Together, the two films tell a familiar and fascinating story, exploring good and evil, pale horsemen and black hats and the gray areas in between. Shane and Pale, Summary: This essay compares Clint Eastwood's Pale Rider and George Stevens' classic western, Shane. The plots are similar, although the differences are, Pale Rider, which he produced and directed, from a screenplay he commissioned from Michael Butler and Dennis Shryack, takes its broad outlines from Shane and its details from Leone, but it's an art western, shot in art colors - earth tones, with gray, brown and black trim, and interiors so dark you can barely see who's on screen, High Plains Drifter is better. Pale Rider isn't bad at all but he's really just a blatant copy of Shane. Actually, Cdogg, when you think about it, the comparison of Shane to Pale Rider is also apt. But for me, Pale Rider always reminded me of the wanderer of the High Plains for the reasons mentioned. Destruction and chaos.