Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

One of my all time favorites.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

"Pale Rider" is a Western with such an aura, such an attitude and such a stance over the Western myth that it's almost a miracle it could flirt with self-consciousness while never sinning by it. Clint Eastwood might be the only director still capable of such miracles. The actor has always been a man of a few words, of stares that could speak more ominous statements than a Samuel L. Jackson's monologue. His ways of standing, looking, existing could exude more magnetism than the Magnificent Seven put together. But more than his natural blessings that made him a man women liked and men wanted to be like, Eastwood had an all-American attitude toward the frontier spirit. He who was made a star through Western (before Leone, there was 'Rawhide') he returned back the favor after the disastrous failure of "Heaven's Gate" seemed to have sealed the genre's fate. It's like Eastwood and Westerns form a natural cycle, they both define one another, as if there was a true predestination in his name being an anagram of Old West Action. Though "Pale Rider" isn't much about the Old West as it is about action, the film retells the story of George Stevens' "Shane" with miners replacing homesteaders and standing in the way of a powerful and influential industrialist named Coy LaHood (Richard Dysart) who believes he and progress make one. His attempt to buy 'tin pans' out and to threaten them through acts of intimidations almost destroys their spirit until a mysterious rider comes into the picture and prove that before being about action, Westerns are about 'states of mind'.I mentioned Eastwood's natural aura because it's integral to the story's believability. Alan Ladd was good at Shane but he wasn't exactly threatening, he had to prove his worth at gun, at fist-fight and through a few one-liners such as "I like it to be my idea". Eastwood doesn't even need himself, only a silhouette appearing and then vanishing before you notice it, a weak lighting that can only reveal his piercing eyes or just being mentioned in a conversation. When young Megan (Perry Sidney) buries her dog, killed by LaHood's men, she has a prayer where she begs the Lord for help, her "please" has that childish resonance that indicates how hopeless they are. Eastwood intercut it with his arrival, it's not played for subtlety but to establish his mystical charisma.The man, like Eastwood's seminal antihero, has no name, he is called the Preacher. He doesn't quote the Bible much but he saves the day in more than one occasion, without leaving mortal casualties... not yet anyway. He accepts to help the miners, but they didn't ask for help, just for him to stay as if his presence was healing their spirit already. But Eastwood counterbalances the sanctification with the idea of a pending doom. His entrance coincides with a 'Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse- recitation and he obviously fits the description of "Death". But as he said it himself: "God works in a mysterious way", you can't explain providence, but you just can tell that there's something providential about the man, even if he means Death.And in the same vein of intelligence, it also means that there's something 'evil' about LaHood even if he means Progress. He knows "blood is a big expense" and tries to get the Preacher out through bargain and only resorts to violence in extreme cases, but for all his malevolence, he's got a business to run, and his interactions with this son (a youngish and thin Chris Penn) and his men aren't those of an evil mastermind briefing his troops. There even comes a point where the Preacher starts to negotiate with LaHood, and submit his offer to the miners. Intelligently enough, the Western is able to deconstruct a few tropes for the sake of three-dimensional characterization.On a similar level, it also depicts Hull Barrett (Michael Moriarty) not as a Beta Male but as a decent human being, brave enough to defy LaHood's thugs, to support his family and to take care of Sarah, Megan's mother (Carrie Snodgress), even waiting that she makes up her mind to get married but as the Preacher said "it might be along wait". It might take longer as both daughter and mother are infatuated with the Preacher (can we blame them?). But while it's a sort of teen crush for Megan, for Sarah, it's like a nasty teasing from fate. She's been abandoned by a man she truly loved -as she tells Megan she's a child of love- and her feelings toward the Preacher are worryingly the same.Maybe there's the idea that some things or some people are too grand to stay, their appeal is eternal but they're not meant for the common people though there is nobility in being a simple, decent and hard-working human being. The Preacher incarnates an idea of the Old West, a few words, but action, spirit, courage and determination... and a few resurgences of the past here and there. The past is a lone rider throughout the story, it's the dog's death that trigger's Penny's desire for revenge, it's Sarah's past with men that forged her suspicion and made Hull her whipping boy, and there's something about the Preacher's past hinted through some wounds and lines of dialogues that takes its full meaning when his nemesis is brought up in town, Marshal Stockburn played by an equally intimidating John Russell.The hints about the past mystify the film and let it venture in the realms of fantasy but without getting too far from the Western narrative. Eastwood's directing is confident enough and allows him to get away with contrivances... what can't be explained isn't forced fantasy, but meaningful mystery. (Still, the greatest mystery of all is that it seems to have escaped everyone's attention that the film is a remake of "Shane", as there's no mention of "Shane" in Ebert's review or on Wikipedia.)

