Just caught another Clint Eastwood film that I had never seen before, 1985's "Pale Rider." In this film, the most successful Western of the 1980s, as it turned out, Eastwood directs AND stars as a mysterious entity called only The Preacher. After a small group of gold prospectors is attacked by the thugs of a larger mining company in northern California, a 14-year-old girl in the group (pretty Sydney Penny) prays to God for assistance, after having had her dog shot dead by the goons. Seemingly in answer to her prayers, into the area rides the Eastwood character, who may or may not be a ghost seeking vengeance (at one point, we see that his back is covered by the scars of ancient bullet wounds, and the viewer is left to draw his or her own conclusions). The Preacher comes to the aid of one of the prospectors (Michael Moriarty) who is being beat up by the goons in the small nearby town, and later enjoys the hospitality of the prospectors, including Sydney's Mom, played by Carrie Snodgress. This, of course, does not sit well with mining exec Richard Dysart, who sends another of his goons (Richard "Jaws" Kiel) to intimidate the group, and who later gets even more serious by hiring a corrupt marshall (John Russell) and his seven "deputies" to do away with the tin panners and their Preacher friend. The film is more than a little in debt to the great '50s Western "Shane," one of MY all-time favorites, and many scenes echo that earlier Western fairly slavishly. The picture builds to a fairly exciting ending, with the Preacher taking on Russell and his similarly attired thugs (the badmen look very impressive in matched, tan-colored dusters) in a gun battle that reminds one not of "Shane," but rather "High Noon." In a satisfying denouement, the Preacher fills Russell with bullets that exit from his back, echoing the wounds that the Preacher himself once suffered (after having been shot in the back?). Visually, Clint's picture is fairly spectacular, having been filmed in both Idaho and northern California; the script is intelligent; and the players all uniformly fine. Clint is effortlessly cool in the film, and has himself said in interviews that he believed his character to be a straight-out ghost. All in all, a most impressive outing, and one that I was very glad to have finally caught up with....
Review of Pale Rider
