Bless Clint Eastwood for climbing back into the saddle during a period when most others preferred to climb into a spaceship.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 6, 2025

The main feeling of the film is of a tongue-in-cheek parody of the spaghetti sagas.

| Jul 8, 2022

Pale Rider adds no new insights or dimensions to an ageless genre. But as a tribute to America's real and mythical past, Eastwood's newest movie reassures us that in the war against evil, the righteous have God and vengeance on their side.

| Apr 19, 2022

For its heart and soul and what it achieves both technically and emotionally, Pale Rider is a film worthy to mark it's makers' ninetieth special day.

| May 31, 2020

A beautiful, unhurried, snowbound Western punctured by violence and lyricism.

| Feb 27, 2020

Though the metaphysical overtones of the screenplay are sometimes awkwardly handled and Eastwood's direction of actors (other than himself) is occasionally uncertain, this was one of the better American films of 1985.

| May 27, 2011

Pale Rider does nothing to disprove the wisdom that this genre is best left to the revival houses. A double feature of Shane and Eastwood's High Plains Drifter will do just fine, thanks.

| Oct 26, 2008

It had been so long since a quality western had hit America's screens that it appears as if Eastwood purposely set out to remind audiences of all the elements that make the genre work.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 26, 2008

It's all been seen before, but Eastwood serves it up with authority, fine craftsmanship and a frequent sense of fun.

| Oct 26, 2008

His saddle bag is a mixed one, though Pale Rider still has the touch of quality associated with latter-day Eastwood. [Blu-ray]

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 12, 2008

...who else would you want coming to your rescue than the Preacher Man With No Name?

| Original Score: 6/10 | Sep 1, 2008

It's a lightweight, easygoing affair, reminiscent of some of Hawks' or Ford's lesser Westerns.

| May 16, 2008

Eastwood's mythic Western divided film critics: Some were baffled by the audacity of his playing a religious figure, while others claimed he was just embodying the mysterious knight-stranger, a common character in classic Westerns.

| Original Score: B+ | Jun 20, 2007

It's good to be back in the saddle again.

| Feb 9, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 10, 2005

Not Clint's best western, but entertaining enough.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 14, 2005

A severely underrated western, one of Eastwood's most stylish.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 31, 2005

Clint's return to westerns is just ok.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 18, 2004

One of Eastwood's best oaters

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 24, 2004

[Eastwood] understands so well how he works on the screen that the movie has a resonance that probably was not even there in the screenplay.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 23, 2004