9. High Plains Drifter
Clint Eastwood's violent Spaghetti Western from 1973 offers us the anti-hero to end all anti-heroes. He's a rapist, a stone cold murderer and generally just a pretty dislikeable chap. In classical Spaghetti Western style, Eastwood's protagonist has no name and is referred to elusively by the townsfolk as 'The Stranger." Appearing and departing from the town as if a ghost from a mirage, The Stranger operates as a sort of Dickensian apparition within High Plains Drifter; forcing the town to look into their past. While High Plains Drifter has none of the visual panache of Leone or Corbucci's best work, it does contain a unique and consistently intriguing dissection of the genre's lead character. Delving into the depths of the lone gunslinger, Eastwood's film paints the Spaghetti Western hero as a cruel spectre that's actually very hard to identify with. Not the most fun of watches on this list, but certainly one of the most interesting and cerebrally engaging.