Hang 'Em High (1968) ***

By 1968, Clint Eastwood had, thanks to his work with Sergio Leone, made the transition from TV star to movie star. “Hang 'Em High” was his chance to cement that position with a role in an American production of the kind of revisionist western with which he and Leone had made such a success. Eastwood plays Jed Cooper, an innocent man hanged by a lynch mob. Surviving the attack, Cooper, who is a former lawman, accepts an offer from Judge Fenton to become a U.S. Marshall. He will help the judge maintain what law and order is possible in the wild Oklahoma territory, and with a badge, he can legally pursue the men who lynched him.

Traditional westerns back in the day featured a good guy in a white hat against a bad guy in a black hat. That overly simplistic description applies, literally or figuratively, to most of the westerns made before the late 1960s. Directors were starting to experiment with more character development and moral ambiguity, but they were limited by the Hays Code, the film industry's self-censorship guidelines. The Code didn't just limit sexual expression in films; it sought to promote respect for law and order and American government. (It also prohibited, among other things, depictions of inter-racial relationships.) Much like the Chinese censors today, the Hays Code significantly limited the themes you could explore in a Hollywood film. McCarthyism and the Red Scare played a role as well. Any depiction of America as less than a shining city on a hill could be interpreted as pro-Commie, which is why a great movie like “High Noon” was maligned in its day. Foreign directors like Sergio Leone and the New Wave auteurs had a considerably freer hand, and American filmmakers increasingly craved that freedom.

By the '60's, directors were flexing more and more against the Code, which, after years of being increasingly water-down or ignored, was finally scrapped in 1968, in favor of a ratings system similar to what is used today. “Hang 'Em High” is a good example of the revisionist westerns that were starting to be made around that time. In these westerns, the hats were, figuratively speaking, more on the gray side. In “Hang 'Em High,” the upstanding citizens who attempt to lynch Cooper believe they are doing what is right, providing justice in a lawless land. Judge Fenton (based on the legendary Judge Parker) sentences a lot of men to be hanged in order to head off just that sort of vigilante justice. He believes that in the large, mostly un-patrolled Oklahoma territory, people will only respect a court that provides swift, severe justice. Anything less, and people will take the law into their own hands. Cooper struggles with some of these hangings, but he ultimately continues as a lawman, feeling that the more present the law can be, the less necessary hangings will be.

That's a lot for a movie to take on, and I won't pretend that “Hang 'Em High” is some sort of profound statement on criminal justice. Much of the film is a pretty typical western, and the romance montage between Eastwood and co-star Inger Stevens is downright sappy. Still, the movie manages to mix legal philosophy with some decent action. It isn't Eastwood's best, but it's worth seeing.

3 stars out of 5