Surprisingly enough, I'd never seen this Clint Eastwood masterpiece before. This was a regrettable mistake as it is a great western. Hang `em High is Clint Eastwood's first American "spaghetti" western and undoubtedly the one that furthered his launch into mega stardom. Upon excitedly opening the DVD case and placing the DVD into the player, one discovers that the only special feature is a theatrical trailer. This is fine, as one doesn't truly purchase these DVD's for special features as much as they do for the movie. While watching the theatrical trailer, I got the impression that this movie seemed as though it might lack the "true grit" style of his previous spaghetti westerns; this impression couldn't have been farther off though. Hang `em High has a truly well written script and is played perfectly by all involved.The premise:
Clint Eastwood plays Jed Cooper, a former law man from St. Louis, MO. As the movie begins, we see him herding cattle past a river and he's approached by nine riders. We soon learn that Jed thought he'd purchased these cattle honestly, but the person he bought them from was a criminal and now Jed's going to pay for it because these nine riders are a lynch mob and they intend to hang Jed.
Fortunately for Jed, a law man comes by and cuts him down from the tree before he dies and throws him in the wagon with a bunch of other criminals headed towards the only court in the Oklahoma territory and run by the "Hanging Judge." As luck would have it though, his story checks out and the judge offers him a job as a Federal Marshal. What follows is a great western filled with Clint Eastwood's "true grit" western hero style as he sets out for vengeance upon those who attempted but failed to hang him.
I would highly recommend this outstanding western for those who favor this genre heavily or casually and especially for those who are Eastwood fans! {ssintrepid}
Eastwood's character, Marshall Cooper is another strong and silent type, just like "The Man With No Name" whom we have come to expect in the Leone westerns. Unlike the spaghetti westerns, though, this time while he is again basically a good guy, he is now on the establishment side.
Eastwood is joined by a positively fabulous supporting cast: Western veterans Ben Johnson and Ed Begley, Pat Hingle as a true hangin' judge, Dennis Hopper (who is such a psycho even then, we are glad to see that he is the first guy killed in the film), Bruce Dern, L.Q. Jones. Surprising appearances are entered by Gilligan's Skipper, Alan Hale and Steve McGarrett's Five-0 sidekick "Dano", James McArthur. And for the true Star Trek cognoscenti, we have an appearance by Mark Leonard, who gave up his job as Oklahoma Territory Prosecuting Attorney to become Sarek, a/k/a Father of Spock.
Unlike some other reviewers, I found the more polished (as opposed to the Leone western trilogy) soundtrack superior to the movies which had preceded it. I also thought the cinematography supeerior here, with some breathtaking vistas.
Lots of reviewers dog this one out for not being up to the standards of the Leone trilogy. However, I think it is their equal, because the characters have more depth. Maybe I am just not the fan of minimalist genre of S. Leone. Nonetheless, I particularly find the bad guys are more complex than any in the spaghetti westerns, and I find this more pleasing.
It is one of my very favorite shoot-em-ups. As reviewer L.S.W. says, western fans need this movie.
Buy Hang Em High (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) (1968) Now
This review refers to the MGM DVD edition of "Hang Em High"....So..What's our boy Clint up to in this great western? Well, he gets beat up, strung up, fed up, shot up(all very tough to take for the Eastwood fan), and then hung up on the beautiful Inger Stevens.
Eastwood plays Jed Cooper, an ex-lawman, now looking to get into the cattle business.After purchasing his cattle, he is mistaken for a rustler and murderer by nine very angry men. They take the law into their own hands,they lynch him and then leave him for dead.(No spoilers here folks, this all happens in the first 5 minutes!)Their actions will come back to haunt them though...
A lawman finds Cooper in the nick of time, cuts him down and brings him before a tough judge. After being found innocent,he puts the badge back on and goes after these vigilantes with a vengance.He is to bring these guys back alive(Yeah Right!) so they can recieve the justice due to them.There are lots of great western action and tension filled moments as he hunts them down and of course some romance, as Cooper falls for Rachel(Stevens),another who is hunting her own ghosts.
This was Eastwood's first American made western. Although you may see shades of the "Fistful of Dollars" trilogy in Clint's character, this is a great western story in itself. His costars in this one are legendary western actors themselves. To name a few there's Ben Johnson, Ed Begley, Bruce Dern and Pat Hingle.Some other notables to watch for are Alan Hale Jr., LQ Jones, Dennis Hopper, James MacArthur and Arlene Golonka.It was directed by Ted Post,and has a great score by Dominic Frontiere.
The film made in 1968 is a decent transfer to this DVD. The Picture is presented in widescreen, which shows off the nice western cinematography(or standard if you prefer). It's a nice clear picture and the colors are very good for a film of this age.The sound, although not bad, was a bit disapointing. It's in Dolby, but in mono(this was my only reason for 4 stars),and so many of the films of this era are at least in stereo now.Even with that it was still a good transfer and enjoyable to watch.There are no special features to speak of, but it does come with an informative booklet, the film may be viewed in French and has subtitles in French, English and Spanish. It also has the original theatrical trailer.
"We all have our ghosts...." Rachel to Jed....enjoy..Laurie
also recommended:
Absolute Power
Clint Eastwood Selection: Dirty Harry/The Outlaw Josey Wales/Unforgiven
Mannaja A Man Called Blade
Read Best Reviews of Hang Em High (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) (1968) Here
"Hang 'Em High" (1968) is directed by Ted Post (Magnum Force, The Harrad Experiment, Beneath the Panet of the Apes). Clint Eastwood stars as Jed Cooper, a man who is lynched by a gang even though he was innocent of the accusations of murder and cattle rustling. When Jed manages to survive the hanging and is subsequently freed of any crimes he enlists as a US Marshal and hunts down the gang that lynched him. The film itself pits Jed's moral views of justice and fairness against the backdrop of the harsh morality as served by Judge Adam Fenton (Pat HIngle) at Fort Grant.The film entertains us even as it tells us a story about courage and varying opinions about morality.
The blu-ray has not been remastered, and has many instances of dust. Also, the clarity of the images are not much better than a dvd, and sometimes the color is off and lacks saturation, but overall the film is quite watchable.
Want Hang Em High (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) (1968) Discount?
I love the film but... We get a two sides dvd, labeled "standard" and "widescreen". Standard has 640x480 pixels video, 4:3 aspect ratio, and widescreen 853x480 pixels, 16:9 aspect ratio. This is great, but the problem is both versions are truncated versions of the original. The widescreen is even more truncated ! If you compare two images, Clint has some blue sky above is hat in standard, and you see only half of his hat in widescreen ! I say it this way to makes things clear, but I'm a tech oriented guy, I checked twice what really was on this dvd before writing this review.The 16:9 version is cropped from the 4:3 ! This means both versions are missing the sides of the original wide image, but you see more of the original on the 4:3 ! It's a pity to see such classics so poorly transfered to DVD. We need a new edition with all the original image.
No comments:
Post a Comment