8mm Forum: PALE RIDER Warner Brothers Super 8 optical

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Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on December 03, 2009, 10:51 PM:

I am a die hard fan of that squinty eyed tough guy. Especially his westerns, be they the early 60's "spaghetti westerns" (apologies to our Italian friends if they disapprove of that saying) or Eastwoods later westerns, however "dry" in storytelling they appear to be.

... so imagine my joy to find that "Pale Rider" , Clint Eastwoods 1985 western, was released as a Super 8 optical sound feature print. Now, all I had to do was hunt one down, which was not easy to do, but I did successfully achieve!

The story ...

We begin with some cowboys riding into a small mining camp of settlers, just trying to pan for gold. They're houses are destroyed, as well as they're livestock. Even a pretty young girls dog is shot. She buries her dog, and says a prayer.

"The Lord is my shepherd, I do not want ... but I do want ...
He maketh me lie down in green pastures ...
... but they killed my dog ...

She ends the prayer asking for a miracle, or the whole settlement will be destroyed.

Into the scene gallops a mysterious stranger from the wintry fog.

Meanwhile, after the attack, one of the settlers goes into town to secure more provisions. he is brutually attacked, but is saved by the mysterious stranger ...

"Little boys shouldn't play with matches ... " He growls, before beating the living hell out of them with ...

" There's nothing like a nice piece of hickory! "

The settler invites the stranger back to his encampment for, at least "three hots and a cot". Imagine the settlers surprise when the mysterious stranger comes into dinner with a preachers collar on! Megan, the 15 year old daughter, instantly develops a crush/love for the preacher.

La Hood, (who sent the cowboys into the settlement in the first place), has wanted the land that the settlers are on because he built this land up when no one was there, and he isn't going to let no settlers stop him from the gold. Upon finding out that a preacher is among them, he's infurriated.

"We had them almost licked, hell, with a preacher, they'll be all fired up again."

The preacher encourages the settlers to "stick by they're guns" and stay. La Hood tries to at first bribe the preacher, then settles for giving each settler a thousand for they're claim.

In the hopes that they will strike it rich, they choose to reject La Hoods offer. During that time, one of them hits the mother lode, a large chunk of rock encrusted with gold!

In the meantime, La Hood hires Stockburn and his deputies to run out the settlers. La Hood informs Stockburn that the preacher knows of him. The settler who made the big gold strike, (and an ex employee of La Hood) is they're first target, literally making mincemeat of the settler with all seven guns blazing away.

Megan confesses her love for preacher, but preacher kindly says no to her. She runs off and visits La Hoods mining facility to get back at him, (which is one of those hydraulic operations), and is nearly raped by La Hood's son, but preacher intervenes and carries her to safety.

Now its all out war. The settler and preacher go to La Hood's mining site and blow the crap out of it. Preacher leaves the settler behind and goes into town to face Stockburn alone, killing them off one by one in some ingenious ways, ending with Stockburn himself, who only realizes at the last moment that preacher is the man that he gunned down years before, and recieves the same seven gunshot pattern on his back.

His job done, preacher rides off into the snow and mist, leaving Megan to do a "Shane" goodbye scene. Roll credits.

Though "Pale Rider" does borrow from a number of sources, (Shane, quite heavily), it is a great western in its own right.
Eastwoods "Malpaso Productions" company often reused a number of people. The settlers girlfriend is none other than the "head prostitute" (does the most talking) in "Unforgiven"
Another fun addition to the cast is Richard Keil, who we will fondly remember from the Bond films, by name of "Jaws". Another interesting cast member is the man with the large gold strike, who is killed, who later played the irish inmate on death row in "The Green Mile" Name escapes me.

It is never quite explained, but it could be that the stranger/preacher is an avenging angel, angel. When we see preachers back early in the film, we see a pattern of healed bullet wounds that no one could survive, and how he can pop up in the strangest of places. He comes in answer to prayer, and leaves once the prayer request is completed.

This film could have been a lot more preachy, (which wouldn't work for an Eastwood western), but the scriptwriters and Eastwood walk a good line on the moralizing. Not overdoing it, but making a good point, as in the Megan professing her love scene.

The print ...

Color : It is hard to accurately determine when airline features started to use L.P.P. film stock, but this film came out in 1985, and the color is pristine, so it may well be L.P.P.
The scenery is breathtaking, as it is shot in the mountians. (an astute observer will note that this is the same site, (and may well be some of the same buildings) used for another Eastwood western, "High Plains Drifter").

