Obviously styled on the Sergio Leone DOLLARS trilogy and with a similar approach to dramatic music and sun-bleached locales, HANG 'EM HIGH is one of Eastwood's toughest films. It has a plot that almost writes itself: Eastwood starts the film by being mistaken for a cattle rustler, at which point he's lynched without trial. He somehow survives, and ends up becoming a marshall, vowing to track down the gang responsible.
That storyline is standard revenge fare for the genre, but two things lift this film above the norm: the style and the musings on capital punishment. As well as the various lynchings, one of the main characters (the great Pat Hingle) is a hanging judge and a (legal) execution sequence is the film's most powerful and harrowing shot. As for the style, for much of the film the action carries along to a loud, crashing score which I loved and which suited the events perfectly.
Eastwood plays one of his sternest characters yet, a man always cheating death and driven by vengeance; there's little of his laidback, laconic charm from the Leone trilogy. The supporting cast is excellent: tragic actress Inger Stevens makes her mark as a woman whose life is driven by her own dreams of revenge, there are tons of western actors present (Ed Begley, Ben Johnson, Bruce Dern, L. Q. Jones) and even an outrageous cameo from Dennis Hopper. The film grips your attention throughout until the final violent, inevitable conclusion.
That storyline is standard revenge fare for the genre, but two things lift this film above the norm: the style and the musings on capital punishment. As well as the various lynchings, one of the main characters (the great Pat Hingle) is a hanging judge and a (legal) execution sequence is the film's most powerful and harrowing shot. As for the style, for much of the film the action carries along to a loud, crashing score which I loved and which suited the events perfectly.
Eastwood plays one of his sternest characters yet, a man always cheating death and driven by vengeance; there's little of his laidback, laconic charm from the Leone trilogy. The supporting cast is excellent: tragic actress Inger Stevens makes her mark as a woman whose life is driven by her own dreams of revenge, there are tons of western actors present (Ed Begley, Ben Johnson, Bruce Dern, L. Q. Jones) and even an outrageous cameo from Dennis Hopper. The film grips your attention throughout until the final violent, inevitable conclusion.