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Westerns

Hang 'em High

Hang 'em High

List Price: $14.95
Your Price: $11.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Pretty good western
Review: Eastwood did a good job combining the shoot'em up western with some historical insights. Also, the movie owes a lot to the spaghetti westerns. In taming the west, for a while the gallows was used with vigor. Cathouses were an integral part of many Western communities. And scores were settled with guns and bowie knives with or without legal sanctions.

If you're gonna try to hang Clint Eastwood, you better either finish the job or don't even start.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Hi-Noon Gloom at Solar Eclipse of Justice
Review: Great and terrific western, although a bit incomplete compared to his later American movies, featuring a Clint Eastwood youngster once more, or already, in search of Justice.

How come so many of those Eastwood Westerns remind one of the epics of the Christian narrations of the Gospel themes? It has to be borne in mind that the colonization of the West was once undertaken by deeply religious believers and pious colons, fleeing religious persecutions by bigots, various religious hypocrits and other political imperialists and oportunists. Redemption is and was always strictly a business of individuals, and the Far Wild West narrational environment is or was able to bring out a suitable environment and circumstances for the depiction of the various themes of redemption. Clint Eastwood, in his half-a-dozen or so mythical Westerns, has usually done a great job at this.

In this movie, the heroe (self-tortured as usual with a high inner sense of justice) almost loses his life several times, once in an expedient summary judgement followed by an attempted lynching by a bunch of respectable criminal outlaws in search of an innocent scapegoat, another time by an attempted cold-blooded execution, barely escapes each time with notable scars and (Christ-like) stigmatas, to go out to seek justice and revenge.

In all of Clint Eastwood's westerns, this is a major theme. The world looks like a rather gloomy place, haunted by the lost and the wicked, where there is neither justice nor reprieve for a few righteous ones, and Clint Eastwood incarnates a type of Christ, or avenging Angel, usually back from the Dead or almost-Dead, in a lonely search or quest for justice in a lost world.

For a subsequent illustration of these themes, see the following

- Unforgiven: The Redeemer of Blood pushed to His utter limits
- Pale Rider: The Redeeming and Avenging Angel, or Man with a Mission
- The Outlaw Josey Wales: Moses, the Hunted One turned Leader in the Wilderness
- High Plains Drifter: The Resurrected Righteous, or His Angel, or His Next of Kin , bringing down Retribution to a wicked town (Caphernaum by the Sea)

Although Hang 'em High presents some of the above-mentionned themes in a barely embryonic fashion, these subsequent four Western movies developped the theme matter to further epic dimensions, besides allowing for a few very realistic and authentic western entertainments. Highly watchable.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A solid western, Clint's first after the Leone films
Review: Hang 'em High is a good, entertaining western featuring a good performance by Clint and superior work by fine character actors in the supporting cast, including Pat Hingle. In this movie, Clint takes on once again the persona of an avenging angel, though this time he is on the side of the law (working for Hingle's hanging judge). There are shades of the upcoming Dirty Harry Callahan in this character when, after completing his mission and taking vengeance on the men who erroneously near-lynched him, Clint quits the employ of hanging judge Hingle as he cannot stand the hypocrisy of the judge's legalized killing.