Grain/contrast

The grain is quite good. The contrast is excellent, no washed out places not too dark of scenes, which is important, as there are a number of firelight sequences.

Sharpness

This is a very nice sharp print, not pin-point sharp like "Broadway Danny Rose", (which is miraculously sharp!), but it certianly is as good as any 16MM print I have seen and could easily have been shown on TV. It's quite nice to look at.

SOUND

I am always quite critical of optical sound films, as the soundtrack can vary widely, but this print has excellent mono optical sound. Quite sharp. It seems that the sound quality of these mid to late 80's optical sound features finally got it right for sound quality, though I would still rank it slightly below a good magnetic soundtrack.

NOTE: it appears that there was only two slight edits on the film. When the settler with the large gold nugget is shot to death, the last shot, a close-up of a bullet directly in the forehead, is cut out, (as well as, I think, a few of the more grissly close-ups of his bullet riddled body). Like wise, the last shopt of Stockburn, recieving a bullet directly in the forehead, is cut out as well. These are slight edits but understandable, as it was to be shown on an airline where little children could be watching.

This film fits quite nicely on 4X600ft reels. It's one worth picking up on Super 8 optical sound and you stand a very good chance of finding a good color print of it too!

LONG LIVE SUPER 8!!

Posted by David Kilderry (Member # 549) on December 04, 2009, 03:40 AM:

Osi, good review, thanks.

It is interesting what you say about LPP and Super 8 optical prints. I would think that when LPP stock came in in 1983, labs and indeed Kodak would have been caught with considerable inventories of the old stock.

One way they would have considered a clever way to rid themselves of it was airline optical prints. They were never meant to escape the system (like yours have!) and only needed a short working life.

I have had optical airline features from 1985 that have faded and sure were not LPP.

David

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on December 04, 2009, 08:56 AM:

Its a good point David. By 1985, most optical prints were printed on Kodak SP and while Pale Rider doesn't have a spot of fade, others from that same year, that I have owned in the past, were faded. Crocodile Dundee and Little Shop of Horrors both have the slightest browning. Only a fanatic like me would notice, but it's there.

Gorky Park, while a favorite film of mine, is on the most dreaded of eastman stock, and it is pinked out, (I hope that when my print of this feature coming from Dan arrives, it'll be slightly better!) Gorky came out in 1983. Then, of course, there are the great Eastman stocks of the early 70's, like my print of "Romance of a Horse Thief" an optical print from 1971, that doesn't have a spot of fade.

But your right, a perfect dumping ground for old stock bad film stock. My hope is that Gorky was printed in the UK as well, and that there might be a good print of Gorky across the pond!

ThanX for the kind words

Posted by David Kilderry (Member # 549) on December 06, 2009, 06:38 AM:

I should have mentioned that I remember seeing this film in the cinema and enjoying it a lot. At the time it was considered a return to form for Clint and maybe his last top film! How wrong they were especially given what he has made in the last few years.

Gran Torino is one of the best films I have ever seen and every film he has been involved with in the last 10 years has been top quality.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on December 06, 2009, 08:42 AM:

I enjoyed Gran Torino as well and except for the ending, (I was hoping for some over the top Eastwood violence, Eastwood doing the violence, of course!), I enjoyed it a lot.

... and now he has that movie about a soccer tournement coming out, with Morgan Freeman in it, (who he's been acting and working with since "Unforgiven"). There's no stopping the man!

Th color is gorgeous on this Pale Rider print, as it happens around spring or late fall, I believe, and the mountians and overall scenery are beautiful.

Eastwood has had a clever way of making politcal statements in his films, but he does it in clever ways. In Pale Rider, he shows the destruction of the environment, as we see the hydraulic mining equipment destroying what was once a perhaps pretty scenery. We see it in shots of the earth being pounded and washed down the slopes, tree's being uprooted and falling and just one statement from Megan, the little girl.

"It looks like hell."

No big speeches, just the iamges that really say it all.

Posted by Stewart John Boyle (Member # 1785) on December 06, 2009, 10:14 AM:

Hi Osi
My all time favourite western is High Plains Drifter..i remember that the Joe character Eastwood played was a sort of homage to the man with no name..who i think is called Joe??
Maybe you can help with the answer?
Regards
Stewart

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on December 06, 2009, 03:23 PM:

Stewart ...

Maybe your thinking of one of Eastwoods other westerns from the late 60's "Joe Kidd"?

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