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....

After the engrossing 'Unforgiven', I went to this movie. Maybe that is the reason I was not much impressed by it. I even believe that the movie is overrated.The script is stereotypical but somehow seems lame to the other Western ones ! Well, the Christian concept of 'Pale Rider' is intriguing(destroying an 'evil empire' by sword, pestilence, famine and wild beasts) but there was no need for the central character to wear a clerical collar, then people take him as a 'Preacher' and the audience is expected to connect him to the biblical 'Pale Rider'. It seems a trick unworthy of noticing but dilutes the intention. Megan reading the Psalm(or verses, I am naive at the term) would have been sufficient.Eastwood, as always, has given full justice to the character - the sangfroid when meeting the goons, LaHood and even while eliminating the deputies. The demon underneath seems to arise only twice in his eyes which Eastwood should be given a notable credit ! Except the 'Preacher', Hull Barret is the only character that leaves some impression - he is a common, vulnerable man but still does his best for the family and the folks. The Stockburn's character seems like a last-moment patch implemented in a software to save the script. Fails to impress even for a second as a villain. Better than him is LaHood who at least in some scenes appears to be a professional mining mafia/don.Frankly, I didn't even notice any background score - that itself speaks of it's lameness :P . Since the script revolves around the camp, the mine and the town, one is deprived of the typical Western panoramas, the horse riders amidst terrain and so on. The town too appears modern and synthesized, lacks the dull and the creaky yet appealing look of a troubled Western stereotypical town.To summarize, one should watch the movie only for a glimpse of the vintage 'Western Eastwood', any more expectations can result in disappointment. Yes, the movie has rekindled my old interest in 'Apocalypticism' :) .

This Western sees Clint Eastwood return to the saddle almost a decade after his last outing in 'The Outlaw Josey Wales' This film is set in California where a group of independent gold miners find themselves terrorised by a rival, Coy LaHood, who wants to take over their valley and bring in his modern, and highly destructive, hydraulic mining system. After an attack on their settlement teenager Megan Wheeler prays for a miracle… shortly afterwards a stranger saves Hull Barret, the man who is courting Megan's mother Sarah, when he is attacked by Coy's thugs in town. This man returns to the miners' settlement and reveals himself to be a preacher. Upon hearing how he helped Hull the other miners start to rally together and stand up to the threats. Coy isn't a man to back down though and soon he employs one Marshal Stockburn and his deputies; officially lawmen but in reality gunmen who will kill for whoever is willing to pay them. The Preacher will have to take off his dog collar and pick up his guns if he is to protect the miners.By the time this film was released it was thought that the Western genre was over… clearly it wasn't even it would never be as popular as it used to be. Eastwood may be showing his age he is still a solid presence; in fact his slightly grizzled look adds to the characters toughness. It has been said that this film is clearly inspired by 'Shane' and has obvious similarities with Eastwood's earlier film 'High Plains Drifter'… this isn't really a problem though; it is still an enjoyable film that tells the story in an interesting way. There is a slight supernatural element to the film although it is strongly suggested rather than made clear. There is a good amount of action from start to finish but there is also plenty of time spent on character development so we grow to care about the members of the miners' settlement; most notably Hull, Sarah and Megan. As one would expect Eastwood is great as the preacher/gunfighter. The rest of the cast are fine too; especially Michael Moriarty who plays the gentle but strong-willed Hull Barret and young Sydney Penny who played Megan. While there are one or two uncomfortable scenes there is little to offend… I suspect if it were recertified now the BBFC would give it a '12' rather than the current '15'. Overall this might not be Clint Eastwood's best western but it is still well worth watching if you are a fan of Eastwood or Westerns in general.