Eastwood's character not a ghost?

His last words to the short guy lead me to believe otherwise.

This is an interesting thread.

The Stranger is: the marshal's brother; just a stranger passing by; the marshal's ghost; an avenging angel; Satan; a supernatural manifestation of the town's guilty conscience; Death on a pale horse. And good cogent reasons are given for - and against - each of these.

I went into this movie completely cold, knowing nothing about it, and having none of these ideas in my head. What did occur to me, more and more as the story progressed, was that the role, as opposed to the person, of the Stranger was as a mirror, reflecting back who each of the townspeople were, inside themselves. "It's what people know about themselves inside." Or maybe what they don't even realize about themselves.

"What about after? What about after we do it? What do we do then?" - "Then you live with it." And in response to Mordecai's further questions, "I'm not. You are." And he rides away. The Stranger is addressing Mordecai, but I interpret that "you" as plural: you, the townspeople, are going to deal with what's coming with whatever "you", individually, have inside you.

I can rationalize my suggestion of the role of a mirror with the responses to the Indian family in the store, and to the two innocent Mexican carpenters. Similarly I can rationalize the rape of Callie - ask yourself who was she really, inside? The sudden violent deaths of the three bullies at the barbershop. The preacher - "especially the church." Mordecai seems to fit this as well - not a hero, but not a coward; a little man with a good heart but also a compensatory need to not be the town's footwipe; he also seems to be the only one that effectively shoots and kills, in this case Lewis, who is sneaking up behind. It does seem to me the situation with Sarah is more complex, but thinking about her situation and her motives, I can only say that it doesn't not fit.

Of course I wondered about the person of the Stranger, as opposed to his role, and I don't come up with any better answer than those given here. I do discount the brother theory, or the stranger passing by. Even if the original story called for him being the brother, I'm happy with Eastwood's decision to make it ambiguous. What I come away with is that the role of the Stranger in reflecting these people as they are is more important than who, specifically, he may be.

I didn't even know there was a The Stranger is Satan theory, but I've really seen the physical manifestation of Jim Duncan's vengeful spirit as the only possible take on it.

There's one point that I wanted to jump on, since I think any other point I could make has already been made. A few people said that his actions in the movie didn't line up with a righteous law man. And yeah, I agree that Jim Duncan would not have acted that way before his murder. However, he was killed violently in the street while the entire town sat back and watched. He probably even suspected (if not flat out knew) that he'd been set up by people running the town.

A year later, the people who murdered him get out of jail and Duncan somehow gets a chance to come back as the stranger and seek revenge. Put yourself in his shoes and think about how you'd feel riding back into town and seeing those people for the first time since your murder. I know I'd be pissed, and would want to take some revenge on the town as well.

The impact it made on me was that he was most definitely a GHOST! I have watched it many times, had discussions with friends, asked strangers to watch it and tell me what they think, etc. I still think he was a ghost.

He's a ghost.

"I never did know your name?"

Clint: "Yes you do"

This is Clint's film about the paranormal. The Deputy Sheriff comes back to avenge all the people that double crossed him in life.

All the evidence is in the film. No one else would've known as much about the Deputy resurrection, and it was also the reason the drifter had bad dreams about the horse whipping.

This film is an American classic. It's been shown on TV every year since it came out in '73. That's 42 years.

his body was alive and he was mortal. when that girl tried shooting him in the tub he was scared and went under the water instinctively to try and survive. why would a ghost need to prevent themselves from dying when they are already dead?

also there was 3 shots at him and all clearly missed, (just watched) so its not like bullets went through him like a ghost

he also drank alcohol and had sex. why if you are a ghost?

he exhaled smoke from his lungs which means he breathes and what kind of ghost breathes?


he's Marshal Jim Duncan's spirit using another man's mortal body which he possessed to get revenge. he has the town painted red and calls it hell because he's p*ssed off. not his brother because he dreamed about the whipping, (which means he had to be there) and i doubt that those villains would let his brother live to avenge him.

i doubt Satan would show up for this event. you'd think he'd have better things to do.

in my opinion, ambiguous endings are crap. if you have no ending that ties everything up because you are out of ideas then don't make the movie.

It's hard to tell.

Sometimes I think he was the resurrected Marshall, come back to take revenge.

Other times I think he was just some sort of Avenging Angel.







Love & Mercy: 9
It Follows: 8.5
Whiplash: 9