पेल राइडर

Clint Eastwood reinvented the western. Where are the good westerns these days? Where are the Clint wannabes? This is what Westerns should be... Forget Duty. Forget Honor. Forget Courage. Just pray to god the preacher-man will come around and beat your enemies into submission. Clint was downright scary. He carries off a sword-fight scene in a western with aplomb. He's big, mean, tough, and bad. The baddest of the bad. And unlike Dirty Harry, he's not bad cause he nuts. He's just bad because he is. He's a force of nature. And seeing Clint in a clerical collar...if that doesn't scare you, nothing will.

A group of small time goldminers are harassed once again by thugs from big goldminer LaHood. In desperation, Sarah Wheeler (Carrie Snodgress) prays for a savior. Just in time, a preacher (Clint Eastwood) rides into town like one of four horsemen of the apocalypse. Sarah's mother has long been abandoned by her husband. They are living with Hull Barret (Michael Moriarty) the leader of the mining camp. To run the miners off their land, Coy LaHood (Richard Dysart) gets some hired guns. It marks the return of Clint Eastwood's man with no name. It is classic western with the small guy fighting back against the big guy. Michael Moriarty creates the personal space and the humanity for the story's center. There is clear dividing line between good and evil. The action is relatively small, but quite satisfying.

In the Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns of the 60s, Clint Eastwood rose to fame playing the man with no name. In 'Pale Rider', Eastwood creates his own variation of this character. Eastwood plays a mysterious gunfighter who is given the name 'preacher' because of the preacher's collar he wears. When the 'preacher' arrives at a gold mining community, he helps them stand up against a callous landowner. Eastwood cuts deep into the film's characters in what is a rather standard script. Particularly, in the scenes involving the preacher and a gold-mining family. Eastwood also succeeds in giving his film a dark atmosphere which only adds to its intensity. 'Pale Rider' may not be as good as the director's best westerns, 'Unforgiven' and 'The Outlaw Josey Wales', but it can be regarded as a strong effort in what has been an illustrious career for Eastwood. Rating: (8/10)