Hang it higher

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Movie
German title Hang it higher
Original title Hang 'em high
Hang em high de.svg
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1968
length 114 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Ted Post
script Leonard Freeman
Mel Goldberg
production Leonard Freeman
Irving L. Leonard
Robert Stambler
music Dominic Frontiere
camera Richard H. Kline
Leonard J. South
cut Gene Fowler Junior
occupation

Hang 'Em High is a Western by Ted Post from 1968 with Clint Eastwood in the title role. The film started in German cinemas on December 18, 1968.

action

Oklahoma in 1889. Former sheriff Jedediah (Jed) Cooper bought cattle from a small ranch and moves them through the prairie. Suddenly nine men appear with a leader named "Captain Wilson" and want to see Cooper's contract of sale for the cattle. The contract is only signed with a cross, but the men know that the rancher can write and has always signed his name. Cooper's description of the rancher doesn't fit either. Since one of the men was just at the ranch and found the rancher and his wife shot dead, the men believe that Cooper murdered the couple and stole the cattle. Instead of leaving the matter to the judiciary , they hang him on the nearest tree and disappear.

Shortly thereafter, Marshal Dave Bliss appears, who is currently on a prisoner transport. He rescues Cooper from his predicament, but arrests him and takes him before Judge Adam Fenton, who is said to have preferred to see every criminal hanging on the gallows. Fortunately, the murderer of the rancher couple has already been caught and the judge and Cooper watch his execution from the window. The killer made Cooper believe he was the rancher and sold him the cattle. Cooper, now at liberty, desperately wants to bring the nine men who hanged him to justice. The judge, informed that Cooper was the sheriff of St. Louis, offers him the job of marshal. Cooper accepts and wears a Marshal star from now on. As a well-paid representative of the law, he can hunt the nine men with it.

When Cooper has to pick up a prisoner from a sheriff's, he runs into one of the nine men. When he fights against the arrest with his gun, Cooper shoots him in self-defense. In the meantime, one of the nine men has volunteered at the judge and given the names of the others. He was also against hanging Cooper. Cooper is now looking for the place where they are supposed to be with the arrest warrants for the remaining seven men. He arrests one of them, the blacksmith Stone, and has him locked up at the local sheriff.

Reluctantly, the sheriff accompanies Cooper in search of the remaining men when a farmer asks them for help on the way. The farmer's cattle were stolen and his father and brother were murdered. Because of back pain, the sheriff refuses to come along, and Cooper sets out with the farmer and his men in search of the three murderers, who are ultimately tracked down. One of the three, Miller, is another of the nine men. The other two, two very young brothers, whom Miller apparently persuaded to act, assert that they were involved in the cattle theft, but not in the murder.

The farmer and his people want to hang the three immediately. Cooper prevents the lynching and insists that they be brought to justice. Since nobody wants to accompany him, he takes the risk of taking the three men to prison alone. Miller is able to break free of his bonds during a rest and tries to overpower Cooper. The two unbound brothers watch the duel without intervening or using the situation to flee. Cooper overpowers Miller and ties him to the horse. After a long ride, Cooper collapses exhausted shortly in front of the courthouse, falls from his horse and directly into the arms of the judge, who has already been informed by telegram and who has met Cooper on the street. The judge takes Cooper to the local brothel, where the ladies make sure he gets back on his feet. The conviction of the three perpetrators gets around as a heroic deed.

The unwilling sheriff appears at Cooper and tells him that he had to shoot the imprisoned blacksmith Stone. He had let him out of the cell during the day so that he could go about his work in the forge, and then had to go see him when he had not voluntarily returned to the cell one evening. He had to shoot at him to prevent an attempt to escape and hit him fatally. In addition, the sheriff gives Cooper the 800 dollars he received from Captain Wilson, the sum that Cooper paid for the cattle. The captain wanted to ensure that Cooper no longer hunted him and his men. Cooper accepts the money, but says that he is only even financially with the men. The sheriff rides back and tells Captain Wilson, who sets off with two of his men to kill Cooper. The rest of his people fled in fear of Cooper.

The three men Cooper saved from lynching are on trial. Cooper stands up as a witness for the two brothers, believing that they were only involved in the cattle theft. The judge ignores his comments, accuses him of disregard of the court, buzzes him with a fine of 30 dollars and threatens to detain him for 30 days if he does not hold back with his statements. Finally, all three are sentenced to death and, along with three other convicts, are hanged in front of a large number of onlookers. Cooper, who does not want to see the spectacle, meanwhile retires to the brothel with one of the ladies. He doubts whether the judge's approach can still be seen as fair.

In the brothel, Cooper is attacked and shot by Captain Wilson and his helpers. Rachel Warren, a widow, is giving Cooper back to health. During a field trip into the countryside, she reveals to Cooper why she looks at every new prisoner. She and her husband were attacked by two men who killed her husband and raped her. If the men were caught one day, she would watch their execution.

Cooper finds Captain Wilson and his remaining helpers. He kills them in a fight, whereupon Wilson hangs up in fear. Cooper wants to quit his job as a marshal with the judge, but after the apt accusation that he used the marshal star for personal revenge and the pardon of the one now old and sick man who has volunteered, Cooper takes the star back on. During the debate, the judge admits that he can sometimes be overwhelmed and make mistakes; But this would be due to the lack of state institutions and courts of appeal in the state that was just emerging. Cooper attaches the marshal star to his chest again and rides towards his next task.

Others

Reviews

  • Phil Hardy noted that while the film was staged on paper by Post, it was actually "Eastwood's triumphant return to Hollywood (...) and the beginning of his career as a director". An innovation compared to the Leone Westerns is the strong role of the film heroine. Your difficult relationship with Eastwood's character is "the most convincing aspect of the film."

“A vengeful ex-sheriff who was ambushed by a gang and almost lynched is given the order by the chief judge to hand the bandits over to the court. Excitingly staged, well-played Western about the conflict between right and wrong, revenge and forgiveness in a country that is not yet civilized. "

- Lexicon of International Films

“Ted Post went on the trail of the Spaghetti Western , but he attached greater importance to the presentation of American law and its application. Clint Eastwood utters some of his cynical slogans here too. "

- Prism Online

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for hangs him higher . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , November 2004 (PDF; test number: 39 760 V / DVD).
  2. ^ Phil Hardy: The Encyclopedia of Western Movies. Woodbury Press Minneapolis 1984. ISBN 0-8300-0405-X . P. 303
  3. ↑ Hang it higher. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used