A very nifty tale of morality and vengeance that presages the great themes of director Eastwood's career.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: More Solid than Ever
Review: HANG 'EM HIGH remains a solid Western to this day. When it was released HANG 'EM HIGH was touted as an American version of the Spaghetti Western. That's interesting since the Spaghetti Western genre was Europe's version of America's Western genre. In this film the viewer gets interpretations of both genres. In fact the film actually looks more inspired by Hollywood Westerns of the 40s with doses of the 60s Spaghetti's influence interspersed throughout. The single constant Spaghetti influence was Dominic Frontiere's score which featured a catchy theme that carried the familiar rhythm and drive created by Ennio Morricone for A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS and FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE to mention a few. The excellent cast, which supported Clint Eastwood, included Pat Hingle, Ben Johnson, Dennis Hopper, L.Q. Jones, Bruce Dern, Ed Begley, Charles McGraw and Inger Stevens. Many of these actors just added to the fact that this was an American Western all the way and a good one at that. HANG 'EM HIGH does not have the flash and stylized violence of the Spaghetti Western. Instead we get a deliberately paced film about revenge and the dichotomy of the meaning of law and order and real justice. By the end of the film the main characters learn and grow through their experiences, as does the audience. The West was not a frontier of just black and white. This is a good film and seems even better today than when it was first released.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "When you hang a man, You better look at him!!!!!
Review: Hang'em High is one of my favorite westerns. Clint Eastwood is awsome in the role of Jed Cooper, a cowboy who is mistaken for a rustler and gets hanged. After being rescued by a sherriff and given a job as a lawman, Cooper seeks revenge on the 9 men who hung him.
Hang'em High is a good'ol western that's packed with great actors, like Alan Hale Jr. (Giligan's Island) Ed Begley. L.Q. Jones, Dennis Hopper, and in a brief role as a preacher, James MacArthur(Hawaii Five-O), and Bob Steele, in the role as a prison inmate. If you like westerns with Clint Eastwood, give Hang'em High a try.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hollywoods attempt to minic the spagetti western.
Review: Hollywood treid to minic the spaggeti western with this excellent attempt. Clint stars as a man who survies his own linching to return to track them down as a marshall.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Strong Eastwood Follow-up To the Spaghetti Western Trilogy
Review: I watched this one after seeing the classic spaghetti Eastwood films a few weeks back(A Fistfull Of Dollars,For A Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad And The Ugly). Well it didnt dissapoint. Eastwood plays Jed Cooper, a former lawman who becomes a cattle rancher only to be mistaken for a cattle thief and hung by 9 vigilante goons. I dont want to ruin it for you but he basically agrees to become a Federal Marshall and proceeds in administering Justice his way. He clashes with the Territorial judge(played by Pat Hingle) who is his supervisor and their conflict on how justice is administered is the main focal point of the film. A truly classic Eastwood western. My only complaint was the poor clean-up of picture quality in certain scenes. Other than that extremely watchable.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: EASTWOOD AT ONE OF HIS FINDEST HOURS!!!!!
Review: I'VE SAW THIS MOVIE SOOO MANY TIMES IT DOES NOTHING BUT GET BETTER WITH EVER SHOWING!!!!! EASTWOOD IS BY FAR ONE OF THE BEST WESTERN SUPERSTARS TO DATE. DON'T KNOW OF A BAD WESTERN THIS MAN HAS MADE!!!! SO TREAT YOURSELF TO A REAL SHOOTEM' UP WESTERN WATCH HANG'EM HIGH OVER&OVER&OVER AGAIN. AS WITH ANY EASTWOOD MOVIE YOU CAN'T WATCH IT JUST ONCE. THERES SO MUCH ACTION GOING ON YOU HAVE TO SEE IT A COUPLE OF TIMES TO CATCH ALL THE ACTION.. SO HAPPY VEIWING.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: I'll take spaghetti
Review: If you loved the "Dollars" Triolgy then you'll definately be let down. HANG EM HIGH is the American version of a spaghetti western and does not come anywhere close to the genius of Sergio Leone. The music is [inferior] and the scenery shots are of stock quality. The filmmaker even tries the famous Leone close up technique but it's lost in bad acting.
HANG EM tries hard to be a good film. It has a good plot (Clint seeks revenge for a mistaken hanging) but the characters are weak and underdeveloped, and the sub-plots are not followed up (Rachel's revenge, senseless hangings and the question of justice, the 2 remaining lynch party members). The film ends aburptly and has the feel of a late 1960's TV show.
Other than a few good scenes (Clint carring the cattle comes to mind) the film was quite boring with no surprise action and twists. It plays out just as you would expect it. Do yourself a favor and see FOR A FEW DOLARS MORE, A FISTFULL OF DOLLARS and THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY instead.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: beware of who you buy your livestock from
Review: In this film, Clint Eastwood plays a rancher who unknowingly buys stolen livestock. Soon, he meets up with those who knew the real owner, and is given a dose of lynch mob justice. Out of town and out in the country, they throw a rope over a tree limb and hang the innocent rancher. Once they leave, a sheriff happens by and discovers him swinging in the air. He stops and saves his life, but not knowing why he was hanged, the sheriff takes him to the local jail. Before long, the wronged rancher is wearing a star of his own and rides out looking for the men who hanged him. Only difference is he is ordered to try and bring the men into justice legally. This picture is lined with an all-star cast including Dennis Hopper, Bruce Dern, and Alan Hale Jr.,.


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