THE STRANGER (1995)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, psychological*

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

I have no false illusions about THE STRANGER. It's Clint Eastwood's HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER filtered through the marketing demands typical of direct-to-video martial arts thrillers. but with a female action star played by a renowned lady kickboxer. DRIFTER brings its enigmatic hero to a corrupt small town to guilt them for letting their sheriff be killed by outlaws, and to seek revenge on the bandits, since the visitor himself seems to be the ghost of the dead sheriff. STRANGER is much less ambiguous about the supernatural nature of its heroine, and the story champions the individual's possibility for heroism despite the scuzziness of the outlaws and their townie allies.

Yet, despite many derivative elements, some of which are logically dubious, STRANGER is one of those interesting movies in which journeymen talents put together something better than average. I haven't seen everything from the oeuvres of director Fritz Kiersch, writer Gregory Poirer, and composer Kevin Kiner, but nothing I have seen (or heard, in Kiner's case) grabs me as THE STRANGER does.

So prior to the film's action, a motorcycle gang run by a martial artist toughie named Angel (Andrew Divoff) has decided to make a small western town the base for illegal operations. Bridget Mercer, wife of local sheriff Gordon (Eric Pierpoint), makes an attempt to alert the FBI to the gang's activities, and for that Bridget is raped, murdered, and buried in the town cemetery. The aggrieved Gordon becomes a drunkard, allowing the worst elements of the town to rule the roost.

Then a blonde motorcyclist (Kathy Long) comes to town, wearing an outfit far from the wardrobe of Clint Eastwood or martial-arts heroes in general: tight leather trousers and a bustier. Initially, at least, this wild outfit seems designed to draw some of the lesser members of the gang into assaulting her, at which point she kills them dead. Gordon doesn't precisely recognize the mystery woman as a reborn version of his dead wife, but he won't interfere with her vengeance-quest, and she either kills or incapacitates all comers. Maybe-Bridget works her way up the food chain until Angel himself comes to town, along with hench-cyclists played by such familiar faces as Danny Trejo and Faith Minton. There's a cool, well-scored beatdown at the end, concluding with the Stranger bashing her maybe-rapist's skull to pieces against the gravestone of Bridget Mercer.

Not all the action set-pieces are as good as the climax, but a lot of them offer solid tough-girl action, and if Kathy Long isn't the most expressive actress, she excels a lot of her competition in that department, as well as being to sell all the kicks and punches. The ghost-cyclist also gives new life to both Gordon and a young girl who witnessed the murder, even though by that time the rest of the town has fled for the hills.

In addition to the cathartic climax, STRANGER boasts two scenes of greater symbolic import than one finds in the average chopsocky. Toward the beginning, after some set-up scenes, the viewer sees the Stranger park her motorcycle at a gas-station. A truck passes in the foreground, and as the viewer sees the black-clad female in the background, she "fades" from sight intermittently, as if the truck's passage revealed her true insubstantial nature.

Another scene occurs late in the film, after the avenger has taken out several bad bikers, Angel's in a camp outside town, preparing to ride in. While all of Angel's men are asleep and he's doing martial arts "kata" positions, Maybe-Bridget appears on a nearby hill and begins "mirroring" all of Angel's moves. For me this implies, without putting it into clumsy words, that the vengeance-seeking spirit of the murdered woman needed something as a model for her new form.  Thus she imitated her murderer in terms of conveyance, skills and flamboyant attire, the better to hoist him on his own petard. When this stranger rides off into the West, she's explicitly going to a well deserved rest from earthly travails-- though only after taking a lot of evil spirits with her.