sterns, Eastwood returned Stateside but brought the style and feel of the Dollar films with him - Hang Em High, directed by Ted Post in 1968 is a revenge western.To make the movie Eastwood set up his own production company, Malpaso, named after a river in his home town. This gave the actor more control over his projects and gave all his films a visual style and unity that continues to this day.
Eastwood plays Jed Cooper, a one time law man, who has bought a herd of cattle and is planning to make it big in the cow business. However unknown the Cooper the cows are stolen and his bill of sale is intended to incriminate him. A posse of nine men catch up with Cooper but they won't listen to him and rather than take him in to stand trial they lynch him there and then. In a grisly scene the men hang Cooper from a tree and then ride off, leaving him to strangle slowly.
H
owever a federal Marshall comes across the scene and cuts Cooper down before he dies. The Marshall takes Cooper into Fort Grant where the judge, based on Judge Issac Parker, decides that Cooper is innocent. And so the scene is set for a bloody showdown in which Eastwood's wronged man goes after the men who lynched him.Hang em High is a fantastic western and coming fast on the heels of the dollar films it propelled Eastwood into a true movie superstar. Incredibly a position he maintain now more than forty years later.
Essential Eastwood and an essential western for any fan of the genre.
1 comment:
I'll never forget the hanging scene - saw it first when I was about 11 or so and it left an indelible impression on me.
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