You, you've first

guy

Reegs: comes across from him and says, what did you say your name was? And he just says, I didn't. No. Yeah. The man with no name. And they basically just start following him around in all. Like round the town, don't

Sidey: Yeah. Mordecai's just following around basically to light his cigars every time he needs a cigar up. And then the sheriff eventually, 'cause he goes back for his bath. He, he really needs his bath. Oh it is actually after the

Reegs: is after the scene, yeah.

Sidey: he's walking across the street and this lady's after

Reegs: all this carnage that you've kind of enjoyed,

Sidey: lady in the town sort of clocks him and takes a look at him and sort of, I dunno. It's really weird 'cause

Reegs: She purposefully bumps

Sidey: knows what she's up

Dan: she's.

She's heard, you know, well,

Reegs: Well, it could have almost, it starts off, it could have almost been a mecu, right? The way it starts, there's a little [00:05:00] bumping into it, a flirtation for a line or two, but then it quickly degenerates, doesn't it?

Sidey: She just starts having a go at him. I mean, he has just murdered three people in the street and she's saying, you're a pig. You, you know, you've got no manners. She waxes cigar out of his face. She

Reegs: She insults him. Yeah. Yeah.

Dan: And he drags her into a bar and rapes her.

Reegs: He does, yeah. He does drag her into a barn in broad daylight

Sidey: not something you're used to seeing from Clint.

Reegs: Yeah.

Dan: No.

Sidey: And then he just. It just leaves her and, and then, I dunno if it was implied that she had enjoyed it. 'cause she's kind of,

Dan: she wraps her arms around him at

Sidey: lying There almost looks,

Dan: or is she just overpowered? I,

Reegs: I I think it's overpowered because you purposely get a shot at the end of it from her perspective looking up at him and he's all

Sidey: his crotch

Reegs: and like, you know, it's, she's just totally overpowered in that moment, I think.

Sidey: Yeah.

Cris: He also lasts about 12 seconds.

a bit like me, but

Sidey: I was

Reegs: She was

pretty hot though,

Dan: well, she will meet her again

Sidey: then he goes back for his bath, doesn't he? Then he goes, [00:06:00] he goes back for his bath a bit later on and she comes charging across. But not before the

Reegs: Oh no.

He actually, after this bit, he just goes back to the local hotel, doesn't he? And he like wedges a chair under the door

Cris: sleeps

Reegs: And just sleeps. He has a nightmare about, he hears the whip cracking and you don't really know what it is. Is it repressed trauma? Is it something that happened to him? It is definitely framed like he's lying in bed and then it cuts to a guy

Sidey: being, yeah.

Immediately when that happened, I thought it was him. Yeah. And then he realized that it's not him.

Cris: And it's also everyone is faceless in his dream.

Reegs: Yes. They're all in

Cris: thing, the scenery, we see the scene again and then it's actually all the townspeople in that boat.

Reegs: Yeah. We don't see it the first time round.

Cris: and then it goes for bath and the bath

Reegs: to make it more confusing, make it more confusing.

They used his stunt doble as well. Clint's longtime stunt double for the character that played the other John Duncan that we'll come to know, I

Sidey: Right. Yeah. Mordecai's in there filling up the bathroom.

This time he gets in the bath. The sheriff comes in and he see. You're not nervous, but he is, he's sort of chatting [00:07:00] away,

Reegs: Well, he's got him when he's he's most vulnerable, right? He's naked in the bath. He's finally, he thinks

Sidey: he can't,

Reegs: is gone in. Then I

Sidey: of get his words out do he? And Clint just says to him, so you're telling me there's no charge, right?

Because yeah, they were the aggressors

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: and he explains to what these guys are, these, these are hired guns. That had come to protect the town.

Reegs: They were not loved men, is what he says about them. We will forgive and forget.

Dan: Well,

they, well, they, they come to protect the town, but then started taking the piss out of everybody and and being really aggressive and hadn't left.

There's some other wrong ends. On their way out. And so he wants to hire Clint to protect the town now.

Sidey: And what we'll come to see is this lot whilst they might have skills in terms of, you know, you've got all the different things that you'd expect in a, in a frontier town, there's a blacksmith, there's a barman, you know, the doc, all that sort of stuff.

They're fucking useless at defending themselves.

Dan: They're, they're cowards and they're,

Sidey: Clint do all this and they

Reegs: And they're pretty evil as well as [00:08:00] a, as a

Dan: They're all, yeah, they're all out for themselves. You've got the mining company guys who are, you know, concentrating on how much profit they can make. At this point, the girl who's Clint bumped into her and raped her earlier.

