“Hang
'Em High”
Movie
Review
Ted Post and Leonard Freeman's 1968 American DeLuxe Color
Western film, Hang 'Em High, was a revisionist work. The film's main cast
includes Clint Eastwood as Jed Cooper, an innocent man who escapes a lynching,
Inger Stevens as a widow who supports him, Ed Begley as the gang's leader, and
Pat Hingle as the federal judge who appoints Cooper as a deputy U.S. Marshal.
The Malpaso firm, which is a production firm owned by Eastwood, debuted with
Hang 'Em High.
When serving as District Judge of the United States
District Court of the Western District of Arkansas in the late 1800s, Judge
Isaac Parker earned the nickname "Hanging Judge" because to the
enormous number of individuals he condemned to death. Hingle portrays a
fictitious judge who resembles Judge Parker.
Since several federal marshals were slain while working
for Parker at that time, the movie also highlights the risks associated with
becoming a deputy U.S. marshal. The fictitious Fort Grant, which served as the
district judge's operational headquarters, is a replica of FortSmith, Arkansas,
the actual site of Judge Parker's court.
A posse of nine men, consisting of Captain Wilson, Reno, Miller,
Jenkins, Stone, Maddow, Tommy, Loomis, and Charlie Blackfoot, surrounds retired
lawman Jed Cooper in Oklahoma Territory in 1889. They ask to see the invoice
for the livestock Cooper is transporting. The rancher was murdered by the
livestock dealer, a thief. Cooper claims he had no knowledge of the crime, but
only Jenkins questions his culpability. Cooper is hanged from a tree and the
guys ride off after Reno steals his horse and saddle and Miller grabs his
money.
Soon later, Marshal Dave Bliss finds a half-dead Cooper and
rescues him. He then transports him to Fort Grant, where territory judge Adam
Fenton finds Cooper to be innocent, frees him, and cautions him from seeking
his own retribution. Fenton offers Cooper a position as a marshal as an option.
Cooper agrees, and Fenton advises him to bring the lynchers in for prosecution
rather than killing them.
Cooper notices his horse and saddle in front of a nearby tavern
while he is picking up a prisoner. When Reno draws on Cooper when he is trying
to apprehend him, Cooper is forced to shoot Reno. Jenkins surrenders and gives
the names of the other members of the posse after discovering that Reno was
killed by a marshal with a hanging scar. Stone is located by Cooper in the community
of Red Creek; he is then apprehended by the sheriff there, Ray Calhoun, and
taken to jail. The majority of the men Cooper is after are reputable Red Creek
residents, but Calhoun upholds Cooper's warrants for their detention.
Cooper and Calhoun discover the killing of two men and the
rustling of their herd while on their way to apprehend the other men. Cooper
joins his own posse to track down the stolen herd and learns that Miller and
two adolescent brothers, Ben and Billy Joe, are the rustlers. When the posse
quits him, he takes the rustlers to Fort Grant alone after saving them from
being hanged. After they claim that only Miller was responsible for the
killings, he releases Ben and Billy Joe from their shackles. Cooper is attacked
by Miller when he releases his hands, but Cooper manages to take him down and
leads the other two soldiers inside Fort Grant.
Cooper defended the youths, but Fenton condemns the three cattle
rustlers to death by hanging. If rustlers go unpunished, according to Fenton,
the people would turn to lynching, endangering Oklahoma's statehood
aspirations. Later, Calhoun makes his way to Fort Grant and proposes to use the
money that Captain Wilson and the other lynchers have stolen to reimburse
Cooper for his stolen livestock. Cooper makes it plain that he still plans to
arrest them while they are still alive. Blackfoot and Maddow depart once the
bribe is turned down, but Tommy and Loomis stick with Wilson and agree to
assist him in killing Cooper.
Cooper is severely injured when the lynchers attack him in a
brothel during a public hanging for Miller, the brothers, and three other men.
Cooper pulls through and is gradually restored to health by a widow named
Rachel Warren. Rachel admits that she is looking for the bandits who murdered her
husband and sexually assaulted her. Cooper and her start dating, and he warns
her that she might never track out her abusers. Cooper tries to quit, but Judge
Fenton tells him where Wilson's property is so that he may find Wilson, Tommy,
and Loomis.
Cooper approaches the ranch home, and the three guys attempt to
surprise him. Cooper pulls through, kills Loomis with a knife, and shoots
Tommy. Wilson hangs himself before he can be apprehended, despite his best
efforts.
After arriving back at Fort Grant, Cooper surrenders his
marshal's star and requests Fenton to grant Jenkins, who is both repentant and
very sick, a pardon. The virtues of territorial justice are disputed by the two
men. Fenton informs Cooper that if he disagrees with him, the greatest thing he
can do is help Oklahoma become a state by continuing to serve as a U.S.
marshal. Fenton maintains that he is doing the best he can while bemoaning the
reality that his is the only court in the territory with few options for
plaintiffs. Jenkins' release is in exchange for Cooper giving up his star. Then
Fenton hands fresh warrants for Blackfoot and Maddow to Cooper, saying,
"The law still wants 'em."
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