This film was the latest in my great western marathon. At the beginning of the film, I thought that it might turn out to be the best. The action started right from the get go, and there was dialog and music. I was ready to tag this movie best western yet. Unfortunately, that theme did not carry throughout.
Most of the middle of the film did not really make a whole lot of sense, and Clint Eastwood did not turn out to be the kind of bad ass that I had gotten used. Granted, he did seem to possess immortality, as he survived both a hanging and several gunshot wounds. Although, aside from the inability to die, this is probably the most realistic warrior I have seen. Also, rather than being a rough drifter, he is a law man making an interesting twist.
The ending of kind of odd as well. For those of you who don’t know, the film is setup to be about how this guy gets revenge against a lynch mob that hung him for a crime he did not commit. Basically, he gets a few of them throughout the middle. And, then gets a few more at the end.
The perplexing part of all this is the fact that he does not get them all. At least in this film he doesn’t. The movie ends with him riding out of town with warrants for the final two men that hung him.
Oh yeah, apparently he is supposed to have fallen in love with some chick as well. Character motivations are a little bit sketchy in this film. But, I guess that she was apparently raped and some how escaped her captures. They meet a few times, and then after Clint gets shot up she decides to nurse him back to health. I am not exactly sure why. But, she is a woman and they tend to be irrational.
I would still recommend the film, but I do not think that I will watch it again. However, if you are only looking for the bad ass style westerns there are plenty of other options available.
Even though it seems as if you’re on more of a classic westerns kick, some of my personal favorites are Tombstone and Open Range. If you haven’t seen those, they are worth checking out. Certainly not comparable to Hang Em High, but they are good in their own way.
I have seen Open Range, I just did not write a post about it. It was a decent film, but not really comparable to the best of the classic westerns. I would say it is very simliar to Unforgiven. I, however, have never seen Tombstone. But, I guess I should at some point.
Also, I would not doubt that both of those films are better thah High ‘Em High, at it was only alright.