Comes in and aims a gun at him in the bath. He just kind of sinks himself into the bath, doesn't he? And

Sidey: it's a little just a nice little snapshot of just how accurate all these townspeople are.

Dan: She's one of the better shooters. At least she hits the bath. But it's, no, it's still nowhere near

Sidey: She gets off four shots and she's what, six foot away from

Reegs: Yeah. Misses with all of them. Yeah. And then this is where the joke that you were talking about with Mordecai says, oh, I wonder why it took her so long to get mad. And he says, oh, maybe. 'cause he didn't go back for more. Yeah. Pretty fucking dark.

Sidey: Yeah.

Reegs: Yeah.

This, there is, this is then, there's like a town meeting isn't there? And where we find out a lot of the backstory that you were talking about and the release of this brother, who is it? Stacey Bridges a notorious gangster and his cousins, the Carlin

Dan: And if at any point you're watching this [00:09:00] thinking Clint is a hero and you want to get on board, you know, you quickly torn down with this, you might.

Think, well, he's the one who's, you know, the, the top dog in town and everything, but he's no kind of hero, is he?

Reegs: well, they set him up like that, right? He's kind of like the man with no name and then, you know, comes in, does this maybe heroic act, and then suddenly they just throw rape at you. So you're like, oh, you enjoyed that, but here's this other crime he does.

You don't like that do you? And

Dan: murder, you know, and every, everything else.

Sidey: the murder stuff, this is a fairly lawless kind of world at this point, you know? And the only way to deal out justice by fucking shooting people.

Dan: Yeah. And he goes back a little bit later to the girl that he's raped and invites her for dinner. And she, well, invites her.

He tells her she's got a car, my fancy female company.

Sidey: all a set up though, isnt

Reegs: She's already said as well, in front of everybody else on a separate occasion. She said, oh, isn't anybody man, you know, man enough to, you know, sort this out. And [00:10:00] they've all kind of cowed away, including her sort of current.

Bo, her current boyfriend,

Sidey: Well, what they do is they, they make this arrangement with him, don't they? They say, well, okay we'd like you to stay and protect us. Look after us, train us. And he's, he is like, just, he goes, you need two men up on that roof. Yeah, two men up on that roof, but they're fucking hopeless.

So. They say, look, make your deal whatever you want in the town is yours.

Cris: Yeah. They say anything. He just turns around anything.

Sidey: like, he's like, literally, okay sound right? So he goes to the general store and then he, they sort of make him out to be a good guy, an explicitly good guy here because there's, there's an Indian family in there touching some of the goods and the guy in the shop's like, Hey, you fucking, like, it's no some sort of racial slur.

Don't touch that. Clint's like, right, nah. Having that.

Dan: can have all those blankets.

Reegs: I, I thought it was more about him exercising his power than being about being equality or something like that. You know? I think it was like he unidentified, they're the lowest of the low and you were insulting them. I'm just gonna exercise my power

Sidey: making, I thought it was a bit of both, but [00:11:00] Yeah.

Reegs: Well, he's just a piece of shit though. Really? He is a force of nature. The stranger.

Sidey: Yeah. But, and then he goes to basically every service that is offered in town, he just, we just see him now go through to each one and he buys round like that.

When he goes to the saloon buys, he goes, drinks on the house. And then the guy's like, that'll be $8. And it's like, no, it won't. He's

Reegs: like, you just voted for it to be on the house. So yeah,

Dan: We've all gotta do our bit. He

Cris: The hotel guy gets the barn torn down by Mexicans and

Reegs: Yeah. So they can make picnic benches. I would, I did not know how that was gonna play out.

Sidey: And the 200 gallons of red paint,

Reegs: 200 gallons of red paint. Yeah. So he does, he, he starts exercising his power over the town. The women, like you said, Cali is forced to come up and have a, another, you know, relationship, not relationship, but another interaction with him.

Sidey: Isn't that though set up though?

She's set that up with the other guys? Yeah. After they've had enough because they start to get fucked off with him.

Dan: There's an element of town

Sidey: training runs where they get the horse and cart and on the back of it they're pulling a trolley that's got three [00:12:00] dummies and he is got the people on the r where he is told them they need to be, but they cannot hit fucking brand or, and eventually just gets fucked off and goes bang, bang, bang, shoots the three heads off.

Dan: I couldn't believe the guys on the horse and cart. They were in more

Sidey: I know,

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: I was worried. I was worried for the horses.

