If you’re_italic text_ a regular watcher of Westerns, then you’ll be familiar enough with the format of the film. A bunch of prospectors are being bullied by a local kingpin determined to muscle-in on their land and intimidate, or kill, them out of their claims. A bit like “Sir Galahad”, a travelling preacher (Clint Eastwood) arrives and is soon trying to galvanise their efforts to thwart the ambitions of the calculating “LaHood” (Richard Dysart); his violent son “Josh” (Christopher Penn), sheriff enforcer “Stockburn” (John Russell) and their gentle giant (Richard Kiel). Chief amongst the miners is “Barret” (Michael Moriarty) who with the feisty “Sarah” (Carrie Snodgrass) are at their wits-end. They don’t lack for courage but they are heavily outnumbered and ill-equipped to combat their antagonists, so the enigmatic churchman clearly has his work cut out for him. The remainder of the plot plays out pretty much as expected, and the supporting cast deliver competently enough, but the film really just belongs to an Eastwood who has a little more dialogue here than in his other, Leone, man-with-no-name features. He charismatically owns the screen as this toxically-charged story builds and there is even a certain element of the avenging angel to his performance set amidst some beautiful scenery. It emphases a little the difficulties faced by these pioneers, and of the unscrupulousness, greed and violence that prevailed too but the use of a man of God is effective at curtailing the brutality. He combines his wits, his muscles and the reluctance of their enemies to actually physically engage with a minister to made his sparing use of a gun all the more potent when it happens. It’s steadily paced and though I did find the sub-plot with the dog-loving “Megan” (Sydney Penny) a bit creepy, the film is well worth a couple of hours.

This is a good'un. <em>'Pale Rider'</em> features an enjoyable story featuring the gold rush, while the characters are all solid - Clint Eastwood gives a strong performance in the lead role, though I would've liked to have seen more of John Russell and his character. I don't think it's perfect or anything, but I got entertainment from it and that's enough for me - I've not got much more to note.

You can't beat a good bit of Hickory. The opening to Pale Rider is just excellent, at first all is calm and serene, but then the peace is shattered by the thundering of hooves. A group of men employed by Coy LaHood, tear thru a small mining community, shooting guns and trampling over all in their way. During this callous act of bullying, one of the men shoots and kills young Megan's dog. When Megan buries her beloved pet, she calls to god to send someone to help them against the greedy LaHood, because LaHood is intent on stripping the locals of their claims, and he literally will stop at nothing to get them. Later on Megan is reading from the bible, she reads aloud to her mother about "beholding a pale horse and that the man who sat on it was death", we then see a lone horseman riding towards this under fire place... Behold the pale horse because the man that sat on him was Clint Eastwood! And that's all you really want to know as regards what drives the film on. It had been quite some time since the movie watching world had witnessed a damn good Western, so it is obvious that Eastwood, knowing the genre inside out, felt it time to remind all and sundry about this engrossing genre and all its little peccadilloes. Riffing on his own High Plains Drifter from 1973 and homaging Shane in the process, Eastwood again uses supernatural leanings to play out this intriguing tale. Pale Rider works well because Eastwood cares for the genre so much, no frame is wasted and the acting on show delivers the necessary amount of quality to enhance the picture's impact. From the thundering opening to the gorgeous final shot, Pale Rider is an expertly crafted Western that still holds up today as a great entry on Eastwoods CV. Pale Rider. 8/10