Review of “Pale Rider” (1985)

This was a departure from our usual Saturday pizza and bad movie fare, a Western with some supernatural flavor. Not to give too much away, but the bad guys got their comeuppance in spades. Or lead.

Plot:

In the beginning (not the last biblical reference to come), two things are happening. First, a group of men rides horses hell-for-leather. Second, another group of men pans for gold in a small stream someplace in California sometime after the Civil War. In the camp of the latter, a woman named Sarah Wheeler (Carrie Snodgress) hangs up laundry. Her fourteen-year-old daughter, Megan ((Sydney Penny), runs after her dog, calling, “Lindsey!” Megan wears long braids. A dog starts barking.

This will not end well.

The hell-for-leather group descends on the guys trying to mine and tears their camp apart. For good measure, one of them shoots and kills Lindsey in front of Megan. The only other fatality is Megan’s grandfather, whose heart gives out, so there’s no sense going to the law.

The raiders ride off.

Megan buries her dog and prays for a miracle.  “If you don’t help us, we’re all gonna die,” she tells God.

The viewer then sees a tall man (Clint Eastwood) on a white mottled horse riding through the countryside.

After the raid, Hull Barret (Michael Moriarty), the claim owner, takes the wagon into town for supplies. A couple of people tell him he’s stupid. He ignores them.

In town, he picks up some supplies—the dry goods store owners generously extend him credit again—and loads up his wagon. Thugs from a mining concern that wants Barret’s land surround him and pick up wooden ax (?) handles propped up outside the store. One of them notices the same tall stranger on a white mottled horse at the end of the street, who quickly vanishes. They beat the daylights out of Barret. As one is about to set fire to the goods the poor man has just bought, someone douses the firebug with a barrel of water.

The man on the white horse tells him, “You shouldn’t play with matches.” He picks the last ax handle. The roughs descend on him but soon find themselves in a bleeding, moaning pile.

The stranger rides off. Barret follows him, expressing gratitude, and offers him hospitality—“three hots and a cot.”

Inside his room in Barret’s cabin, the stranger takes his shirt to wash his face. Barret catches a glimpse of his back, which bears six marks looking like gunshot wound scars. How did he survive this?

The stranger comes dressed for dinner in a preacher’s clothing. Everyone calls him “Preacher” after that. After a tour of the camp in the morning and assurances that Barret’s claim is legal, that the other miner is trying to run him off, he asks Barret to put him to work.

Thoughts:

The “pale rider” refers to one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, death. This is reinforced by Megan reading the Bible passage in question to her mother just as Barret brings the Preacher to the camp. “Now fetch me butter and syrup,” Mrs. Wheeler says.

The body count is quite high in this flick. Preacher barely works up a sweat. At times, he seems almost to teleport. In one scene, he sits atop his horse while a train passes between him and the viewer. Once the train passes from view, only empty plains remain.

Who is the Preacher? The viewer receives some answers by the end of the movie, but not all.

While the Preacher gets to utter some cute, pithy sayings, one of the best scenes goes to Megan. As she’s burying Lindsey, she recites Psalm 23 but adds her own thoughts along the way:

“’The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want’—But I do want. ‘He leadeth me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul’—But they killed my dog. ‘Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil’—But I am afraid. ‘Thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me’—We need a miracle. ‘Thy loving kindness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life’—If you exist. ‘And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever’—But I’d like to get more of this life first. If you don’t help us, we’re all gonna die. Please. Just one miracle. Amen.”

This is a traditional Western. A hero comes by to help save a little guy from a rich guy who has corrupted all authority in town. The supernatural elements, which are never completely explained, are a new twist on an old story. Is Preacher the miracle Megan prayed for? Is he something else? Is he really a preacher? Maybe he’s a reformed gunslinger? Maybe he’s a ghost?

Coy LaHood (Richard Dysart ), the miner trying to run the group off their claim, is disappointed to hear there’s a man of faith with the “tin-pans,” as the bad guys contemptuously refer to our heroes. A man of faith can give them faith and bind them together. He tries to bribe, corrupt, and intimidate Preacher.

Preacher doesn’t save the day in the old-fashioned way. He has his own score to settle, one that perhaps involves the six scars on his back. He offers help, but it is up to the miners to take care of themselves.

Preacher tells him that a man can’t serve God and Mamon and adds, “Mamon being money.”

I don’t know why the line struck me so funny. I doubt anyone intended it such. It seemed so out of place, aimed more at an audience who hadn’t been to Sunday school in a while, if at all.

The big fly in the ointment for me about the movie was women, including underage Megan Wheeler, throwing themselves at Preacher. To his credit, he declines all offers, but what on earth is the attraction—outside of novelty? ICK

There is a good deal of violence in this—some of it rather graphic—including a lot of death and an attempted rape. I’m guessing that the latter is responsible for the movie’s “R” rating. There is no sex, and if there is any nudity, it was too brief for me to notice.

The Western Writers of America awarded the 1986 Spur Award to the movie for Best Screenplay. I agree; this is one of the more intriguing movies I’ve seen in a long time. Sydney Penny received a 1986 Exceptional Performance by a Young Actress – Motion Picture for her portrayal of Megan Wheeler. The film was 1985 a nominee for Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

While I generally don’t like Westerns, I enjoyed this movie. It left a lot for the viewer to interpret, even with the “Mamon being money” line.



Title: Pale Rider (1985)

Directed by
Clint Eastwood

Writing Credits
Michael Butler…(written by) &
Dennis Shryack…(written by)

Cast (in credits order)
Clint Eastwood…Preacher
Michael Moriarty…Hull Barret
Carrie Snodgress…Sarah Wheeler
Chris Penn…Josh LaHood (as Christopher Penn)
Richard Dysart…Coy LaHood
Sydney Penny…Megan Wheeler

Released: 1985
Rated: R
Length: 1 hour, 55 minutes