Dan: Yeah.

Sidey: So they do that a few times and he's just exploiting them, taking more and more stuff off them, which they can't really see what the end game is with all this.

Reegs: including the guy, the hotel, the guy's wife. He's he, he looks at her and says, you told me anything I want.

Sidey: He volleys everyone out of the hotel tells the preacher, man, well if you're so fucking concerned about 'em, most stay at your house

Reegs: appoint. Yeah. And then he appoints Mordecai, who really is a figure of fun round the town, basically.

Sidey: they call him.

Reegs: They appoint him as both sheriff and mayor because the previous sheriff before Sam, we had, we do find this out at this point, was whipped to death.

It's strongly implied by the Carlin brothers, but we'll find out that is not the case.

Sidey: Yeah. So there's, there's two of them go and start complaining.

There's this sort of town council, isn't there? Yeah. And they, the two of them start complaining and say, look, we just need to [00:13:00] fucking tell him to go because this is bullshit. You know, we're gonna have nothing left in the town worth saving at, at the rate he's going through everything. And he says, no, you do one more day.

After that, when those guys are gone and then, you know, we can tell him

Dan: and we see them being released now from prison.

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: These are bad dudes as well

Dan: and yeah, they're, they're real

Sidey: I'm surprised they hadn't been hanged. 'cause they seem to be like the worst of the worst.

Reegs: Yeah. I'm surprised they don't confiscate their weapons.

Sidey: He just chucks them on the floor from

Reegs: chucks them out, doesn't he? And he's got, they're clearly dangerous. He's got two guys with guns

Dan: Well, he says there's no bullets, but next time we see him, they are shooting and they kill three people with three horses. After Chase, one of the guys,

Cris: lucky though, wasn't it though? It was exactly three of them. It wasn't four, it wasn't two, it was exactly three.

Sidey: Yeah.

Dan: And yeah, a bit of luck in the Wild West.

It was more bizarre to me where they got their bullets from 'cause they were clearly walking into the middle of nowhere. But they did, they shot 'em. They ride the horses lame until they can get close enough to the town. Stacey, who's the leader of the gang, is a real badass, isn't he? [00:14:00] He's been in other

Sidey: stuff.

Yeah.

I recognize him straight away.

Dan: Yeah. We may be able to find out his name.

Cris: He had a better name in any other movie than Stacey.

Dan: Yeah, it's a weird than Stacey. It's one of those boys and girls names. There was

Sidey: Jeffrey Lewis. His name was

Dan: Lewis'. Name. Jeffrey Lewis. There was Florence was another one. I think that was John Wayne's name, wasn't it?

Marian Marian. Marian, Yeah.

Some strange kind of cowboy names. Boy named Sue. someone else, but they're heading into town and Clint's getting the town ready.

Sidey: We get

Mordecai gets whacked, doesn't he? And he's, he's sort of cows under the one of the buildings. Yeah. And then he has a

Reegs: That's right.

Sidey: we get the big reveal.

Reegs: get the reveal that it was the towns speed townspeople conspired. The Carlin brothers were hired as part of the Lego mining corporations interests, which and then yeah,

Sidey: they just whip this guy.

Reegs: when he objected.

Yeah. And when their power got out of control. was whipped to death in the [00:15:00] streets. This Marshall, John Duncan

Dan: and everybody turned away and

Reegs: people watched on.

Dan: just sort of stepped back into the shadows, didn't they? After watching on And

Reegs: and we have had the bit as well, I think you were talking about, but I dunno if we fully explained where the towns people do rebel a bit to him.

They start pushing back a bit and Cali then does try to have him killed. Did we talk about that?

Yeah.

Sidey: She, so this is when he, he gets the two best rooms in the hotel.

Yeah. There were adjoining rooms. He says there'll be two for dinner and he brings her up for dinner. But she sort of

Reegs: I've already sorted dessert.

He says

Sidey: She lets the,

Cris: Nice.

Reegs: I know. Yeah.

Sidey: she lets the other two guys who've been complaining about him know and she sneaks outta the room after they fucked. And, you know, Clint's fucking too

Reegs: too wise for it. Yeah.

Sidey: So she goes out the room, they come in, they start, they've got, there's four of 'em in there. They start battering the bed, but it's

Reegs: like full metal jacket, wasn't

Dan: Yeah. And clearly all dumb as

Sidey: You just see him having a ciggy outside on the, on the balcony and he just, chucks a sticker, dynamite in there [00:16:00] and walks off and

Dan: then waits for him as they run out.

