Pale Rider (1985)

Here's a Link To The Movie Trailer:Pale Rider

"Pale Rider" is one of Clint Eastwood's westerns. He directed it, and is he also plays the main character in it. A mysterious preacher with an unknown name. That idea in itself should be enough to make you want to run to Blockbuster and find this movie! But for those of you who need more convincing, just keep reading.

A group of "tinpans" or in other words gold panners have made a camp on their claim. But someone else wants the claim for them self. Coy LaHood (played by Richard Dysart) wants to run them off what is rightfully theirs. He sends his men to raid the camp and in the process of raiding it they kill off one girls dog. Her name is Megan Wheeler (played by Sydney Penny), and she buries her dog and prays to God for a miracle. Well that is where Mr. Eastwood rides in to save the day as a whiskey drinkin', bible preachin', gunslingin', reverend!

This film was actually based on a book, also called "Pale Rider" you can get a copy of it off of Amazon for pretty cheap, I ordered one for a penny, though shipping was about 4 dollars, just because I love westerns and needed some good western books to read.

I enjoy the majority of Clint's westerns, at least the one's I've seen thus far which have been a lot. And this one is pretty close to the top of my favorite western's by him. Unlike John Wayne western's this western takes on the usual tone of Clint western's which is cynical. Evil is real and this world is full of it. This movie actually has some pretty good values, one of those values being "spirit ain't spit without some exercise". It takes work to get things done it's never just handed to us. And personally I agree with this, I am a Christian so i can relate to some of the struggles that some of the personalities in this movie dealt with. Struggling with your faith for one, wanting a sign from God wanting him to show that he's there. The preacher is the answer from God for the "tinpanners", he gives them hope. But the camps people soon find out that they have to find strength in themselves and not just rely souly on Clint Eastwood to do everything for them, because he can't stay there to fight all their battles.

The one complaint I have about this movie is that Clint has premarital sex with someone in it, though I wont say who. It does not show anything, it is only implied but the fact that he does this contradicts what he supposedly stands for, and is an unnecessary Hollywood element suggesting that lust is love. For some this wont be a problem but If you are religious that will annoy you, but should not stop you from still loving this movie especially considering the good points outweigh that single downfall. All in all I love this movie and I think you will to, I give it a 4 out of 5.

New Rating System.
(1 = Not Worth One Second of Your Time)
(2 = Was almost a good movie, but still not worth it)
(3 = Definitely entertaining and enjoyable, neutral)
( 4 = It is worth your time, but if you don't watch it you wont die from guilt.)
(5 = Must See Western)

Just an FYI from Craig.

I will be posting a new review up about a western each week. I'll try to have them up every Friday so you can have a chance over the weekend to view the western. Also, I will try to put up a link to a torrent download so you can view the western. But if you like the western I recommend buying it after you view it. Also, once I put up a new blog I will remove the link to the previous western. And last but not least I will start putting a ranking on each western I review it will go as such; 1-5. one being the least 5 being the highest. One is not worth your time, 5 is I highly recommend.

"Eldorado" (1966)

This will be my first western review and I've decided to do it on the movie "Eldorado", starring John Wayne and Robert Mitchum. I love this western for starters, I've watched it over and over and that is why I decided to do this one first.

The story line of this particular western, in a lot of ways resembles the story for another popular western called "Rio Bravo". This is because John Wayne knows a girl in both of them that like him but he shows no interest even though at heart he truly does, but you don't find that out till the end. And in both movies he holds up in a jail while helping out his drunk friend get sober and take in a criminal. But they do have their differences, and I can't remember them both at present because it's been awhile since I've watched "Rio Bravo".

This film, like many of John Wayne's westerns is alot more light hearted than your typical western movie of today. Well almost anyways aside from a few parts like John Wayne killing an innocent boy by mistake ("You sent a boy out to do a man's job"), but all in all the movie isn't dark. It isn't a movie that will make you think about the insecurities of one charecter based on the ego or tough charecteristics of another but more of a bang bang shoot um up western that I personally have grown to love just as much as the very realistic and cynical types such as; "The Assassination of Jesse James" or "There Will Be Blood".

John Wayne plays the charecter "Cole Thorton" a quick drawing gunslinger for higher. He is offered a job by "Bart Jason" (played by Edward Asner). Not knowing that what Mr. Jason want's him to do is make the Mcdonald's give Bart their land by force. He finds out just exactly that by the Sheriff of Eldorado "Jp Harra", one of Cole's long lost friends who apparently is just as quick on the draw as him. So after talking to Jp, he goes to Bart Jason and tells him he's decided not to take the job after all.

Later on into the story, Cole finds himself at a salloon where Nelse McLeod (played by Christopher George) and his 3 companions are sitting down to dinner when Mississippi or Alan Bourdillion Trahern (played by James Caan) makes his entrance into the movie by killing a man that happens to be part of McLeod's gang. Cole steps in and after they come to a peaceful resolution talks to McLeod and finds out that he is taking the job that he earlier had turned down, and that J.P. has become a drunk and wont cause him any real trouble. Realizing his friend is in danger as well as the Mcdonald's Cole heads back to Eldorado. Along the way Mississippi comes back into play and persuades Cole to let him join up with him as well. And so our story ensues but back to the review.

The cast did a great job portraying the feel of just how it felt for each personality when dealing with one another, with each of them having their own set of headstrong ideals and each having their own personal egos it made the tension realistic and it made the movie feel like it could have really happened, or atleast made you wish it really had happened.

Also on a side note but not to demeen how much I love this movie but to possibly add upon how much I love John Wayne is the fact that you can see how the actor really was and see how he reacted to the other actors through his acting with them. Such as one part near the end of the movie where Cole is leaning on a cruch that he had previously been using with his opposite arm, and J.P. makes the statment that he is using the wrong arm and Cole replies by saying "well how would you know!? you've had it under one arm and then another". I beleive this was actually the actors speaking to another but was left in because of the humor it posed. But don't take my word for it I honestly don't know if that's a fact or not, you'll just have to see it for yourself.

Well in conclusion, I thought this western was a great one and I give it a 5 out of 5 on my western scale, hope you enjoyed this review and I hope you enjoy the movie even more.
-Craig Cooper, Bone Orchard.

Hello There!

Hi there. My name is Craig Cooper and I am a huge fan of the genre of film known as Westerns. Some of you may know a few I mention here; "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly", "Eldorado", 3:10 To Yuma", "Rio Bravo", and various others. Well because I love those movies so much I wanted to start a review blog all about westerns. And I also wanted to start a blog about video games. I am a novice web designer currently and my plan is to make a web site called Bone Orchard Reviews, but at present I am still in the process of making one so I decided to go ahead and get this blog started anyways to get the name out. Please check out my blog and look for updates or add the RSS FEED. And I will try to put up atleast one Western review each week, and videogame reviews whenever I can considering videogames take a little longer to get through than movies haha. Thanks -Craig.