Country: United States
Genre: Western
Director: Ted Post
Year: 1968
Rating: 
TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE
If you’ve seen Clint Eastwood’s two 70s masterpieces, Dirty Harry and High Plains Drifter, it kind of makes you want to check out his other work from the era, and surprisingly, very little of it is weak. Of course, not all of it can properly be regarded as trash cinema, either, and that includes Hang ‘Em High.
In Hang ‘Em High, Clint plays Jed Cooper, who is mistakenly lynched for rustling cattle. A passing lawman cuts him down and eventually he’s cleared of all charges. Cooper accepts Judge Fenton’s (Pat Hingle) offer of a Marshall’s badge so he can hunt down the members of the hanging party that left him for dead.
At first, Hang ‘Em High seems like it’s going to be a straightforward tale of frontier justice and revenge, but it’s actually more nuanced than that. Screenwriter/producer Leonard Freeman includes many points of view aside from that of Jed Cooper: the members of the lynching party who thought they were hanging a murderer; Judge Fenton, who won’t let real justice get in the way of the public’s perception of justice, a necessity if the Oklahoma territory is ever to become a state; Rachel Warren (Inger Stevens), a victim of crime who hungers for vengeance, without knowing if it will ever be satisfied; and the crowds who view the hangings in Fort Grant as entertainment, complete with sarsaparilla, cold beer and licorice sticks.
Director Ted Post does a workmanlike job. The visuals are clean and the pace doesn’t drag, but Post doesn’t have a lot of flair, either. The main draws are the thoughtful script and the character turns by Clint Eastwood, Ed Begley (as Captain Wilson, the head of the hanging party), and Bruce Dern (in his usual snakey performance).
Hang ‘Em High is a solid Western — nothing more, nothing less.
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