oh so its not rape? then why would she try to shoot him the next day!

Everyone in the town got the 'punishment' they deserved.

Because, just as the runt said, " maybe because he didn't go back for more.".

High Plains Drifter is one of my favorite films. But it has been some time since I posted on its boards. Perhaps it is not surprising that the sexual encounter between the Stranger and Callie, specifically of course the first such one, and not the second, that remains most controversial.

To some extent Esatwood's conservative at least in the libertarian sense politics contributes to the level of animosity he receives from some. Well I sure do not share his politics, but neither do I think his politics necessarily must include racist or sexist or generally discriminatory behavior and attitudes. So let's put that one aside, and I specifically mean I think it ludicrous to think High Plains Drifter stands as some approval of sexual assaults, even if somehow retributive in nature.

Neither is it I am sure a general approval of vigilantism, despite what may appear in that regard on the surface.

I think the way too many begin to misunderstand High Plains Drifter is in seeing Lago as representative of civil society in general. Very much to the contrary, I see the characterization of Lago and its people as representing a travesty of civil society, a conscious decision by its natives to maintain the appearances of a civil society while in reality they have with eyes wide open and fully conscious decided to and did move into a lawless, violent and criminal state of existence.

Having created Lago in such regard, it is misguided to see what happens in the film is any way as analogous to what happens and should happen in civil society. Lago is really the state of nature covered with a thin and misleading veneer of civil society. It is not analogous, not intended to be analogous, to everyday social interaction.

High Plains Drifter is instead intended to show that the people of Lago, having in effect made a pact with evil, can hardly complain when the stranger appears in their midst and wreaks havoc.

How does this mean we should see the first sexual encounter between the stranger and Callie? To begin with, I think it clear it is unhelpful to think of it in legal terms. But we can agree that the encounter certainly involved a lack of consent on her part. She did not "ask for it" in the literal sense, and that certainly makes for at least a problematic assessment of what the stragner is up to and all about.

But it is also true that Callie is part of the general deal the people in Lago have made, their acceptance of Marshall Duncan's murder, of the theft of the gold, of their agreement, their conspiracy, to keep it by hiding what was really going on.

In Callie's specific case, no doubt it is provocative that she is also sexually promiscuous. And while not literally a prostitute she is portrayed as a woman who seems to do nothing in town of value, justifying her position, other than being attractive and available to, and sexually involved with, some of what passes in Lago for the town's luminaries. Not to mention Stacey Bridges.

Her first approach toward the stranger is also of no small note given its context. The stranger has already killed the three hoods who were "guarding" Lagos. Yet she shows no fear approaching him as she walks down the street, to the contrary appearing like she very much wants him to see her, which she confirms by intentionally bumping into him, followed by her acerbic comments. What is she after in this scene? What does she want?

I do not think she was literally hoping to initiate a sexual encounter, to be sure. But in the context of what Lago was all about, she was in a sense being even more provocative. Callie was essentially trying to say you may have just killed three men, without the slightest difficulty. But I am Callie Travers, and I have a special place in this town, and I am going to put you in your place.

What then ensues is she does not put him in her place, her standing in the town is shown to be rather shaky, and her claims to moral authority are seen as hollow and even hypocritical.

One other point - the implication at the end of the sex is that Callie may have enjoyed it. This I don't think by any means is meant to suggest that most or even any significant percentage of rape victims enjoy being raped. It instead I think might have meant to show a confusion on her part as to what the implications are of her position in Lago. She has a history of tying herself sexually to Stacey Bridges, Morgan Allen and perhaps others. And here is the stranger, who is powerful and violent and effective. Is that what she finds attractive? Even if she has her own will overrun? Well, in the context of Lago's deal with evil, it is hard to know where not only morality and the rules stand, but also how the townspeople see themselves in such terms.

More generally we see each of the other bad people in Lago end up having their phony veneer of moral standing being the very means by which the tables are turned on them. The deal making Drake cannot deal his way out of facing Stacey Bridges's wrath. Louis Belding pretends to speak for the common good of the town, then attempts to go around Drake and most of the others by setting up an atttack in his own hotel by Allen and his henchmen, then losing the veneer of a stable business and marriage by proving to his wife he is a cowardly hypocrite. The mayor and the sherriff lose their offices by being asked to "contribute" them to satisfy the stranger, clearly when they supported the deal with the stranger not thinking they personally would have to give up anything (this is actually the case for all those who had to give). Given this general context, what happens to Callie is in keeping with the dynamic the stranger introduces.

What goes around comes around. That is what it is about.

He wasn't a "neutral entity", he was the ghost of Jim Duncan. Re-watch the final conversation between the Stranger and Mordecai at the gravesite with that thought in mind. Suddenly the ending will click. Then rewatch the film and a lot more will click.

But anyway, as far as Callie goes, she was a horribly written woman in a genre that typically writes women in a horrible fashion. She would not be the first horribly written woman in a Western who sees no way to express attraction to a man except through conflict and provocation. That's the first thing we have to acknowledge before we try to make sense of the scene: you wouldn't find a woman who acts like that in the real world, nor would there be any rationalizing away the man's actions as anything other than rape. Within a Western, though ... ? The film was also clear to show that she enjoyed it, and as Mordecai said, she probably waited so long to get her "revenge" because he didn't come back for more. Nor did she mind another night with him later.

Sandor,

You didn't read anything, at least with any degree of comprehension, if you thought MY post was "justifying rape" in the sense you meant it. Your simpleminded moralism shows no understanding of the film, among other things.