Tombstone fans hankering for an equally entertaining dust-up must travel from Arizona to California and meet Pale Rider, the highest-grossing Western of the 1980s. Directed, produced by, and starring Clint Eastwood, Pale Rider marked the legendary actor’s first Western since The Outlaw Josey Wales in 1976 and the last until the Oscar-winning Unforgiven in 1992. Of course, Pale Rider has plenty in common with the outstanding High Plains Drifter, with both starring Eastwood as a ghostly personification of death (though it’s never been entirely confirmed in the latter).
Apart from its commercial success, Pale Rider was championed by famed film critic Roger Ebert in his four-star review, whose opinions continue to be respected 12 years after his death. Pale Rider may feature more of a supernatural and metaphysical quality than Tombstone, yet both movies are sure to appeal to vivid, violent, well-performed Westerns that withstand the test of time.
‘Pale Rider’s Premise, Explained
Released by Warner Bros. in June 1985, Pale Rider is an American Western with subtle supernatural leanings. The title refers to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from chapter six of the Book of Revelations, a passage read by villager Megan Wheeler (Sydney Penny) as Eastwood’s character, Preacher (named for his priestly collar), arrives in Carbon Canyon, California. Megan prays for a miracle after her dog is killed by mining magnate Coy LaHood’s (Richard Dysart) men, prompting a revenge campaign mounted by Preacher.
LaHood sends four henchmen to intimidate the small-time miner Hull Barrett (Michael Moriarty), further seizing control of Carbon Canyon. However, the Preacher easily dispatches the foursome with an axe-butt. Hull thanks the Preacher for the heroic act, and the stranger continues protecting Megan and her mother, Sarah (Carrie Snodgress), as LaHood calls in reinforcements. LaHood’s son Joshua (Chris Penn) sends a gargantuan heavy called Club (Richard Kiel) to stop Preacher, only for the elusive stranger to avoid harm with each confrontation.
As more men close in on the Preacher, and he continues to evade danger, theories about the character have abounded for years. Roger Ebert was among the first to notice the subtle, nuanced ways Eastwood plays the character, toying with the audience’s realization of whether Preacher is alive or dead. This connects the movie to the 1973 High Plains Drifter, in which Eastwood (who directs) also plays a vengeful apparition.
Roger Ebert’s ‘Pale Rider’ Assessment
In his effusive four-star review, Roger Ebert opens with:
“No actor is more aware of his own instruments, and Eastwood demonstrates that in ‘Pale Rider,’ a film he dominates so completely that only later do we realize how little we really saw of him.
To punctuate the mysterious nature of Preacher, Ebert notes how Eastwood keeps his visage shrouded in darkness, with only hints given to his true appearance. Subtle and unsubtle storytelling methods are incorporated to perpetuate the central mystery, which Ebert noted among the movie’s strong suits:
“One of the subtlest things in the movie is the way it plays with the possibility that Eastwood’s character may be a ghost, or at least something other than an ordinary mortal.”
“There are some moments when the movie’s mythmaking becomes self-conscious. In one scene, for example, the marshal’s gunmen enter a restaurant and empty their guns into the chair where Eastwood had been sitting moments before. He is no longer there; can’t they see that? ”
Ebert also praises how Eastwood plays to, and subverts, his classic “Man With No Name” character popularized in the ’60s and ’70s, giving fans a dose of the familiar with something fresh and otherworldly. As the glowing review concludes:
“In ‘Pale Rider,’ Clint Eastwood is the director, and having directed himself in nine previous films, he understands so well how he works on the screen that the movie has a resonance that probably was not even there in the screenplay.”
While many have compared Pale Rider more to the classic Western Shane than Tombstone, Eastwood is quoted as saying that Preacher is “an out-and-out ghost,” while Shane features a living man. Ironically, like a ghost, Tombstone remained hidden from Ebert and his fellow critic, Gene Siskel, when it was released in 1993.
Siskel and Ebert’s Response to ‘Tombstone’
While Tombstone is considered a classic Western in 2025, the studio and distributors did not have much faith in the movie in 1993. Produced by Hollywood Pictures/Cinergi Productions and distributed by Buena Vista Pictures, the powers that be felt Tombstone would get drubbed by critics. The studio deliberately avoided pre-screening the film, fearing that negative word of mouth would harm its commercial viability. As such, Roger Ebert and his partner, Gene Siskel, were unafforded the chance to review the film in print ahead of its Christmas Day release in 1993, prompting the response:
Ebert: “They didn’t even want to show it to the critics, because they were sure it’d get bad reviews.”
Siskel: “It was well hidden from us. We were prevented from seeing it, and that’s unfortunate. There was that Hollywood executive who said ‘the pictures that I didn’t make would probably have grossed as much as the ones I did make,’ and this sort of proves that story.”
Siskel and Ebert eventually reviewed Tombstone in February 1994, expressing their opposing views. While Siskel gave the movie a Thumbs Down, Ebert gave it a Thumbs Up despite its chaotic production. On their TV program, Ebert stated:
“We thought we’d have to give it a pass, but then a strange thing started to happen. People started telling me they really liked Val Kilmer’s performance in Tombstone. I heard this everywhere I went. When you hear this once or twice, it’s interesting. When you hear it a couple of dozen times, it’s a trend. And when you read that Bill Clinton loved the performance, you figure you’d better catch up with the movie, and that’s what I did a couple of days ago.”
Reviewing the film, Ebert added:
“I knew going in that Tombstone had a troubled history, with the first director getting fired and the screenplay undergoing rewrites during shooting. But what I wasn’t prepared for was what a strong and effective movie emerged from all that creative chaos.
Kilmer is indeed brilliant in this film. Bill Clinton makes a pretty good movie critic. Kilmer creates a dying man who keeps going mostly on willpower and a stubborn streak of humor. But Kurt Russell’s performance is also wonderful as the two men create an understated but unshakeable friendship…the result is an absorbing, exciting movie.”
While Pale Rider takes cues from the Bible and Tombstone recounts the notorious Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, both durable Westerns come recommended by the late Roger Ebert, who continues to shape cinematic tastemaking. Pale Rider is available to rent on Apple TV and Prime Video, while Tombstone is also available on Apple TV and Prime Video.