3 May 2025

Review: Pale Rider 4K UHD

4K UHD Blu-ray: Pale Rider (1985)

Perhaps no other film maker could get away with making two similar Gothic western ghost films except Clint Eastwood. Though there is a fundamental difference between the two, while High Plains Drifter is the wrath of hell coming to punish a whole town for their inaction and cruelty using flashbacks to a murder, Pale Rider (taken from the biblical passage about the four horsemen of the apocalypse) is a story that only hints at Clints character ‘Preacher’ being a ghost.

In the Old West, mining baron LaHood and his son and henchmen are waging a war of intimidation against the gold prospectors and their families near his business. After one bloody encounter where the henchmen run riot through the prospectors shacks, a young girl, Megan, prays for help after her dog gets killed by them.

Her stepfather goes into town to buy supplies after the raid to face up against LaHood’s thugs again, when in the snowy distance a tall dark man on a white dappled horse appears and helps him. Clint was always good at entrances.

Pale Rider was one of the highest grossing westerns of the last century, and although it’s not as ‘good’ as High Plains Drifter, and has a storyline a few millennials might balk at (Megan is 14 and asks Preacher to make love to her, and he doesn’t say no straight off – he also stops her getting gang-raped by the henchmen), it’s a solid addition to the Eastwood western cannon. It’s also a film made for 4K UHD.

Filmed mostly in the Sawtooth National recreation area in Idaho, the snowy vistas are nothing short of spectacular and add so much to the story. The picture is beautiful, with the clarity of the landscapes and amazing sound breathing new life into this classic western.

Now I could go through the whole plot of the film, but instead I’d say if you’re a fan of Eastwood and collect 4K media, all the recent Warner UHD releases of his films (Pale Rider, Dirty Harry, The Outlaw Josey Wales) are essential purchases. For the last 3 nights, we at 60MW Towers have watched these 3 films with sheer joy.

It’ll be a sad day when we lose Clint, at 94 and STILL directing films, he is a colossus of cinema. A genius, much loved by us, there is no one else like him. Long may he continue.

Pale Rider 4K UHD contains the following new and previously released special features: