Pale Rider review

Megan Wheeler: And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the fourth beast said: "Come and see." And I looked, and behold a pale horse. And his name that sat on him was Death. And Hell followed with him.

Director: Clint Eastwood
(1985)

While I'm not a big fan of westerns, I was drawn to the Clint Eastwood directed and starred Pale Rider for that sole reason, Clint Eastwood. The man has made and acted in some terrific films during his career, so the expectations were relatively high. There’s no denying the strengths of Pale Rider, most notably its action and Eastwood’s performance, but it’s also hard to overlook the lacklustre drama that makes up the bulk of the film.

The film opens with a gang of horse riding cowboys riding across a plain, intercut with shots of a docile nearby village. The length of the shots get progressively shorter and the crosscutting becomes feverishly fast until the 2 scenes collide. The settlement is destroyed and to repair the damage Hull (Michael Moriarty) heads into town. Once there he is assaulted by those who attacked his community, working under the orders of a dastardly business man called LaHood (Richard Dysart). This potential beatdown is averted by a man called Preacher (Clint Eastwood), who saves Hull and travels back with him to stay with his lover Sara (Carrie Snodgress) and her daughter Megan (Penny Sydney).  LaHood desperately wants the land that Hull and his friends have settled on to get to the gold that resides there, and is prepared to employ the infamous Stockburn (John Russell) and his deputies to go head to head with the enigmatic preacher in order to get it.

Some strong religious themes are present here, but surprisingly they add not only to the mystery of Preacher, but also the quality of the film itself. Megan prays to the lord to bestow her a miracle to reduce the suffering in her life. During this reading we see a shot of Preacher riding his horse superimposed onto the existing shot of Megan burying her dog. Later, upon Preachers arrival into town Megan is reading from the bible, Revelation “And I looked. And behold, a pale horse, and his name that sat on him was death. From here the tone is set, is Preacher a message from god? A Ghost? Or simply here to settle a grudge with the cold-hearted Stockburn? Eastwood teases the answer but never explicitly states it; the ambiguous final shot is as rewarding as any shootout.

That's not to say that Pale Rider’s brief bursts of action aren’t entertaining of course, but they often lack any form of weight or impact. Upon preacher’s rescue of Hull, he beats up a gang with a wooden stick with apparent ease. The choreography and editing is exciting, but the blows don’t feel vicious enough. The climactic gunfight fares better mainly due to the change in approach. The bullets do fly, but in a restrained manner that makes every death seem more significant. Preacher hides around town, ambushing Stockburn’s goons using deception and deceit. It’s engrossing as well as further adding to the complexity of Eastwood’s character; design like this feels fresh when compared to modern action scenes which are only concerned with explosions and death.

Even though Hull is the films protagonist, his character pales considerably when paired with Eastwood’s gunslinger. Preacher might not have a great deal of screen presence, but this only works in favour of the avenging angel; a case of less is more. Despite his beatdown of LaHood’s goons, Preacher is a man of cloth, something that amplifies the mystery of his character. Elsewhere we have Hulls potential wife to be Sara in what equates to a throwaway role. Richard Dysart does a fine job of breathing life into primary antagonist LaHood, his slimy nature and short fuse make for an ideal villain.

In the later stages of the film threat comes from Stockburn and his deputies, although all of which don’t get enough time to develop into anything other than cannon fodder for Preachers pistols. While the major characters are solid, the supporting cast is awful, a lame collection of stereotypes and one dimensional set fillers.

This ties partly into the films biggest issue, the drama that lacks bite in-between the violence. The community’s issues aren’t portrayed in there true severity making the fact they might have to relocate their homes more of a slight inconvenience than a life changing issue. Beyond this is nothing but lacklustre interactions that bloat the films running time out to almost 2 hours, a length that's slightly overindulgent. Pale Rider is a solid film, but the connective tissue between Eastwood’s scenes tear the film down to less of an impressive level.

7