Themes: Righting the Wronged, Lone Wolves, Mysterious Strangers
Main Cast: Clint Eastwood, Michael Moriarty, Carrie Snodgress, Chris Penn, Richard Dysart
Release Year: 1985
Country: US
Run Time: 120 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
A mysterious and possibly otherworldly stranger comes to the rescue of a frontier town in this Western, which was strongly influenced by the George Stevens classic, Shane. The peace of a small mining community is shattered when Coy LaHood (Richard Dysart), the ruthless proprietor of a powerful strip-mining company, arrives in town with his son Josh (Christopher Penn) and a posse of hired guns to drive out the townspeople and take control of the territory. Megan (Sydney Penny), a young girl whose pet was killed in the melee, prays to God for someone to defend the village from the marauders; soon, the Preacher (Clint Eastwood) arrives on a pale horse, and joins forces with Hull Barrett (Michael Moriarty), the unofficial leader of the miners and one of the few who attempts to defend himself, to take a stand against LaHood and his men. As the Preacher and Barrett try to organize the miners to fight the invaders, both Megan and her mother Sarah (Carrie Snodgrass) find they're drawn to the Preacher, who keeps to himself and seems to have more than his share of secrets. Pale Rider was also directed by leading man Clint Eastwood; it was his first Western as both director and star since the acclaimed The Outlaw Josey Wales. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Richard Kiel - Club; Sydney Penny - Megan Wheeler; Doug McGrath - Spider Conway; John Russell - Stockburn; Loren Adkins - Bossy; Billy Drago - Deputy Mather; Tom Friedkin - Miner Tom; S.A. Griffin - Deputy Folke; Charles Hallahan - McGill; Richard Hamilton - Jed Blankenship; Gene Hartline - Horseman; Jim Hitson - Biggs; John Dennis Johnston - Deputy Tucker; Jeffrey Josephson - Deputy Sedge; Allen Keller - Tyson; Chuck La Font - Eddie Conway; Clay Lilley - Horseman; Marvin J. McIntyre - Jagou; Lloyd Nelson - Bank Teller; Graham Paul - Ev Gossage; Herman Poppe - Ulrik Lindquist; Jeffrey Weissman - Teddy Conway; Robert Winley - Deputy Kobold; Kathleen Wygle - Bess Gossage; Jerry Gatlin - Horseman; Fritz Manes - Stage Rider; Mike McGaughy - Horseman; George Orrison - Stationmaster Whitey; Frank Ryan - Matt Blankenship; Buddy Van Horn - Stage Driver; Glenn Wright - Stage Rider; Mike Adams - Horseman; Keith Dillin - Blacksmith; Jay K. Fishburn - Telegrapher; Cliff Happy - Horseman; Ross Loney - Horseman; Mike Munsey - Dentist/Barber; Milton Murrill - Porter; Thomas Oglesby - Elam; Jack Radosta - Deputy Grissom; Larry Randles - Horseman; R.L. Tolbert - Horseman; Terrence Evans - Jake Henderson
Credit
David Valdes - Associate Producer, Phyllis Huffman - Casting, Glenn Wright - Costume Designer, Clint Eastwood - Director, Joel Cox - Editor, Fritz Manes - Executive Producer, Lennie Niehaus - Composer (Music Score), Barbara Guedel - Makeup, Edward C. Carfagno - Production Designer, Bruce Surtees - Cinematographer, Clint Eastwood - Producer, Ernie Bishop - Set Designer, Charles Gaspar - Special Effects, Chuck Gasper - Special Effects, Kerrie Cullen - Stunts, Bob Herron - Stunts, Wayne Van Horn - Stunts, Walt LaRue - Stunts, Michael Butler - Screenwriter, Dennis Shryack - Screenwriter
Pale Rider is a 1985WesternTechnicolor film produced and directed by, and starring Clint Eastwood. This movie has plot similarities to the classic Western Shane (1953), including a final scene that is very similar to the famous final scene of the earlier movie. There are also similarities to Eastwood's previous Man with No Name character, and his 1973 western High Plains Drifter. The title is a reference to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as the rider of a pale horse is Death.
Pale Rider was primarily filmed in the Boulder Mountains and the SNRA in central Idaho, just north of Sun Valley in late 1984. The opening credits scene featured the jagged Sawtooth Mountains south of Stanley. Train-station scenes were filmed in Tuolumne County, California, near Jamestown. Scenes of a more established Gold Rush town (in which Eastwood's character picks up his pistol at a Wells Fargo office) were filmed in the real Gold Rush town of Columbia, also in Tuolumne County, California. The film also featured Michael Moriarty, Carrie Snodgress, Christopher Penn, Richard Dysart, Sydney Penny, Richard Kiel, Doug McGrath and John Russell.
Pale Rider is the only Eastwood film to have clear religious overtones throughout - though several of his other films such as High Plains Drifter also make heavy use of spiritual and supernatural ideas and imagery.
The plot centers on the conflict between a group of simple, poor, panning miners and the most powerful man in the nearby town, Coy LaHood (Richard Dysart), the boss of a successful hydraulic mining outfit, that wants to take over their land. The film opens with the ruffians of LaHood riding into the panner's camp, shooting things up and pulling down tents and cabins. Soon after, one of the panners heads into town for supplies, and is set upon by the same ruffians. A drifter (Clint Eastwood) rides in and defends the miner with unexpected skill wielding a hickory axe handle. Upon returning to the placers camp, the drifter compounds this surprise by revealing a minister's collar when invited to dinner, thus acquiring the name "Preacher".[1]
A classic western story line develops, leading to a final showdown in town between a corrupt U.S. Marshal named Stockburn and his "deputies" and Preacher.
The movie is nearly a step-by-step Shane homage.[3][4] A stranger (Shane/The Preacher) arrives in a town and is hosted by a local (Joe Starrett/Hull Barret), his wife (Marian/Sarah) and their child (Joey/Megan). The stranger and the local bond when they take on an "impossible task" together (undermining a root/cracking a boulder). But the local's land and his friends' is in peril by a greedy businessman (Ryker/LaHood). The stranger fends off an initial advance and gains one of the businessman's henchmen (Chris/Club). The local's child falls for the stranger, but is rejected at first. The local's woman has an unspoken but strong regard for him. The stranger is made to relive his past when the businessman calls for an assassin (Wilson/Stockburn) and one of the local's friends is killed. The stranger handles the assassin on his own in a final duel where both assassin and businessman are killed. He then leaves, and the child runs after him and cries out tearfully "I love you".
