A small group of panhandling gold miners are gradually being run off their land by thugs working for Coy LaHood, the local robber baron. Things look bleak until a mysterious preacher on a pale horse appears to defend the mining community. Who is he ? Can they trust him ? And can they follow his example ?
This is the last of Eastwood's great mythic westerns he began with Per Un Pugno Di Dollari / A Fistful Of Dollars, and my personal favourite of his American cowboy films. The only criticism I could possibly make of it is that it's a little derivative - it's essentially the plot of Shane mixed with Eastwood's earlier High Plains Drifter. But it's better than both those movies, and Michael Butler and Dennis Shryack's script (they also wrote The Gauntlet) is full of strong characterisation and accentuates the mystery and mythicism of The Preacher with just the right balance of subtlety and action. We really have no idea who he is but his origin, his connection with the gunslinger Stockburn and the hints at his past - like the bullet-hole scars in his back - are endlessly fascinating. This is also a movie which looks gorgeous, thanks to Bruce Surtees' incredible photography of the Sawtooth National Forest in the Rocky Mountains of Idaho. Surtees is a great cameraman; this was the last of his twelve films with Eastwood (see Dirty Harry, The Outlaw Josey Wales and Firefox especially) and one of his best - the first seven minutes are a textbook in shooting men on horseback, there's an amazing night-time campfire scene with no artificial light, and the showdowns are perfectly poised. Equally first-rate are the cast, with Eastwood, Moriarty, Snodgress and McGrath all excellent, and Kiel and Russell truly iconic as LaHood's head goon and killer-for-hire respectively. As ever, Eastwood's direction is calm and unhurried, giving his performers all the room they need to develop their characters without losing sight of the story. Lennie Niehaus' ominous brass percussive score tops off a memorably atmospheric picture, which, for my money, is much richer than the Oscar-laden westerns of a few years later (Dances With Wolves and Eastwood's Unforgiven). The Biblical title derives from Revelation, chapter six, verse eight, "And I looked, and behold a pale horse; and his name that sat on him was Death ... ". No other actor has managed to epitomise the mythical western stranger like Eastwood, and this is his last great hurrah in a genre he made his own. Not to be missed. 7/10
This is the last of Eastwood's great mythic westerns he began with Per Un Pugno Di Dollari / A Fistful Of Dollars, and my personal favourite of his American cowboy films. The only criticism I could possibly make of it is that it's a little derivative - it's essentially the plot of Shane mixed with Eastwood's earlier High Plains Drifter. But it's better than both those movies, and Michael Butler and Dennis Shryack's script (they also wrote The Gauntlet) is full of strong characterisation and accentuates the mystery and mythicism of The Preacher with just the right balance of subtlety and action. We really have no idea who he is but his origin, his connection with the gunslinger Stockburn and the hints at his past - like the bullet-hole scars in his back - are endlessly fascinating. This is also a movie which looks gorgeous, thanks to Bruce Surtees' incredible photography of the Sawtooth National Forest in the Rocky Mountains of Idaho. Surtees is a great cameraman; this was the last of his twelve films with Eastwood (see Dirty Harry, The Outlaw Josey Wales and Firefox especially) and one of his best - the first seven minutes are a textbook in shooting men on horseback, there's an amazing night-time campfire scene with no artificial light, and the showdowns are perfectly poised. Equally first-rate are the cast, with Eastwood, Moriarty, Snodgress and McGrath all excellent, and Kiel and Russell truly iconic as LaHood's head goon and killer-for-hire respectively. As ever, Eastwood's direction is calm and unhurried, giving his performers all the room they need to develop their characters without losing sight of the story. Lennie Niehaus' ominous brass percussive score tops off a memorably atmospheric picture, which, for my money, is much richer than the Oscar-laden westerns of a few years later (Dances With Wolves and Eastwood's Unforgiven). The Biblical title derives from Revelation, chapter six, verse eight, "And I looked, and behold a pale horse; and his name that sat on him was Death ... ". No other actor has managed to epitomise the mythical western stranger like Eastwood, and this is his last great hurrah in a genre he made his own. Not to be missed. 7/10