Decent Clint western, though one of his lesser ones

Rating: Null/10 (14 December 2018)

Director Ted Post's "Hang 'em High" qualifies as Clint Eastwood's least appealing western. This release served as the first Eastwood epic after Sergio Leone's "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." Composer Dominic Frontiere's powerful orchestral score ranks as its best asset and enhances the formulaic Leonard Freeman & Mel Goldberg screenplay about western justice, circa 1889. Frontiere composed the scores for television shows such as "The Invaders" and "The Rat Patrol." His score for the Lee Van Cleef western "Barquero" sounds like variations on his "Hang 'em High" theme. Mind you, Eastwood looks cool as a glacier in his dark blue outfit and flat-brimmed hat, and he kills bad guys who deserve to die without a qualm. Nevertheless, "Hang 'em High" resembles a tautly made television drama. The surroundings, even the sandy desert scenes, lack the majestic sprawl of his inspired Italian westerns and his later sagebrushers such as "The Outlaw Josey Wales," "The Pale Rider," and "Unforgiven.