Pale Rider
1985 Directed by Clint Eastwood
Synopsis
... and hell followed with him.
A small gold mining camp is terrorised by a ruthless land owner wanting to take their land. Clint Eastwood arrives riding a pale horse just as a young girl is praying to God to help the miners. He is revealed to be a preacher with mysterious and possible otherworldly origins who teams up with the miners to defeat the land owner and the corrupt sheriff.
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A patchwork of ideas from Eastwood's earlier Westerns - the possibly supernatural hero of High Plains Drifter, the opening attack on the camp staged like the beginning of The Outlaw Josey Wales - even as it anticipates Unforgiven. Pale Rider isn't nearly as mature as Unforgiven; Clint's still flattering himself here, as the main female character and her daughter both have the hots for him. But it does take time, before arriving at the violent climax, to question whether Clint's mysterious preacher should defend the beleaguered mining camp. The ultimate answer is a resounding "Yes," but it's still a far more thoughtful self-examination than Sudden Impact, Clint's previous directorial effort. It's also handsomely shot by Bruce Surtees and impressively old-fashioned - a throwback even in 1985, it's fun to watch Clint in his wheelhouse one more time.
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Clint Eastwood's "Pale Rider" was the biggest grossing western of the eighties. Was it that good or was the decade short of quality westerns?
The answer is probably both. A superior western this has the usual "man with no name" vibe that Eastwood has perfected over the last fifty years. With a conventional plot that has a supernatural feel to it, Eastwood is the no-nonsense preacher who appears from nowhere to help a group of oppressed miners.
Eastwood's "preacher" is an avenging angel and as the bringer of death on his pale horse the symbolism is easy to see. His showdown with the evil marshal and his deputies is thrillingly tense. The marshal's realisation that "the preacher" is a man… -
It could be argued that, much like the mysterious, lonesome heroes he’s consistently portrayed throughout his illustrious career, Clint Eastwood single-handedly saved the western genre with his 1985 hit Pale Rider. During the early eighties the Hollywood western was in decline, but Pale Rider’s short term success revived it, at least for a period (the genre’s demise was rather inevitable as it soon fell away from cinema screens).
But Pale Rider’s significance goes further than that. What the narrative may lack in originality (many critics have somewhat justifiably labelled it as little more than a tame copy of Shane) it makes up for in intelligence. On-location shooting, sweeping landscapes and typical genre conventions point to a homage to the genre’s…
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Part of Clintfest '13
A grizzled mystery man (Flint Lockwood) saves a homesteader (Michael Moriarty) from a shellacking at the hands of a gold tycoon's hired goons, and becomes a symbol of hope to the community of brutalised miners, while sending Moriarty's fiancee (Carrie Snodgress) and her 14-year-old daughter wild with lust.
If Clint's High Plains Drifter was a delirious subversion of the "outsider hero" seen in such films as Shane, then this is basically just a remake of Shane, right down to the kid yelling "Come back! We all love you!" at the close, an act of outlandish thievery that frankly amounts to taking the piss. There's also a slight lack of dramatic tension that comes with having a…
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Eastwood has always been worth his weight on either side of the camera. On the surface it's not so different from Eastwood's previous westerns, but Pale Rider is somewhat more introspective than Leone's trilogy, offering a more flawed and vulnerable hero and the toll that such a life takes on a man. You can see the groundwork laid here for the brilliant Unforgiven.
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Very well rounded western. Not the most original of scripts yet Eastwood takes it on and makes it much better than it has any right to be. I'm also convinced that had this not been made Unforgiven would not be the masterpiece we all know and love.
On a quick side-note, how weird is it that Chris Penn and Jonah Hill aren't related... Or is it just me?
