Hang 'Em High (1968)

[Beebs]

Is there a sequel to Hang em High? If so what?

The film leaves you hanging with how many men left to be caught?

[Marco Leone]

No sequel Beebs.  It just...... ends there!

[JamesK]

I have a weird relationship with this movie in that I've seen it twice and can never remember anything about it once I've watched it.  So for me, seeing the original is kind of like seeing a sequel, because it's all new!

[The Man With A Hand Brace]

I was disappointed by Hang 'Em High.

The problem is, I dunno why. It's just not memorable. there was a hanging (unsuccessful), Eastwood was out for revenge, the rest I just can't remember. It was poor to my eyes, so most of it escapes me too.

[cigar joe]

From Leoneizing AW's thread 

Take Eastwood's first AW after working with Leone "Hang em High" needed a better score it wasn't bad but it wasn't great either. It had some great set pieces like the six man hanging, but no strong villain, Captian Maddow (Ed Begley) doesn't exactly seem a strong baddie others like "The Swede" were cut and Alan Hale Jr, (Gilligans Island) just didn't seen to fit, it could have totally lost the Inger Stevens love interest sidebar, and the ending was less than climatic, it also left Cooper with unfinnished buisness.

So how to make it a SW?, here are a few suggestions give a theme song to Cooper and another to Judge Parker, give the Captian Maddow part to a big name strong usually good guy part playing actor say a Gregory Peck, or a Jimmy Stewart and give him a theme also, have the lynch mob made up of similar recognizeable good guys. I liked the Bruce Dern and the two brothers sequence. The six man hanging could have used some extreme closeups and a lot more camera angles, they could have made this even more memorable.

[dave jenkins]

A few good set pieces, but the movie doesn't really come to much. That's what happens when an old Rawhide director gets involved, I guess.

[Groggy]

I remember thinking this movie was awful. I've seen it three or four times, so I don't want to hear "Oh you should check it out again" argument from TB or anyone else. The first half hour is pretty good, maybe the hanging scene, everything after that is pretty much crap.

[dave jenkins]

The stuff with Bruce Dern and the boys is good, but it's over too quickly and then there really IS nothing else to follow with.

[cigar joe]

I though the stuff with Pat Hingle was good also, but it went off the tracks with the Inger stevens sequence and then nowhere at the end.

[titoli]

I agree with most of the criticisms here. Only about the music I disagree: it is verily awful, with those hammer beats which hit you regularly every cjange of scene. The main theme wasn't that bad, though. I think that trimmed of twenty minutes (the  love interest, basically) this gets a solid 7\10.

[The Firecracker]

I like the failed hanging, Clint escorting the brothers across the desert and the scene where they execute several prisoners at once.

Other than that it doesn't have a whole lot to offer.
The biggest bother being the ending.
It isn't satisfying.
Doesn't the audience have the right to see Clint mow down ALL the participants of his hanging?
Also, the romance subplot slows the action down.

6/10

[T.H.]

I barely remember this movie. What I do remember: It falls apart after the desert sequence (a half hour in) and never recovers. It progressively gets worse scene by scene. Yeah, this is a stinker.

[Dust Devil]

This was Eastwood's first W after his collaboration with Leone, you bet your hat it stinks.

[titoli]

This was Eastwood's first W after his collaboration with Leone, you bet your hat it stinks.

Yeah. I think the expectations for this being so high, one is not so indulgent. But this is better than most AW produced at the time.

[dave jenkins]

It was directed by Ted Post, a TV director who worked on (among other things) Rawhide. He also did Magnum Force.