80/80- Ying and Yang

Compare High Plains Drifter and Pale Rider - it's as if Clint is portraying varying sides of the same character. Compare the first shots of Eastwood we see in each movie - in High Plains Drifter we see him riding out of a sun hazed, devilish looking landscape, whilst in Pale Rider he comes out of a much more heavenly landscape, seemingly in answer to a young girl's prayers. In High Plains Drifter Eastwood may be Satan personified whilst in Pale Rider is he very much a force of good.

In High Plains Drifter Eastwood kills several men, rapes a women and tries to get a shave in the first reel, in Pale Rider he beats several hoods with a piece of hickory thus saving a put upon prospector. Both westerns were directed by Eastwood and both owe much to lessons learned at the hands of Leone - for it was Leone who showed Eastwood how to use allegory in a western.

In High Plain Drifter Clint paint the town red (literally), renames it Hell, deputises a dwarf and basically wreck havoc in his quest for revenge, while in Pale Rider he goes up against a big conglomerate thus allow the smaller miners to make their stakes. There is a truly effective moment in Pale Rider where a young girl is reading a passage from the Bible aloud at the dinner table and as she mentions the fourth horseman, Eastwood's Preacher rides past the window.

Both films are fine westerns, with perhaps High Plain Drifter just taking the edge. It would though, be interesting to see what Archive readers think.