11/12: Void Influences – Clint Eastwood as “High Plains Drifter!” (1976)
Like Charles Bronson a couple weeks back, I have written in my blog post about the influence of Clint Eastwood’s 1973 masterpiece, High Plains Drifter. You can read this April 9, 2010 post via the link here:
… and Hell followed with him!
While I don’t have much to add to that post, I will again emphasize that Eastwood’s willingness to delve into the supernatural when audiences were expecting a typical western drama simply blew me away! While the movie came out in 1973, it was 1976 … on Sunday night TV … that I saw it for the first time (I’d not been old enough to drive in 1973, and I was not allowed to see “R” rated films in my home).
Having written and shared my first “creation,” The Night Terror (the tale penned in high school that would eventually become I Know Why the Dogwoods Blush) had been a mixed blessing for me by 1976. Many peers made fun of the concept of a man returning from the grave to seek justice. At age 17, my confidence was shaken. Eastwood restored that confidence with Drifter. I’ve never looked back since. Not everyone would like, appreciate or support my tales, but Eastwood inspired me to write, write, write and not let detractors pull me down. If a master storyteller like Eastwood felt the premise was worthwhile (which he’d do again in 1986 with Pale Rider), then it was worthwhile for me as well!
Is Deacon Void another man raised from death to walk among the living? Only time will tell. But one thing’s for sure … he probably would not be terrorizing the creatures of the night inhabiting London’s East End today had it not been for Clint Eastwood and a ghostly marshal who returned to right the wrongs that robbed him of his life in a western classic called …
HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER!
It’s what people know about themselves inside that makes ‘em afraid.
Clint Eastwood as “The Stranger,” High Plains Drifter (1973)