High Plains Drifter 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

High Plains Drifter 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov December 4, 2022

Clint Eastwood's "High Plains Drifter" (1973) arrives on 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include vintage promotional materials for the film; new audio commentary by critics Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson; video interviews with actors William O'Connell, Mitchell Ryan, and Marianna Hill; two archival episodes of Trailers From Hell; and more. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Most old reviews of Clint Eastwood’s High Plains Drifter point out how its visual style incorporates a lot of what defined Sergio Leone’s great westerns. It is a valid comparison. If you ignore the technical construction of High Plains Drifter -- which covers everything from the lensing preferences to the precise management of light to the careful editing choices -- it is quite clear that Eastwood and Leone saw and recreated the Old West with extremely similar admiration. In their films, the Old West was always a cruel but uncharacteristically beautiful, almost mythical playground for adults that were unafraid to face death.

High Plains Drifter is the one and only western Eastwood directed that also incorporates quite a lot of what made Alejandro Jodorowsky’s films special. For example, in El Topo a mysterious gunslinger emerges in a picturesque desert region and eventually confronts vicious bandits that have terrorized and destroyed a small town. The film overflows with symbolism that ultimately alters the playground in a very unusual way, but its ambience is quite similar to that of High Plains Drifter. Indeed, once Eastwood’s gunslinger emerges on the horizon you can feel the same surrealistic vibes sneaking in and gently starting to bend the narrative as Jodorowsky does in El Topo. In High Plains Drifter Eastwood simply does not have the same colorful characters that can help him do more and ultimately end up in the same place El Topo does. (Think how different, and much more similar to El Topo, Eastwood’s film would have been if it had a dozen or so characters like Billy Curtis’ Mordecai).

The most memorable material in High Plains Drifter, however, is the one where Eastwood’s sense of humor overshadows the cruelty and exotic tempers of its characters. It pops up without the conventional buildups that prepare the audience for the shift in tone and as a result the action and drama become enormously entertaining. There is similar material in Leone and Jodorowsky’s films as well, but it is typically part of larger developments where the main characters engage and react in rather predictable ways. In High Plains Drifter Eastwood’s gunslinger is every shrink’s worst nightmare -- it is simply impossible to tell what is happening in his head, which is precisely why his opponents can’t keep up with him. This is the exact same reason why Eastwood’s sense of humor repeatedly catches the audience off guard as well.

Eastwood worked from a screenplay by Earnest Tidyman, who just a couple of years earlier had collaborated with William Friedkin on The French Connection. However, it is hard to tell just how much of what is in High Plains Drifter came directly from Tidyman’s screenplay because Eastwood’s individuality before and behind the camera powers up the entire film. Indeed, there are endless examples where it becomes painfully obvious that Eastwood’s gunslinger relies on his instincts, and in the process, his words and actions force the characters he engages to respond in very particular ways. This type of organic material is virtually impossible to script and then shoot to look as it does in the final version of the film.

The small town where the gunslinger gets his revenge was supposed to be recreated on one of Universal’s studio lots. However, Eastwood disagreed with the studio bosses and instead built the town near Mono Lake, an ancient saline lake at the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada in California. He was assisted by cinematographer Bruce Surtees (Dirty Harry, Escape from Alcatraz).

High Plains Drifter 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Kino Lorber's release of High Plains Drifter is a 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack. The 4K Blu-ray disc is Region-Free. The Blu-ray disc is Region-A "locked".

Please note that some of the screencaptures that appear with this article are taken from the 4K Blu-ray and downscaled to 1080p. Therefore, they do not accurately reflect the quality of the 4K content on the 4K Blu-ray disc, including the actual color values of this content.

Screencaptures #1-29 are from High Plains Drifter Blu-ray.
Screencaptures #32-37 are from High Plains Drifter 4K Blu-ray.

I did extensive comparisons between the 1080p and native 4K presentations of the film on this release and the 1080p presentation of the film on this release. Before I share my observations, I wish to state that I like the previous Blu-ray release a lot. Excluding a few highlights that could have been managed slightly better and some minor adjustments in terms of color saturation, I think that the previous Blu-ray release offers a wonderful organic presentation of the film.

