Hang Em High
Eastwoodâs first American western is an interesting precursor of his later Unforgiven, with its subtle themes of anti-violence and to an extent rallying against capital punishment itself. The opening five minutes are certainly evocative, showing Eastwood driving some cattle and rescuing one out of the water before being surrounded by a vigilante posse who mistake him for a murderer and decide to hang him on the spot. Eastwood survives, only to be cleared of the crime and made a federal Marshall to bring those who wronged him to justice. Among the problems with the film are an alarmingly lackadaisical pace and an obvious b-movie feel as brought by journeyman director Ted Post but is made up for by some intelligent writing which includes the humanizing of some of the villains and a long drawn-out gallows scene in which sympathy is evoked in the viewer for the condemned regardless of their crimes. The story certainly is not as violent and action-packed as the most famous Westerns, and Eastwood himself, despite his vigilante tones, only actually kills people in self-defense, and an unfortunate number of character deaths take place offscreen. But yet the film is also helped along by a really good supporting cast for Eastwood including Ed Begley, Ben Johnson, Bruce Dern, Alan âSkipperâ Hale, L.Q. Jones, Bob Steele, and even Dennis Hopper in a crazed cameo. But it is ultimately Pat Hingle as Judge Adam Fenton a.k.a. âThe Hanging Judgeâ that raises the piece to a level of quality. Essentially playing Eastwoodâs boss, and matching up with him well in the acting department, what appears at first to the viewer to be a heartless despot with a thirst for power ultimately turns out to be a tormented central figure who knows that the barbarism of capital punishment is the only way to maintain law and order in a lawless environment, and Hingleâs speech at the end about how he has more than his share of crosses to bear redeems much of the movie as a result. The film gets weighed down in the late going with an extraneous romance between Eastwood and a local woman (played by the ill-fated ingĂ©nue Inger Stevens) including having a plot thread with her that never gets resolved, plus the story is left hanging just a bit in the final moments, but overall, while not the best Eastwood western, an important and well-acted entry nonethelessâŠ
7/10