Hang 'Em High | | Cast : | Clint Eastwood, Inger Stevens, Pat Hingle | | Director : | Ted Post | | Studio : | Mgm/Ua Studios | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | August 03, 1968 | | DVD Released Date : | June 05, 2001 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 31, 2005 | | Summary | A smart, compelling western that exceeds expectations | Content
 | A good western is about two themes: violence and justice. "Hang 'em High", mostly overlooked beneath the shadow of Eastwood's work with Sergio Leone of the same period, is a surprisingly deep examination of these themes as they play out in pre-statehood Oklahoma.
The film works through three different storylines, all of which come together to address the primary theme of the picture.
The central storyline is a simple revenge tale. Eastwood's character, former lawman Jed Cooper, is wrongfully hanged by a gang of nine vigilantes. Saved from death by an honest marshall, Cooper becomes a lawman once again as deputy marshall in the Oklahoma Territory. With the blessing of the territory's judge, he embarks on a mission to round up those who were responsible for his hanging.
Along the way, he pursues and apprehends three cattle rustlers who had done murder. Among them are two young men who claim they had nothing to do with the decision to murder the man, and the two cooperate with Cooper's effort to bring all three men to town to face justice. The mob that helped him catch the men had wanted to hang them on the spot, but Cooper insisted that they be taken into custody and brought before a court of law. Back in town, Cooper stands up for the two young men and doesn't want to see them hanged. The judge sees things differently: the people demand justice as they see it, and the way they see it is through a hanging. If the judge doesn't hang them all, then the people will take the law into their own hands, just as they did wrongfully try to hang Cooper himself.
The third storyline is that of the pretty, young blond girl. The jailors and lawmen are all under orders to let her examine every outlaw brought into town. She later reveals that she's looking for two men in particular, two men who had done her a great wrong in the past.
In large part, this is a film about the death penalty and the merits of the retributivist theory of justice. If the girl were to find those two men, would their hanging do her any good? What if she never found them? Does Cooper need to find the men who've done him wrong? What to do with those he does find?
Whether men are hanged or spared their lives, there are consequences. There are consequences both for individuals seeking justice, and for society as a whole. There are consequences for those who perpetrate violence and those who are victimized by it. "Hang 'em High" engages the viewer on these subjects, and in so doing exceeds the expectation that it is just another shoot-'em-up gunslinger picture.
The musical score, an integral part of any good western, both hits and misses. It hits with a great, memorable theme. You probably have heard the theme even if you've never seen the film. The score misses, however, by muddying up the theme with the full orchestration commonplace in MGM studio pictures of the time. In many places, the score sounds like it was yanked directly out of "Star Wars", and the music produces a mood that doesn't fit with the film.
Overall, this is a western that does all the typically western elements right. It surpasses expectations by delivering on an engaging storyline about the ethics of justice. "Hang 'em High" is an excellent film. I'm compelled to drop it down to 4 stars, however, by the way that it stumbles about for the first 30 minutes or so trying to find its groove, and by the way the score seems misplaced in those early scenes. It fully recovers and becomes a great western, but doesn't quite reach the heights of perfection reached by "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly" or "A Fistful of Dollars." |
| Rating | | | Date | June 14, 2005 | | Summary | Eastwood Fans - It's to die for! | Content
| So they lynched him and left him for dead, but left before they knew for sure, well Jed Cooper (Eastwood) is the top vigilante of any western I've ever known. Bringing the aggressors to justice is no easy task, but Eastwood plays the part smoothly. I really enjoyed this movie, and watch it all the time.
Note: If you're a Gilligan's Island fan, look for Alan Hale, he plays one of the men who tried killing Eastwood. It's so weird seeing the skipper out of his sailor clothes! HaHa |
| Rating | | | Date | April 28, 2005 | | Summary | nice one | Content
| one of his best american westerns. three stars compared with the dollars trilogy, which gets an averaged out 4.5 stars from me
soothing pace. better than high plains drifter which is in my opinion just a imitation leone ripp-off. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 06, 2005 | | Summary | Not a bad start | Content
| This was Eastwood's first American-made Western, and it's not bad, but not as good as I was hoping. I first saw it when I was 11 years old; it made a bigger impression back then. There is not enough nail-biting tension in this film. Eastwood's character, Jeb Cooper, rounds up the bad guys fairly efficiently without too much fuss, but can you believe that the movie ends before he gets all of them? Cooper survives a hanging and a shooting, but recovers from both easily enough, almost routinely. There's a beautiful girl, but not much real chemistry or romance. The music track is a bit melodramatic, almost intrusive, but the theme song is memorable. The Spaghetti Westerns he did before this film were better, I think, and most of the films he did after this were better, too. But, as I said, it's not bad. |
| Rating | | | Date | November 10, 2004 | | Summary | Given 'em hell, Harry! | Content
| Irresistible early (1968) American spaghetti western, exceeded in quality only by Eastwood's HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER. Great theme music and characters get you in the mood for Old Testament revenge.
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