On this release, the 1080p and native 4K presentations reveal some rather substantial adjustments in the film's color scheme. I think that a few are decent, but the overall color balance is not. In fact, in many areas it is problematic. I mention the color balance first because it is responsible for all minor discrepancies in terms of delineation, clarity, and depth. For example, early into the film, there are quite a few visuals that reveal rater odd shifts from blue to teal. Some are small and easy to ignore, but many are borderline distracting. Typically, you will notice them in backgrounds. On the previous release, primary blues and supporting blue nuances remain fairly stable. Additionally, in key areas of the film, reds either partially or completely evolve into browns. One such scene features the "Hell" sign seen in screencapture #22. I thought the change was so big that it impacts the color temperature of the entire sequence. The houses look light brown now but should be bright red. While testing the 1080p and 4K presentations on my system, I could not identify a pattern that revealed to me the purpose of these and other changes. Naturally, I wonder if there were specific frame-by-frame changes, rather than a larger shift toward a preferred color temperature setting. In native 4K, with Dolby Vision enabled, some of these shifts appear slightly better balanced, I found them just as unconvincing as they are in 1080p. The alteration of the reds, in particular, is very disappointing. What about density levels? They are identical. On this release, the move from 1080p to native 4K does not produce any seriously beneficial results either. In fact, because the dynamic range of the visuals was impacted during the regrading, I think there are quite a few sequences that look better in 1080p on the previous release. Image stability is very good. All in all, I would pick the previous Blu-ray release as the one offering the all-around best presentation of High Plains Drifter.

High Plains Drifter 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

I prefer the 2.0 track. However, this time I did a lot of switching between the 2.0 and 5.1 tracks while testing the two releases of the film. (I refer to the previous Blu-ray release and this new 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray release). To be honest, I probably overdid the switches and should have stayed only with the 5.1 track, but I had plenty of time so I decided to go back and forth quite a few times. I still like the 2.0 track better, but the 5.1 track most definitely opens up numerous sequences very well, so you should consider using it. I did not encounter any technical anomalies to report in our review.

High Plains Drifter 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

4K BLU-RAY DISC

• Commentary One - this audio commentary was recorded by filmmaker Alex Cox.

• Commentary Two - this new audio commentary was recorded by critics Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson.

BLU-RAY DISC

• Commentary One - this audio commentary was recorded by filmmaker Alex Cox.

• Commentary Two - this new audio commentary was recorded by critics Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson.

• Trailers and TV Spot - in English, not subtitled.
  
  1. Trailer One. Fully remastered. (3 min, 1080p).
  2. Trailer Two. Vintage trailer. (2 min, 1080p).
  3. TV Spot. Vintage TV spot. (1 min, 1080p).

• Radio Spot - vintage radio spot. In English, not subtitled. (1 min, 1080p).

• Image Gallery - a collection of vintage posters and images from the film. With music. (4 min, 1080p).

• Trailers From Hell One - an archival episode of Trailers From Hell with director Edgar Wright (Baby Driver). In English, not subtitled. (3 min, 1080p).

• Trailers From Hell Two - an archival episode of Trailers From Hell with screenwriter Josh Olson (A History of Violence). In English, not subtitled. (3 min, 1080p).

• A Man Named Eastwood - a vintage featurette that focuses on the production of High Plains Drifter and Clint Eastwood's career. In English, not subtitled. (8 min, 1080p).

• William O'Connell - in this video interview, actor William O'Connell (the barber in the desert town) explains how he entered the film business and what it was like to work with Clint Eastwood in High Plains Drifter. The interview was conducted exclusively for Kino Lorber. In English, not subtitled. (17 min, 1080p).

• Mitchell Ryan - in this video interview, actor Mitchell Ryan recalls his first encounter with Clint Eastwood and trip to the High Sierras where High Plains Drifter was shot and discusses his working methods. There are also some interesting observations about the film's lasting appeal. The interview was conducted exclusively for Kino Lorber. In English, not subtitled. (9 min, 1080p).

• Marianna Hill - in this video interview, actress Marianna Hill discusses the wild character she played in High Plains Drifter and interactions with Clint Eastwood. The interview was conducted exclusively for Kino Lorber. In English, not subtitled. (15 min, 1080p).

• Additional Trailers - additional trailers for the following titles from Kino Lorber's catalog.
  
  1. A Fistful of Dollars
  2. For a Few Dollars More
  3. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
  4. Two Mules for Sister Sara
  5. Joe Kidd

High Plains Drifter 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If I had to pick the home video release that offers the most convincing technical presentation of Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter, I would go with Kino Lorber's previous Blu-ray release from 2020. There is room for some minor cosmetic improvements on it, but the entire film has a very convincing organic appearance. This new Blu-ray/4K Blu-ray combo pack is sourced from the same solid 4K master. However, it introduces quite a few color adjustments that are problematic.