Clint Eastwood Western Hang Em High Available to Stream Free on YouTube

More than sixty years after their release, all three movies in Clint Eastwood’s “The Man with No Name Trilogy” remain classics. 1964’s A Fistful of Dollars, 1965’s For a Few Dollars More, and 1966’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly are Italian-made films directed by Sergio Leone and set in the American West. They earned the nickname “Spaghetti Western” and challenged the definition of a Western by introducing more grit and moral ambiguity than American Westerns of earlier decades.

Those features became so successful that they overshadow Clint Eastwood’s very next Western after completing the trilogy. That movie is every bit as good as the Man with No Name films, and it is entirely free to stream on YouTube.

Hang ‘Em High

Hang ‘Em High is a 1968 Western directed by Ted Post, written by Leonard Freeman and Mel Goldberg, and produced by Clint Eastwood himself. The Man with No Name movies made Clint Eastwood a star, so he used that clout to exercise his muscle as a filmmaker. He personally chose Ted Post, whom he worked with on the television show Rawhide (1959), to direct. Clint Eastwood also made script changes to Hang ‘Em High to flesh out his character. Clint Eastwood did not direct a movie himself until a few years later, but Hang ‘Em High stands as a milestone on his path to becoming one of America’s great directors.

The movie is set in the Oklahoma territory in 1889, before Oklahoma became a state. Clint Eastwood plays Jed Cooper, an ex-lawman who came to the Oklahoma territory to find a quiet life as a rancher. That solitude ends when a posse arrives and accuses him of killing another rancher and stealing his cattle. The posse hangs him from a tree, but Jed Cooper survives the lynching.

From there, the story focuses on Jed Cooper seeking revenge. He becomes a lawman once again at the behest of Judge Fenton, played by Pat Hingle. Judge Fenton is a strict judge with a reputation for sending men to their death. When Judge Fenton shows a bloodlust that goes too far for Jed Cooper, the two men clash.

Why Hang ‘Em High is a Clint Eastwood classic

Unlike the mysterious Man with No Name that Clint Eastwood was most associated with at the time, Jed Cooper is more sympathetic and morally complex. Even during his most brutal moments, his actions make sense given what he suffered. Pat Hingle, best known for playing Commissioner Gordon in the Batman movies of the 1980s and 1990s, delivers an equally interesting performance. He is not a soulless magistrate. Judge Fenton tries to put Oklahoma in the best possible position for statehood so residents can live safely, and he genuinely believes his ruthless approach is the correct way to achieve that goal.

Hang ‘Em High explores morality, justice, and right and wrong without relying on simple answers. The movie raises questions without offering clear resolutions, leaving viewers to think about the story long after the credits roll. Both Jed Cooper and Judge Fenton emerge as deeply human characters with their own complexities. The film is also tremendously entertaining and surprisingly violent for its era, featuring multiple hangings.

Although it is not Clint Eastwood’s best-known Western, Hang ‘Em High remains an important project in his career. It proved to audiences that he could play characters far more sympathetic than The Man with No Name. More importantly, it started Clint Eastwood on the path to becoming a thoughtful filmmaker who specialized in small, morally complex movies with rich characters. Hang ‘Em High is free to watch on YouTube right now, making it easy to discover this underrecognized film.

Hang ‘Em High is free to stream on YouTube.

Source: Polygon