High Plains Drifter/Joe Kidd/The Beguiled (Box Set)

Advantages: Unique take on the western genre, excellent story, well scripted and directed.
Disadvantages: Poor acting by some of the cast, some may not like Clint's anti-hero persona

..., what sets it apart from the myriad of similar westerns before it is the direction the film takes. Instead of being a mere conflict between good and evil, Eastwood blurs this line and delivers a bleak film about human nature. As the film develops we recognise that Clint is not the murdering rapist we are led to believe, but something more virtuous drives him to do the things that he does. In one sense, the people of Largo come to deserve the sheer hell that the stranger puts them through during the build up to the gunfighters' arrivival. The majority of Largo's inhabitants are a bunch of greedy and selfish individuals, each as disgusting as the next and deserving of the fate that awaits them. Its this character development and reversal of roles that sets High Plains Drifter apart from similar themed mainstream westerns. Everything... Read review

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Advantages: Fun campy Pirate romp
Disadvantages: OK, "Pirates of the Caribbean" it ain't

...amount of treasure outside of Madagascar. As for crew, Kidd asks the King to allow him to recruit these from among the city's condemned imprisoned pirates, stating that ' None would be so loyal, nor fight so desperate, as cut-throats under sentence of death, if they knew that at the end of the voyage, a Royal pardon would be in their pockets'. Hmm, sounds like good logic. Captain Kidd sets sail with his unsavoury new crew, one of whom, Adam Mercy, attracts his attention as he seems rather well-bred and educated for a condemned pirate - Mercy can even sign his own name on the ship's register rather than a big X like everyone else. Kidd begins to keep an eye on Mercy and asks his manservant Shadwell, who has come along for the ride, to subtly interrogate Mercy to try to find out more about him. Kidd demonstrates to us viewers just how... Read review

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Advantages: Good plot
Disadvantages: none

...As a big Clint Eastwood fan i find that most people normally relate to him for his "Spaghetti westerns" or "Dirty Harry" films. I have lost count of the amount of times i have heard someone with a bad impression of him sayin "go ahed punk make my day" Eastwood though has many films to his credit both as actor and as director, quite often as both. "High plains drifter" (1973) is one of thoes many films. With his spaghetti westerns most people credit him as "The man with no name" when in fact in in all three films he had a name. In "A fist full of dollars" his name was Joe, in "For a few dollars more" his name was Monco and finally in "The good the bad and the ugly" he was Blondie. For five decades Eastwood has made westerns, appealing to the current audience, but in only one was he the man with no name or the stranger... Read review

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