Today - Pale Rider

I just finished watching Pale Rider, an old Clint Eastwood western. He is the star and the director. I think that I've been on a Western kick partly because of Eastwood. I've seen him in lots of other movies, and I think that watching Unforgiven many years ago, without having seen many of his previous westerns or very many westerns in general, that movie didn't make much sense. I've been working my way through old movies, and lately I've come across a few westerns that were worth watching. It started, I think, with an interest in John Wayne as a cultural icon. Catching a few clips on cable just wasn't enough to understand the draw of that guy. It helped to see True Grit and The Searchers, both of which were good but not fabulous. Or, to my eyes, not fabulous. Not worth the hype. Another key motivator in this interest came from the Akira Kurosowa links. I've been a bit of a pedant, wading through the foreign film section of the local library, and checking out all the titles by famous foreign directors. Most of it was senseless, frustrating, and boring. It's hard to appreciate a movie when you have to stare at the subtitles. You miss a lot of the acting, and a lot of the action. I'm sure that if I spoke German I would like some of the German movies better. But I didn't find any German directors (yet) that I liked. There were a few interesting French movies, and I have a little smattering of French to be able to catch a phrase or two. Melville was interesting, but the real find - for me - was Godard. The guy is a wonderful movie maker in any language.

That brings me to Kurosowa. Many years ago, I found a copy of Dreams. It's a strange and wonderful little movie, told as an interrelated sequence of short stories. That eventually lead me, many years later, to Rashomon, the Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, Yojimbo, and Sanjuro. All of these were fascinating - or at least entertaining. I suppose it doesn't hurt that I have more than a passing interest in medieval Japanese culture.

When I found out that Sanjuro was re-made as a Clint Eastwood movie, I sought that out. I also really liked the fact that The Magnificent Seven, a movie that I had heard about for years from my father but had never watched myself, was based on the Kurosowa film. The movie makes no secret of that - but I hadn't heard that until I saw it on the credits of the Magnificent Seven.

Anyway, that was a long intro for such a short thing. I've been dipping into movies, mostly, because I've always loved movies but I've never watched movies the way that I read. I watch movies - or I did until recently - for entertainment. I read for edification, aesthetic beauty, and entertainment. I watch any crap that looks good. I read the best books I can find - I want to read and to know the best in print. I can't say that about film. As I suggested, I've been trying to remedy that disparity.

Pale Rider - to finally get back to the title here - feels a little formulaic now. It's about a colony of families panning for gold in California, with an evil, rich boss threatening to drive them off their claim so that he can take it over and rip the gold out. In rides Clint, and he has this spectacular swordfight - with what look like axe handles or shovel handles. Then he follows the wholesome but unthreatening other guy back to the colony, and all the women - including a 14-year-old girl - fall in love with him. He turns them all down, until the end, where he has sex with the woman that is going to marry the good guy who is going to stay behind. And, of course, there's lots of shooting and that kind of stuff.

I suppose there's something enjoyable in this. I suppose it's interesting to see the way that Clint acts like a "real man," and the way that - of course - all the women are going to love him. Even the little ones. It's a little frustrating that he doesn't get hurt - not even nicked - and that he manages to outgun and outthink about twenty people. It's fun to watch this stuff sometimes, but when it gets this improbable, I start to lose interest.

It is what it is, I guess. Maybe I shouldn't expect so much. It's hard to compare this movie to something like Dreams, or even The Seven Samurai. Heck, even the Magnificent Seven lets some of the main characters die, even if it isn't entirely clear how they were killed.