Sidey: as, I think two of them get killed by that, and then he shoots the other two outside.

Yeah.

And the other, the Fells really fucking pissed off about his hotel.

Dan: Yeah. And, and Clint's just, you know, again,

Sidey: don't try and kill me and I

Dan: yeah. Another day.

Reegs: Well then afterwards, doesn't he drag Sarah? The

proprietor's wife? to another room rapes her.

Sidey: Yeah. Rapey,

Reegs: So Rapey, rapey Clint.

Sidey: Yeah.

Dan: Yeah,

Reegs: And then after that,

Sidey: she, well, she tells him

Reegs: tells him about, yeah,

Sidey: Yeah. That he won't be able to rest because he's got no headstone.

Reegs: That's right. Yeah, exactly. And then this is when we get the paint, the town red, isn't it? This is where he tells them the final preparation, step up to paint the town red.

then he just kind of gets up and fucks off, doesn't he like, and he

Sidey: he changes

the name on the sign to hell.

Reegs: Hell yeah. Then off he goes.

Dan: The brothers roll into town.

Reegs: Oh, he finds them first, doesn't he? He goes out her fella got injured in some of the kerfuffle and has gone [00:17:00] off and he's following his blood trail 'cause he knows that he know was gonna sell 'em out to the Carlins.

And he goes out to rides out to where the carlins are and he starts throwing like dynamite at them and shooting at them and stuff to kind of get, go them to come back to the town.

Dan: Yeah.

Which they do. And

Reegs: there's like this huge like, welcome home boys like this town. It's so sinister 'cause everything including the church is painted red and it's got hell on the sign and it's like a welcome homeboys banner.

The townspeople have not got a fucking clue what's really coming to them. And all these picnic benches set up like they're having a big party

Sidey: Yeah.

Reegs: and they are really overcome very quickly. The whole town is like pretty much on fire within about three minutes.

Dan: The.

The,

guys on the roof and positioned in and around the the street are absolutely true to form and the worst shots ever, as well as

Reegs: some great falling

Dan: cowardice. Yes. Some good falling is, is apparent for everyone to see because they don't even try and get a shot off [00:18:00] in case they're identified as that's where they are and, and shot back because they can shoot the other, the other guys on the horse, they're actually.

Pretty good. But Clint starts picking him off, doesn't he?

Reegs: Yeah. It

Sidey: well he gets he whips one, he gets the whip round the neck, doesn't he?

Dan: yeah.

Reegs: celebrating in the bar afterwards. Aren't, aren't they? And then he just kind of pulls him out.

Dan: through the saloon doors. That's one down. You just hear the crack of the whip

Sidey: bit of an eye for an eye eye.

Dan: They don't come out.

Reegs: you, I mean, if it wasn't spelled out enough for you at the moment, like, everything's on fire and Clint's cracking the whip just silhouetted in black on the guy whips him to death.

Dan: But the other two guys are just there like scared now. And

Sidey: and they should be.

Dan: and they should be. They, they're kind of just say in flames.

It's a, it is a hellish scene. You do see the smile of a couple of the town folks that maybe like Mordecai, who, who didn't really, you know, have much to do with the previous. Dunking getting whipped and everything. Couldn't do anything to [00:19:00] stop it.

Reegs: I think it was more one of the more innocent people in the story of like,

Dan: And yeah, they just start pulling him, pulling him out and into the street, whipping him, killing him until

Reegs: sort of stealth hangs one. Yeah. He like slips the thing around

Dan: just him and Stacey left in the end. And they draw and he draws quicker, of course.

Sidey: course he does. Yeah.

Dan: and he, who are you? Who He's taking a few bullets to the chest and everywhere. And he is, he doesn't let him know. No, he

just

Reegs: the stranger. And then at this moment the guy, is it Belding, the hotel guy sneaks up from the back with a shotgun. You think he's gonna take Clint out and then

Sidey: Mordecai comes in? Yeah.

Dan: Sheriff.

Yeah.

Reegs: And then the next morning after that, the dust has settled, like, looks like people are kind of moving on from the town. Yeah. A few people are moving on, including

Sidey: what's left of it.

Reegs: Yeah.

What's left of

it

Dan: exactly. Well, we found out the mining company as say, was. On a legal ground. It wasn't really theirs.

They were trying to [00:20:00] exploit that situation. That's why, you know,

Reegs: they were all living fat off the land there. It wasn't theirs, it was the government's. But they decided to take theirs for themselves.

