Pale Rider

(Clint Eastwood, US 1985, 115 min., 35mm)

Snow Cowboys. Marking a turning point in Clint Eastwood’s career, Pale Rider premiered at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival to critical acclaim, earning auteur distinction for the already seasoned actor turned director. In a loose, metaphysical remake of George Stevens’s classic western Shane, a mining company looking to exploit a piece of land with its modern hydraulic mining techniques overtakes a neighboring camp, threatening to steal their claims. A young girl’s prayer for a miracle is answered in a man who calls himself the Preacher (Clint Eastwood) and, as the Book of Revelation states, “behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death.” These ominous, spiritual overtones recall Eastwood’s early collaborations with director Don Siegel. An ethereal score and snow-covered mountains, as an unlikely western setting, compound an atmosphere of fantasy.