23 Jan 2022 9:54 pm
I would say this was a masterpiece by clint eastwood...and it also expresses how much our society has changed.
the name naturally comes from biblical prophecy....the pale horse heralds the final struggle of god against satan. Clint Eastwood himself plays the tool of god's divine intervention...he appears to be an answer to a prayer of a 14 year old girl whose dog was killed by the 'bad guys'.
one of the nice things about this 'western' is that it does tip its hat to something closer to the reality of the original settlers in the west: the fact they were deeply religious. This never seems to be portrayed in normal westerns...but the fact is that people in the old west were deep believers in god, divine intervention, and perhaps witchcraft. That actually makes them a lot more fascinating than the typical western which portrays them as some sort of post modern nihilistic thugs.
the 'bad guys' in the movie are in fact industrialist capitalists. They are the nihilistic ones. carpet baggers...as we southerners used to call them during reconstruction. That also is closer to the truth of the history of this country...in contrast to mainstream boomer narrative: that capitalism was some sort of high virtue in the history of this country. Think about it: the first settlers were religious pilgrims wanting to construct a more deeply religious society than they could ever have in europe in the 1600s. They burned witches. How could they ever imagine their society would be transformed into the nihilistic late stage capitalist society we have today?
The movie also makes an important point about leadership: clint eastwood first arrives as a preacher. The main villian explicitly says that he would have preferred a gunslinger to a preacher...because you can simply kill a gunslinger. A preacher, however, can give the people hope. And the people drastically outnumber the industrialists and they could seize power at any time, if only they had the inspiration. They are only oppressed because they are meek and afraid (a common problem among christians i must say)...and i suppose they also suffer from the typical prisoners dilemma. Nobody wants to be the first to resist because of course you will get killed and there is no guarantee that the rest of the people will support you. Clint therefore serves this purpose of giving the people hope and making them more bold...and that is what a good leader does. When one of the people, Hull, declare their intention to fight, clint is no longer a preacher...he then transforms into the avenging angel role.
the rest of the movie is just standard western shooting stuff...and naturally the good guys win. Clint then leaves town and returns back to heaven.
anyway, it is an intellectually interesting movie. Do recommend.
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[size=200][b][color=#aaaaaa]1[/color] Nomination[/b][/size]
[url=https://liberalforum.net/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=841][b][color=#FF6600]Cannonpointer[/color][/b][/url] [size=85]Jan 23, 2022[/size]
[url=https://liberalforum.net/viewtopic.php?p=1923854#p1923854]Go to original post on Jan 22, 2022 3:14pm[/url]
the name naturally comes from biblical prophecy....the pale horse heralds the final struggle of god against satan. Clint Eastwood himself plays the tool of god's divine intervention...he appears to be an answer to a prayer of a 14 year old girl whose dog was killed by the 'bad guys'.
one of the nice things about this 'western' is that it does tip its hat to something closer to the reality of the original settlers in the west: the fact they were deeply religious. This never seems to be portrayed in normal westerns...but the fact is that people in the old west were deep believers in god, divine intervention, and perhaps witchcraft. That actually makes them a lot more fascinating than the typical western which portrays them as some sort of post modern nihilistic thugs.
the 'bad guys' in the movie are in fact industrialist capitalists. They are the nihilistic ones. carpet baggers...as we southerners used to call them during reconstruction. That also is closer to the truth of the history of this country...in contrast to mainstream boomer narrative: that capitalism was some sort of high virtue in the history of this country. Think about it: the first settlers were religious pilgrims wanting to construct a more deeply religious society than they could ever have in europe in the 1600s. They burned witches. How could they ever imagine their society would be transformed into the nihilistic late stage capitalist society we have today?
The movie also makes an important point about leadership: clint eastwood first arrives as a preacher. The main villian explicitly says that he would have preferred a gunslinger to a preacher...because you can simply kill a gunslinger. A preacher, however, can give the people hope. And the people drastically outnumber the industrialists and they could seize power at any time, if only they had the inspiration. They are only oppressed because they are meek and afraid (a common problem among christians i must say)...and i suppose they also suffer from the typical prisoners dilemma. Nobody wants to be the first to resist because of course you will get killed and there is no guarantee that the rest of the people will support you. Clint therefore serves this purpose of giving the people hope and making them more bold...and that is what a good leader does. When one of the people, Hull, declare their intention to fight, clint is no longer a preacher...he then transforms into the avenging angel role.
the rest of the movie is just standard western shooting stuff...and naturally the good guys win. Clint then leaves town and returns back to heaven.
anyway, it is an intellectually interesting movie. Do recommend.
[hr]
[size=200][b][color=#aaaaaa]1[/color] Nomination[/b][/size]
[url=https://liberalforum.net/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=841][b][color=#FF6600]Cannonpointer[/color][/b][/url] [size=85]Jan 23, 2022[/size]
[url=https://liberalforum.net/viewtopic.php?p=1923854#p1923854]Go to original post on Jan 22, 2022 3:14pm[/url]