MovieChat Forums > High Plains Drifter (1973) Discussion > It was a rape

It was a rape

posted 15 years ago by conundrum
83 replies | jump to latest

I find it rather worrying that so many people are convinced it wasn't, or at they very least are trying to convince others (and themselves?) that it wasn't.

Is it because this is a Clint Eastwood movie and a Clint Eastwood character that people have a hard time seeing it as rape?
I mean, it's not the usual sort of thing your screen idol does in a movie, is it? So surely it can't be happening here, right? I hate to be patronising but seeing how wafer thing some people's arguments are that it was not rape, I think there might be at least a little of that going on ... sorry to say.

But that's the whole point, people!
It's NOT the usual thing your screen idol does in a movie which is precisely why it's included here! The Stranger is NOT a nice man; he might be the protagonist but he's still a villain. He's a Bad Guy. This rape scene, so early in the movie, is a clear demonstration of that fact and is intended to demonstrate right from the word go that you are NOT watching a "lovable rogue" "anti-hero" like The Man With No Name. The Stranger is a completely different character, on a completely different moral scale.

You're not supposed to like him.

That's why this rape is shown. So that you don't like the main character. He's a villain. He's as big a villain as those he takes revenge upon if not more so; their crimes were to stand still and not help, his crimes are rape and murder.

He's the villain. It is rape.

[–] I_Luv_Apple 9 years ago

It was rape. I don't care what anyone says. He takes her in the barn to teach her a lesson and rapes her.

[–] sfmar 9 years ago

I don't care what anyone says.

.......and nobody really cares what you say, either.

Oh, by the way, nice job of embarrassing yourself today on the Maleficent board. Yeah - I saw it before you deleted it.

[–] dolcineadelamantra 9 years ago

It was and remains a most horrifying scene to watch.

[–] fastfivelitre 9 years ago

ITS' RAPE!! That's why she shot at him for not coming back for more, and the fact she had a nice romantic dinner with him after and another romp in the bed. Some women WANT to be aggressive and be taken aggressively it's human nature , but is comical how it only looks one way to you rape culturalists so easily on the "I'm sooo offended" band wagon. No one gives a *beep* what you linch mob internet trolls think.

[–] Century_hades 8 years ago

Stories should be offensive at times, and make you uncomfortable. Imagine how boring movies would be if anything even remotely offensive was sucked out of them.

The movie is pretty layered, and can't be taken on a literal basis. There is a lot of symbolism in this movie. I think the rape scene is meant to be taken as the symbolic manifestation of her own shame for her betrayal of the sheriff that was killed. The stranger character is a symbolic manifestation of the towns own guilty consciousness.

That's how I took it, because from just a strictly story telling point of view. The rape, and exchange leading up to it is very strange, and surreal.

I agree with your statement about how everyone is so easily offended these days.

[–] TheMan18 (13015) 7 years ago

Has Michel Foucault, the controversial late (he died of AIDS in 1984) French philosopher seen the movie and how did HE interpret the scene? (He was against rape yes, but he also looked at it often on a deeper philosophical level and questioned why it is seen as worse than other forms of physical violence including but not limited to murder.)

[–] TheMan18 (13015) 7 years ago

Then again, what does his opinion, really matter?

[–] MIchiganJFrogg (-35) 7 years ago

[deleted]

[–] TheMan18 (13015) 7 years ago

True. (Although, no big deal of course, but I often call and pronounce his first name in French as "Michel" rather than "Michael".)

[–] strntz (12231) 6 years ago

It was a rape

It was the Dukes
It was the Dukes