Pale Rider on VHS

• Cert: 15
• Running time: 111 minutes
• Year: 1985
• Cat.no: S013924
• Released: 8th September 1997
• Sound: Dolby Surround
• Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Panavision)
• Price: £12.99
• Extras: Original Theatrical Trailer
  

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  Director:

  Clint Eastwood

  (A Perfect World, Absolute Power, The Eiger Sanction)

Producer:

Screenplay:

Music:

Cast:

• Preacher: Clint Eastwood (Dirty Harry, Absolute Power, A Perfect World)
• Hull Harret: Michael Moriarty (Courage Under Fire, Return To Salem’s Lot)
• Sarah Wheeler: Carrie Snodgress (Blue Sky, 8 Seconds, Ballad of Little Jo)
• Josh LaHood: Christopher Penn (Reservoir Dogs, True Romance, Short Cuts)
• Coy LaHood: Richard Dysart (The Thing, The Terminal Man)
• Megan Wheeler: Sydney Penny (The Thornbirds (TV))
• Club: Richard Kiel (Moonraker, The Spy Who Loved Me, Force 10 From Navarone)

Pale Rider tells the story of a community of gold prospectors struggling to make a living in the Old West, enduring attack after attack from a gang who come along to rape and pillage the land until there’s nothing left, not even thinking twice when it comes to killing livestock.

Praying for a miracle, it arrives in the form of The Preacher, a man with no name who’ll fight for their rights to live their lives in peace without being troubled no more.

As Coy LaHood has a writ that claims he owns the goldmines, it’s him and his men versus the locals who are already there. The solution that the Preacher eventually reaches with LaHood is that he’ll pay $1000 to each of the men in return for them ceasing their search for gold. However, it doesn’t seem likely that they’re going to comply at any price.

The cast is a fairly well-balanced one. However, Clint tends to play most of his characters in films the same way, but he’s always watchable. Richard Kiel doesn’t seem to have moved on since playing Jaws in two Bond films (Moonraker, The Spy Who Loved Me) although he’s not done a great deal of note since then anyway. Of the rest of the cast, Christopher Penn has made a name for himself in the past few years with roles in True Romance, Short Cuts, and had one of the most talked about roles in Reservoir Dogs as Nice Guy Eddie, as most people couldn’t work out who shot Nice Guy Eddie (it was Mr. White by the way – rewind the video and slo-mo that scene – you’ll figure it out)

After the scene is set, the 40 minutes in the middle give an insight into the main characters on both sides. However, all of this drags on longer than is necessary, and you find yourself waiting for the last half-hour as the wrongs are put right and the Preacher saves the day.

The widescreen framing is essential for any of Clint’s films, most of which are filmed in a 2.35:1 ratio, bar the recent Meryl Streep co-starrer, The Bridges of Madison County which was 1.85:1.

Picture quality is very good indeed, and surround sound is averagely used for directional effects, occasional pieces of music and ambience, but there is one problem – the stereo channels are reversed which is very noticeable in the opening scene as the gang come back to terrorise the villagers, racing across the screen from time to time, the sound going the wrong way. Quite bizarre. For those of you with VCRs hooked up to amplifiers, rather than playing through a NICAM television, just switch the audio output leads round when watching this one.

Film: 2/5
Picture: 4/5
Sound: 3/5

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1997.