Dan: And the stranger rides outta town.

Sidey: Yeah. Mordecai says to him, he never did tell me your name. I never did know your name. And he says, yes, you do.

Dan: Just as he is doing the The headstone.

Sidey: Yeah.

Reegs: he's doing the headstone and as he rides off, as we watch the camera pans round to reveal the name on the headstone major, John Duncan. So, and then with the music kicks in and he sort of disappears into the shimmer again. So strongly implying a kind of supernatural force of nature that came

Sidey: Yeah. Is he the ghost of,

Reegs: Was it John Duncan's ghost? Was it something to avenge him? I dunno,

Cris: was it ghost dog?

Sidey: Yeah, it could have been the saint, the saint of killing.

Reegs: Yeah. Yeah.

Preacher vibes, definitely.

Sidey: Yeah. So yeah,

Dan: this comes in around about an hour, 45 minutes. In 1973, I mean, even before.

Chris was born

Cris: a long time before me.

Dan: [00:21:00] Yeah. I really like this. I thought this was just how a, a good old fashioned Western should be. I mean, it was brutal. It was dark there, there was no real heroes in it there.

Reegs: there aren't a lot of, we westerns though, that ask you to root for rapists in some way. Are

Dan: Well, I wasn't really.

Yeah, you, it is just a film. I mean, it's just like, I mean, we, we chatted about, you know, the other films like warfare and, and things that. Where people are just killing and, and shooting people. They're dropping bombs. And this is just one guy who's going into town. He went in for a beer and a bath and got sucked into this situation.

I mean, that's his. Point of view. That's, he says it at one point, doesn't he? I just came in for a beer and a bath and I was gonna head out and then suddenly they picked a fight. I'm here. Yeah, you've asked me to stay, you've offered me all these things. I've just done it.

Reegs: victim of their own greed.

Dan: Really? Yeah. Yeah. And, and [00:22:00] stood up to him and Yeah, certainly. His, attitude and his, the, the raping of the, the girls makes you recoil and think, fucking know. This is horrible bastard, this guy. But there's no real nice people in this film. No. You know, there's Mordecai as the, the town runt. He's the only one really.

Sidey: Yeah.

Dan: And everybody else is getting what they deserve in some way, shape, or form. And you think maybe further down the line, the High Plains drifter, the stranger himself will get what he deserves. But not in this 'cause he's just the top dog. He's the hardest, you know, of the the biggest dog in the pack

Reegs: Side.

Sidey: Yeah. All of that really. It's, I like it because, like you say, not not the supernatural vibe, but you know, the west was fucking brutal, you know? Yeah. It was like fucking lawless and appalling.

So this is kind of, you know, not the behaviors you expect, but it's not surprising that you get this sort of thing.

Dan: You can be believe it's believable in some sense. Like, you know, some guy, can you [00:23:00] imagine he's, he's the best with the gun. He's, he doesn't give a fuck. Everybody's scared of him. He'll just take what he wants.

Cris: Snake bite.

Sidey: Exactly. Zero Fox. And you know, it's Clint. He looks so fucking good.

Reegs: It's directed brilliantly, like loads. The fism is great. Loads of wide vistas and claustrophobic bars and

Sidey: he's done all this stuff with Sergio Leone and he's like absorbed everything. The film like classic Clint that came in two days early ahead of schedule on budget.

'cause that's what he's like famed for, in not just being a brilliant filmmaker, but very efficient. It just. You don't need to do 50 takes of the same thing. I've

Dan: I've got

Sidey: it. I've got it. Let's move on. You know? So that's, you know, sort of started here. He wrote a letter to John Wayne just

Reegs: Yeah, I know.

Sidey: Yeah. Said let's do this.

Let's collaborate, let's make something together. And John Wayne says, no, fuck

Reegs: No. Really?

Dan: he won't.

Sidey: Yeah. He didn't like, he doesn't like this sort of. Thing John Wayne's like very, very traditional cowboys and engines, that sort of

thing.

Reegs: Cowboys were always the good guys. There was never

Sidey: he doesn't like this picture of people actually being shitbags and

Reegs: And that's why I really liked, one of the things I did really like it, it makes you really [00:24:00] aware as an action movie fan of your own double standard around this, that you enjoy seeing an anti-hero kill people left right iner, but you don't like it when they do another act of violence.

And then it kind of works as a commentary in these times as well, on the cult of personality a little bit. One at one point they're talking about how the, the whole town is like they say he's got your snake fascinated. It made me think of a certain US politician and his supporters and that

Sidey: you're talking about Joe Biden.

