Genre Guesstimation – Pale Rider (1985)

The idea behind this feature (Genre Guesstimation) is for me to watch a bunch of new movies (or ones that I haven’t seen many times) from the chosen monthly GG genre in order to expand my knowledge of movies within that particular genre.

Next month’s Genre has been chosen by Catherine of Thoughts All Sorts. We will be reviewing our favorite Westerns set in the “old West” – so, that excludes Contemporary Westerns i.e. No Country for Old Men, Hud, Desperado, Junior Bonner etc.

Please get me your submissions by the 25th of Jan by sending them to oldwesterncat@movierob.net

Try to think out of the box! Great choice Catherine!

Let’s see if I felt that this movie would be worthy of being in the company of my others favorite movies in the genre of Western Movies…

“There’s plain few problems can’t be solved with a little sweat and hard work. ” – The Preacher

Number of Times Seen – 1 (12 Jan 2017)

Brief Synopsis – A mysterious preacher shows up in a mining town and helps the settlers fight back against a ruthless mining company owner.

My Take on it – The problem with Clint Eastwood’s films about a man without a name is the fact that in the end, they all are essentially the same movie.

This film is a very generic one that fits in within Eastwood’s normal formula for films like this.

That being said,  I really liked the supporting cast here because it gave this film a nice throwback feel for the 80’s when it was made.

Richard Dysart, Chris Penn, Michael Moriarty, Carrie Snodgress and Richard Kiel are nice to watch mostly in roles where they were cast against type.

Unfortunately tho, this still feels quite generic despite having a fun and bloody outcome (like usual for these films).

Bottom Line – Very generic man without a name Eastwood flick.  This film is good, but doesn’t really offer us anything new.  Eastwood plays this part very well, but again, his character can be placed in numerous sןtuations with a fun and bloody outcome.  Nice supporting cast including Richard Kiel make this interesting to watch.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – During shooting, Clint Eastwood sustained what he describes as the worst injury he has ever had on set when a horse he was riding fell through thin ice and launched him forward. Clint suffered a dislocated shoulder. (From IMDB)

Genre Grandeur Worthy? – Not at all. This film feels like a typical man without a name story and doesn’t really offer us anything new here than what Eastwood has given us in the past.

Rating – BAFTA Worthy

_______________________________________

Check out my *updated* movie stats here

To see my reviews of Oscar Winning Performances check out this link

To see my reviews of all Oscar Best Picture Winners click here (now complete)

Here is a link to my movie index A-Z