High Plains Drifter and Pale Rider

High Plains Drifter (1973) - A Stranger rides into the corrupt mining town of Lago. After three tough guys harass him, he kills them rather easily. The three men had been hired by the town as protection from some other hitmen they had double crossed. The townspeople decided to hire the Stranger in place of the 3 tough guys. It all started, we find out, that the town had the local Marshal killed to silence him, because he discovered their mine was on federal property. The Stranger gets revenge on the whole town for the Marshall.

Pale Rider (1985) - A corrupt mining company is trying to push out some small time prospectors off of their claims with rough tactics, and kill a girl’s dog. She prays and along comes a rider who has a preacher’s collar and scars from 6 bullet holes in his back. He is metaphorically the Pale Rider (Death on a pale horse from the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse in Revelation), but that’s never explicitly stated. The company hires gunfighters, who are corrupt former marshals, and they think they recognize the Preacher as a dude they shot and killed previously.

In both movies, Clint Eastwood exacts revenge and then rides off without anyone really knowing anything about him, including his name (he has other movies where he has no name).

Which movie did you enjoy more?

In which movie was the main character more obviously a ghost?

To me, the titles should be switched. I think The Stranger from High Plains Drifter is more like the 4th horseman of the apocalypse, “Death, with Hell coming after”. He even paints the town red and paints the word “Hell” on the town sign marker.

I always assumed that the Preacher in Pale Rider had only been previously wounded and assumed to be dead. He never seemed like a ghost to me. I always took the movie to be more like a re-telling of the movie Shane.

BTW, I love both movies!