'Hang ’em High' is entertaining stuff. I personally think the first half is much stronger than the second half, which loses its way a tad and ends up concluding in a perfectly good but not as great way as what I had wanted - based on the impressive opening hour or so. Clint Eastwood, though, is excellent from start-to-finish. I undoubtedly enjoyed his performance, which is great to see follow on from the major highs of the Dollars trilogy. Pat Hingle is also a positive performer, he and Eastwood share one terrific scene in particular.

There was a time when typecasting wasn't considered to be a bad thing. Eastwood does what he does best and for what I like him. It is basically a revenge tale wrapped in a western that does raises some questions about the morale of it all. The pace is slow at times and it drags itself to the points where something really happens. [spoiler] I for one would have completely cut out the part with the girl. It takes the real story pretty much to a standstill. But I guess, like it is true today, a movie needs a romance. [/spoiler] A decent movie, not Eastwoods best, that has some lengths. Maybe more for the fan than the casual viewer.

The archetypal western with the archetypal Western hero this pretty much has every Western cliche going. Eastwood is always watchable and there are some interesting ideas at the core of the film, with Hingle's judge providing the counterpoint to Eastwood's brand of natural justice and some debate about the futility of revenge, but ultimately the film wants to have it cake and eat it as Eastwood seeks out those who wronged him. A very generic Western that can't possibly compete with other much stronger efforts from Eastwood.

A classic in the bunch of Clint Eastwood spaghetti Western classics. You like the man and/or the genre, you must see this one.

This was free on YouTube and popped up in my recommended, because I had watched a couple of other westerns on there. I watched this for two reasons: one, I hadn't seen a Clint Eastwood western outside of the Man with No Name Trilogy. Two, there was a Halo multiplayer map named Hang 'Em High. I knew the map would have nothing to do with this movie, but the coincidence was enough for me to go "alright, sure." I thought this was rather dull, and also had a weird structure. [spoiler]It started very slow, and once the hunt began, I knew there was no way they'd have time to fit in everyone who had been in the initial posse. Especially once they took a detour about the 3 rustlers in the middle of the movie. Sure enough, it ends with some of the people still at large, which is rather unsatisfying. Also, the subplot with Rachel was bizarre. It was relatively obvious what her backstory was going to end up being, but they didn't even tell us what it was until the last 20 minutes! Very strange way to handle that. It was also dumb how the antagonists handled things. They have the gall to try and kill a marshal in the middle of a town in broad daylight, but they don't even bother to check if he was _actually_ dead? Why the hell would you do something so risky but not even make sure it paid off? That's incredibly stupid.[/spoiler] There were some interesting themes at play, such as the almost casual way in which people will flock to a public execution and how barbaric that can seem, and also how the judge being the sole arbiter of law in that area perhaps isn't a great idea. However, it was relatively boring overall. It's fine if you're looking for that classic western flavor, which I was. But it's not something I'd choose to watch again.