The great mystery of High Plains Drifter (1973) is who is Eastwood and what business does he have with the denizens of Lago? There's a very significant moment early in the opening credits of the film where Eastwood's stranger immediately startles at the sound of a whip. Then later he "dreams" of the horrifying demise of Marshal Jim Duncan at the whips of Stacey and his boys. The Lago township look on, most of them not only aware of what is going on, but complicit in the marshal's death.

"Damn you all to Hell!"
This final gasp, a last utterance that condemns the corrupt Lago township of their sins, truly informs us that few are absent blood on their hands. When Stacey and the boys crash the welcoming party the stranger had them prepare, their dismantling is justified.


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