Reegs: Yeah, maybe. Yeah. So, you know, we think this guy's cool when he is on our side, but then violent people do awful nasty shit to everybody.

Dan: Yeah, in, in that sense, it's it's, you know, amazing commentary. Even, even today. Strong recommend for me.

Sidey: Chris, you your birthday shenanigans got in the way of you finishing this one. Yeah. I wonder, would you be tempted to go back and finish it after what we've,

Cris: watched, you know what, now that I've I, I know what the, I, I was always.

I, I watched until he gets people outta the hotel and the, the priest he suggested the priest put them in your [00:25:00] house and the priest takes money

Sidey: for I'll, I'll charge you only 1 cent more than that. Yeah.

Reegs: I,

Sidey: Looks in right. I'll

Cris: you in my, oh, and you think he took that suggestion to, to put people, because he's a priest. To, to look after them in his own house, but he charges them.

So

Sidey: Yeah.

Dan: a slime bag as much as

Reegs: they were all awful.

Cris: what a dick. But that's until I, I just couldn't keep my eyes open anymore.

And I was curious where he is gonna go with this. Yeah. And,

Reegs: everybody dies basically.

Cris: I kind of figure, I kind of figured that one out, but I was, I was more curious of the, the tables and the paint and the bedsheets. What, what is the purpose?

Reegs: I know, and it's really only revealed right at the end. It is literally just to set up the gag of them turning up to a welcome home party for them to slaughter

Cris: everybody.

Because obviously that's the whole point of it to, to, but I, and, and obviously now that I know it, it's. Quite funny, but you, you keep seeing him. Like he gets a new saddle, he gets a new this and new that. He gets whiskeys, he gets three pairs of boots. He and

Dan: The whole town following him around. I mean, yeah,

Cris: he, [00:26:00] I kind of was, I think, what the fuck is he doing with all, you know what, what's the end goal of all

Sidey: He's probably

Dan: got pocket of about 40

Sidey: cigars,

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: I like the way they, in, like in all westerns, when they, you can just strike a match on any surface in it.

Cris: You just, yeah. So I don't know if I'm gonna

Sidey: probably got about half an hour, 40 minutes left. Yeah. So I would stick with

Cris: I would say I, I look, I like Clint Eastwood generally, just because he's quite good and he's quite, Clint Eastwood he looks really good in this like hair be. Strong on point. Good hat, good hat, good. The, the

Dan: it's a look that he took into a lot of his Western films actually, isn't it?

Cris: Yeah. But again, I, that's

Sidey: why that was the looks.

Cris: that's why I want to watch the movie with Clin Eastwood. It's not because he's shaving like bald head and clean shaved. That's not, you know, and yeah, I, I, from what I've seen, I enjoyed it. I don't, I'm probably gonna sound horrible here. Even that scene with the woman at the beginning,

I, I was just a bit like, well, if he doesn't shoot her.

He's gonna have to [00:27:00] do something to her because he was also not, not in terms of raping her, but you know what I mean, that he just shot three people. She basically decides to bump into him clearly on purpose.

Sidey: I dunno what her what her, what end game was with that confrontation. She just went to shout, she

Dan: you know, we see her going to whoever is the top dog in town, whoever is leading the pack of, of men in town, and she calls him out a few times, didn't he?

And you guys got any balls? There's a man in here and when she sees. Well, he's, he's number one. Whether it's that kind of, he will protect

Reegs: that's some pretty regressive sexual politics there.

But yeah, I think that probably is there in the movie. Yeah. No, I think that is there.

Dan: it. It's

Cris: So again, I, I, even with that, I was a bit like, oh, and obviously it's like the kind of sex team and the guy looks at the little man, the, the Mordecai, he just kind of looks into, okay, that's a bit weird. But again, even that, I didn't really [00:28:00] feel that bad because it's like.

Oh, unless he would've shot you. I don't think he, he would've just a man like that, that just shot three people for just telling him that he's a, I

dunno,

Dan: bump into him.

Cris: Yeah, just leave the guy alone.

Dan: You could have easily

Cris: he was on his way to his horse, so he just basically went and shot three people and he was on his

Sidey: If I see someone in town kicking off, I don't then walk into them and like, you know,

Dan: spit in their face and

Sidey: avoid them by the plague. Do you know what I mean? But anyway strong,

Cris: so strong recommend,

Reegs: strong

Sidey: big recommend for me.

Yeah. Yeah.