Day 3 Pale Rider (1985)

I’m almost tempted to make Wednesdays “Western Day”, but there is just one problem, not enough Westerns to fill the twelve or so weeks of this project. From my list I only counted five true westerns, although there are a couple of science fiction films that would probably fit into the genre. Clint Eastwood did the best he could to keep the Western genre alive in the 1970s and 80s, but he just couldn’t do it on his own.

Eastwood produced and directed this 1985 film which is a mashup of “Shane” and his own “High Plains Drifter” Clint plays the mysterious Preacher, a man with all the markings of a gunfighter, except that he doesn’t carry a gun and the collar that he does carry suggests a very different vocation. His arrival at a mining colony near LaHood California, coincides with a violent opening of the film where a dozen armed men raid the semi permanent camp and wreak havoc on the miners and their families. Much like the farmers in “Shane”, the miners face an Goliath in the biggest landowner and mining corporation around. Coy LaHood, played by Richard Dysart, wants them out of the one area that he does not own, and he is resorting to violence to get his way.

The Preacher seems to arrive in response to a prayer issued by 14 year old Meg, for a savior, and when he rides into the camp after rescuing Hull, the miner who is caring for Meg and he mother, it is perfectly synchronized with her reading from the Book of Revelations about the unlocking of the Third Seal which brings Death astride a pale horse. This semi religious symbolism, combined with the later information that the Preacher may be a man that the evil Marshall who comes in at the end of the film, thought was dead, ties in “High Plains Drifter” where Clint’s character may be the ghost of a murdered sheriff.

Much closer to “Shane ” in the clarity of it’s morality, “Pale Rider” follows that films script in a number of ways. The generally timid mining community is being bullied by a large conglomerate and a mysterious stranger, who has an attachment to the family of a good man being downtrodden, seems to be the answer to their problem. Without any ambiguity, we know who the villains are. Within the first few minutes you will want to scream for their massacre because they kill the beloved small dog of the young girl.

In “Shane” the stranger played by Alan Ladd, becomes a friend to the farmer, is eyeballed a bit by the farmer’s wife and takes a little boy under his wing to guide him. Sexuality is a subliminal theme but not explicit. “Pale Rider” is a lot more explicit, without a lot of sensuality and no nudity. The young Meg falls in love with the mystery man and talks openly about her desires, fortunately we are spared the materialization of that kind of relationship between the 50 something Preacher and the tween girl. Meg’s mother, played by Carrie Snodgrass, also has eyes for the Preacher, who she recognizes right away as a bad boy. Michael Moriarty plays Hull and he is cast well as the humble, reserved and somewhat meek father figure in the make shift family.

The recently deceased Wayne “Buddy” Van Horn was the stunt coordinator on the film. He directed a couple of Clint’s other pictures but this was his usual job. The final showdown is pretty well put together, and there is a fight with axe handles that does not look as realistic as it should. I also saw Richard Kiel, known to most of you as “Jaws” from the Bond films. In an interesting Deja vu moment, he gets the same treatment that big man Ted Cassidy got in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”. Clearly a shot to the cajones is what is called for when facing a towering opponent. Billy Drago, from “The Untouchables” has a non speaking part as on of the Marshall’s deputies who are going after the Preacher. Charles Hallahan, who worked with Dysart in “John Carpenter’s The Thing” joins him in this film as one of the big bosses toadies. And one year after turning in a charming performance in Footloose, Christopher Penn plays Dysart’s son, who is pretty much a slimeball also.

The movie is derivative, and it moves a little slow for today’s audiences, but that’s because the characters are given a chance to breathe and become more than just cardboard cutouts. Most of the supporting players get a few lines of dialogue that make their characters more interesting and realistic. Moriarity and Snodgrass have a very nice scene together and the Preacher, does an admirable job of talking young Meg off the sexual edge, although her character still resents it.

As for my nostalgia notes, I know I saw this with my wife and our friends Art and Kathy. The two couples were still a year away from being parents so we could pick what we wanted for our evenings entertainment. This was a late June release and about two weeks later “Silverado” arrived in theaters and it felt like the 1950s for a moment with two westerns on the big screen at the same time. I could have sworn I had this film on Laserdisc, but I could not find it in my collection. The DVD that I own is one of those curiosities of a bygone time when one side contained a Pan and Scan version of the film to fill your whole square TV screen, and the other side of the disc contained the widescreen version. It is also one of those cardboard folding covers that were typical of Warner Bros. DVD releases. I enjoyed revisiting this movie and I can recommend it to those of you who still have the patience to wait between action scenes.