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The beauty of the Western form is its’ flexibility. The way slight alterations of the formulaic components create new meaning, furthering the genre to suit modern sensibilities and metaphorically reopen the west. In Pale Rider, Eastwood layers a traditional Western tale with modern concerns regarding the environment and man’s total disregard for its’ preservation.

 In his 10th film as a director/actor, Eastwood displays complete control over his own self-image. As an actor, Eastwood’s collected composure cracks only when he wants those around him, including the audience, to see the subtle fluctuations and read into it. Those around him do all the acting and Eastwood simply reacts. I say, simply, not to undermine his ability as an actor, but, on the contrary, to showcase how a great actors power often lay in the knowledge of his own screen image, his ability to feed an audience’s expectations without comprising artistic integrity. Again, we are given “the man without a name” character but he is not the same man. In truth, much about Eastwood’s character, known as the Preacher,  is a mystery; his past, his relationship to his main adversary, or even if he is alive in the first place, as the film’s biblical undertones and mythic storytelling suggest that The Preacher may be an avenger of death sent down to purify the corrupt region, riding it of corporate evil. Could Pale Rider be the continuation of High Plains Drifter?  

The film unfortunately breaks reality at a key moment in the story when the local gunmen open fire inside the hardware store, aiming at a chair that The Preacher was only moments before sitting in, enjoying a cup of coffee. The shooting goes on way too long and once every gun smokes empty, Eastwood magically appears from off screen with the sly remark “Done yet?” A far fetched, laughable moment that should have been dealt with more practically. It breaks the uphill build, that grinding tension, long enough to pull us out of the moment and wonder how dumb the group would have to be to each fire 6 rounds at an empty chair; a chair so low that unless Eastwood were 3 feet tall, he couldn’t possibly find shelter behind. 

Nonetheless, this my second viewing, reconfirms the film somewhere in the middle of his oeuvre, not great, but not too bad either. 

Grade: B

My Top 10 Eastwood Films:

1. White Hunter, Black Heart

2. The Outlaw Josey Wales

3. Unforgiven

4. Letters the Iwo Jima

5. Thunder Bolt and Lightfoot (Dir. M. Cimino) 

6. Dirty Harry

7. Bronco Billy

8. High Plains Drifter

9. Mystic River

10. Escape From Alcatraz

Having never seen the original theatrical release, I can’t say how much more the additional 24 minutes added to character development and story, but this is apparently the version Ashby himself edited and not the studio’s chop-shop version seen in 1982. Though the film contains moments of trademark Ashby, mainly in how it allows the rhythm of each performance dictate the pace of the film, the plot secondary to all else, but this may also be where the film suffers. Every character felt underwritten and too improvised.   Voight plays the desperate loser well, but the character laughs too often at the unfunny in a vain attempt to hide his true inner-self. Unfortunately, moments of character revelation were far and few between and the forced comedy stole the show.

Grade: C+

My TOP 5 Ashby Films:

1. Harold and Maude

2. The Last Detail

3. Coming Home

4. Being There

5. Shampoo

It’s the static, frozen river that creates a sense of urgency because you know it will eventually thaw.  

     On second viewing, the true anchor of the film, Melissa Leo’s performance, remains the focal point, grounding the story in believability and emotional gravitas. Frozen River deserves multiple viewing, if not for the simple reminder that great filmmaking centers on the emotional journey of well-written characters pushing their inner wants beyond their self-imposed moral compass, doing what they never thought possible for those they love. It’s always about story and character, and Frozen River proves just that. 

Grade: B+

“What is the law. He who breaks the law shall be punished.”

“Back to the House of Pain.”

     Though dated in look, the film deals with stretching the laws of nature in the name of science only to deal with the ramifications as they occur, through the study of the mutations that result. Always “within a hairs breath” of success Dr. Paul Moreau (Burt Lancaster) plays an eccentric doctor with the calm, collective of a man shun by his peers, not for his inabilities, but for his vision; a vision that questions morality, the very nature of right and wrong. When does science go too far? Can it ever?  According to Moreau, the end success justifies the means.

     The film’s primary interest lay in the society of mutations that have formed their own collective outside the protective walls of Lancaster’s fortress of Science. Though, cast out from the compound, the mutations must follow the “Laws of Man.” Constantly made to repeat the laws verbatim, they begin to question the applicability of the laws being that they are not treated as men by the lawmakers themselves.  A sub-sect develops within the group leading to drastic consequences.

Grade: B-

     How many films play endless tribute to Howard Hawks and the great Rio Bravo? Stallone, the wounded hero, plays in Dean Martin territory as an individual who must relearn what it means to be a man in order to overcome outside forces, (the corrupt city cops), that prefer a small town sheriff who simply looks the other way. An Urban Western of the highest order. 

Grade: A-