Pale Rider (1985)

I had originally intended on watching eXistenZ today, but as I started to watch it, I realized I had see it years ago. I don't exactly remember what happens, so maybe I'll watch it again some day, but the point of this blog is to watch movies I've never seen. To that end I picked Pale Rider, which I had been saving in the wings for just such an occasion. Starring everybody's favorite man with no name, Clint Eastwood, I was quite looking forward to it. Being a 1985 film, I could tell he'd be quite a  bit older than some of his other westerns, but I was interested in seeing how that might change the movie. Hit the jump for more.


An easy story to sum up here. A fresh mining community is being run out by a larger, wealthier group of miners on the other side of the mountain. Just when they need it most, a stranger shows up. He is in fact, a man with no name. Or at least he never offers one up. Nevertheless he starts helping the small settlement and defends them on several occasions. But can he fend off the entirety of the other mining camp? Or will it even come to that?

Oh man, did I ever like the start of this movie. Clint Eastwood is his usual awesome self, with a bit of an added twist to his character that I will not reveal. If you read about the movie anywhere you'll find it out easy enough, but having gone into this cold, I had no idea about the early reveal regarding our pale rider. Also, the movie starts off in the warmer months, or at least the fall, and I really liked the look of the vast landscapes in nearly every background. Unfortunately, time is always marching on, and soon the snow comes.

The mysterious stranger who rides of the pale horse

I'm not sure what it was, but I just didn't like the look of the snowy scenes. The film already had a cold feel to it, perhaps with an editing or filming trick, I'm not sure. But once the snow comes it just seems beyond cold. Maybe it's me speaking as a Canadian, but I'm done with winter, thank you very much, and the last thing I want to watch right now is a snowy cold barren landscape. Normally snow makes things look nice and it has an ethereal beauty to it. For whatever reason though, the snow in this film just didn't have that. It was just flat and dry.

As a result, while I really enjoyed the start of the movie, with it's very western feel, it lost all that as the snow came, and the film itself seemed to lose it's character with it. Also, while I felt the characters started strong, it all ended fairly weakly for me in that regard as well. Sure there was more action at the end, and it may have been good, but it just couldn't make it up for me.

I'd still recommend the movie. Eastwood is cool and there's some interesting themes and a bit of a fresh take on the gunslinger stereotype too. If I really wanted to, I could even read some interesting, but implausible things into the movie,  but if I say too much I might give too much away. To be honest, I was just glad to see Eastwood in a decent movie again that keep my image of him intact. Check it out if you get the chance, it'd be a good distraction from day to day life.

"I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hell was following close behind him."