High Plains Drifter, with Eastwood as director as well as star, is part ghost story, part revenge Western, more than a little silly, and often quite entertaining in a way that may make you wonder if you have lost your good sense. The violence of the film (including a couple of murders by bull-whipping) is continual and explicit. It exalts and delights in a kind of pitiless Old Testament wrath.
However, it is also apparent that neither Ernest Tidyman, who wrote the screenplay, nor Eastwood are taking themselves too seriously. Eastwood's characterization of The Stranger, who settles God's score with Lago, is a high parody of the soft-featured, brutal Man With No Name he played in those bitter Sergio Leone Westerns.