PALE RIDER (1985) ★ ★ ★ ★
Although he's all but retired now, Clint Eastwood remains the last of the twentieth century's iconic big-screen tough guys, surviving the likes of Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Lee Marvin, James Coburn, Kirk Douglas, and James Caan. What all of these men had in common was the unshakeable presence and charisma of someone who isn't afraid of anything or anyone. But unique to Eastwood is his ability to convey menace without drawing a gun or flexing muscle. He gets his point across using only his eyes.
His 1985 film, "Pale Rider," has just that sort of quintessential Eastwood moment. He's being verbally threatened by one of the heavies, in a scene where another man would've furrowed his brow and frowned to try to look appropriately pissed-off. Eastwood's character opts to obscure two-thirds of his face with a whiskey glass instead, which leaves the two burning coals of his eyes glowing from the darkness between the liquid below and the hat brim above. Their fire says it all: Don't mess with this guy.
"Pale Rider" is one of the last truly great American Westerns. It paved the way for 1992's "Unforgiven," which is arguably an even better film, but I think "Pale Rider" is a little more fun, thanks to its unbending moodiness and memorable visual style. It is the only modern movie I've seen that was shot in chiaroscuro, the high-contrast light/dark effect of faces seen partially in shadow. Interior and night scenes are all done this way, and Eastwood employed it to give his own character a degree of impenetrable mystery.
The story is fine, if a little basic. Carrie Snodgress, Michael Moriarty, and Sydney Penny play California gold rush miners whose camp is under constant threat by Coy LaHood, played by Richard Dysart. LaHood wants to clear the small-time panners out of a valley that he claims is rightfully his, and expand his bigwig mining operation. He's on track to doing just that, until a sinister stranger known only as the Preacher arrives and forms an alliance with the underdogs. From there, the tension between LaHood and the others builds to a final showdown.
With a plot as unadventurous as this one is, you'd think the movie would devolve into a predictable schlockly gunslinger. But there's more to Eastwood's Preacher than meets the eye. He suggests in a collection of interesting shots that his character is supernatural, and that Sydney Penny's character unwittingly summoned him when she prayed for a miracle to save her flailing tribe from inevitable destitution and starvation. These moments are subtle but interesting -- a station master looks up from his desk and spots the Preacher on horseback as a train rolls into the station. When the train pulls out and he looks up again, both man and horse are gone.
Even more interesting is the bait-and-switch of the story's moral center. The Preacher ostensibly pauses in town to help the small-claim miners ward off the moneyed LaHood, and does so for seemingly benevolent reasons. He doesn't make any moves on Snodgress' Sarah Wheeler, despite her interest in him. He gently rebuffs Penny's Megan Wheeler when she confesses her feelings for him. And he acts as a friend to Moriarty's Hull Barrett, who assures his flesh-and-blood savior that he isn't living in sin with the Wheelers. The Preacher merely nods and listens, ever the patient soul.
But there are clues that his real reason for being there is revenge. These clues gather and build in the final moments, until an interesting realization is made in the final confrontation between the Preacher and his antagonists. "Pale Rider" is a Western with an uncommon sense of the eternal energies that drive humankind, and the inexplicable forces that govern their decisions. The Preacher's character made his choices long before he rides into frame. In the bible it is written that Hell follows the Pale Rider. In this film, wonder follows him instead.
--- Bill Fontaine