Recent reviews
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A patchwork of ideas from Eastwood's earlier Westerns - the possibly supernatural hero of High Plains Drifter, the opening attack on the camp staged like the beginning of The Outlaw Josey Wales - even as it anticipates Unforgiven. Pale Rider isn't nearly as mature as Unforgiven; Clint's still flattering himself here, as the main female character and her daughter both have the hots for him. But it does take time, before arriving at the violent climax, to question whether Clint's mysterious preacher should defend the beleaguered mining camp. The ultimate answer is a resounding "Yes," but it's still a far more thoughtful self-examination than Sudden Impact, Clint's previous directorial effort. It's also handsomely shot by Bruce Surtees and impressively old-fashioned - a throwback even in 1985, it's fun to watch Clint in his wheelhouse one more time.
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I was a bit drowsy when I saw this, so here's what I remember... There are two guys in it from The Thing (or perfect replicas), as well as Jaws from James Bond, who breaks a big rock with a hammer. Oh, and Sean Penn's little brother (R.I.P.). Both a too-old mom and her too-young daughter hit on Clint, which is pretty icky. Some underwhelming explosions, but a great stick fight. And Clint does this annoying thing where he disappears just as someone is about to shoot him, then pops up somewhere else and kills them. It's okay.
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this movie is a cliché after cliché after cliché. how cool can a word get? cliché. cliché. cliché. anyhow, it's a fun to watch western with typical-as-it-can-get story. it even has a layer of religion over it with clint eastwood as an ultimate do-gooder representative. my fav part of movie is chris penn's role. he really did a bad job here but fuck it, it's chris penn - that guy from reservoir dogs, brother of sean penn, father and a drug user.
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Today, Clint Eastwood is considered a first-rate filmmaker and one of the best storytellers out there. But it took years for Eastwood to reach that level, and a lot of his early directorial efforts were essentially designed as vehicles for his acting. Pale Rider could fall into that camp, but there is more going on here. On the surface, the film is a simple tale of a greedy business man attempting to drive people off their land and the mysterious preacher (Eastwood) protecting the innocent ones. But there's a supernatural undercurrent to the whole thing and a mystery to the preacher. We never learn his back story or if he is or isn't a ghost. Eastwood also goes for more…
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Eastwood's best, as far as directing./
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It could be argued that, much like the mysterious, lonesome heroes he’s consistently portrayed throughout his illustrious career, Clint Eastwood single-handedly saved the western genre with his 1985 hit Pale Rider. During the early eighties the Hollywood western was in decline, but Pale Rider’s short term success revived it, at least for a period (the genre’s demise was rather inevitable as it soon fell away from cinema screens).
But Pale Rider’s significance goes further than that. What the narrative may lack in originality (many critics have somewhat justifiably labelled it as little more than a tame copy of Shane) it makes up for in intelligence. On-location shooting, sweeping landscapes and typical genre conventions point to a homage to the genre’s…
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Okay it looks great. It has the great epic feel of a good western. And it has bad guys, and Clint being the good badass guy.
But my oh my is there no character development. Clint rides in and growls every line. We learn nothing about him, and in the end he leaves.
We kind of get the motivation for the bad guys, they want land, but them seem too stupid to find a common sense ending to it all. Like why attack the people if you just want them to move? Ever hear of a bribe?
The shoot out scene are good, all two of them. And that's a major problem as well. The movie takes FOREVER to get…
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Clint Eastwood's "Pale Rider" was the biggest grossing western of the eighties. Was it that good or was the decade short of quality westerns?
The answer is probably both. A superior western this has the usual "man with no name" vibe that Eastwood has perfected over the last fifty years. With a conventional plot that has a supernatural feel to it, Eastwood is the no-nonsense preacher who appears from nowhere to help a group of oppressed miners.
Eastwood's "preacher" is an avenging angel and as the bringer of death on his pale horse the symbolism is easy to see. His showdown with the evil marshal and his deputies is thrillingly tense. The marshal's realisation that "the preacher" is a man… -
In a year when the western was all but dead, it's a brave move by Clint Eastwood to star, produce and direct a no holds barred love letter to the spaghetti westerns that made his name over two decades earlier.
The gamble pays off in spades though with a very watchable (if all too familiar) story that doesn't disappoint on any level.