Hang 'em High

After surviving a hanging, Marshal Jed Cooper vows to settle the score with the mob that left him dangling. He reclaims his badge and returns to the rough justice of a town that distrusts outsiders. Cooper targets the nine men on his list, moving with calculated restraint as he enforces his own brand of frontier punishment. The pursuit rekindles old tensions and tests Cooper's sense of duty, drawing a line between sheriff and avenger. As locals weigh loyalty and law, Cooper finds himself balancing personal rage with public responsibility. The search becomes a study in how power, fear, and a stubborn resolve shape a lone lawman in a landscape where survival often hinges on hard choices. Along the way, he collides with Rachel Warren, a wary widow whose losses mirror the town's pain and who offers a stubborn counterpoint to his vigilante path.

Directed by Ted Post and released in 1968, Hang Em High draws on a screenplay by Mel Goldberg and Leonard Freeman. It marks Eastwood's shift into a darker Western through a lean, noir influenced approach.

With a budget of 1,800,000 dollars, the film earned about 6,800,000 worldwide, a solid return for a mid range Western. It performed well in the United States and helped establish Eastwood's box office appeal beyond earlier TV fame for many viewers.

Critics praised Hang Em High as a lean revision of the Western that leans into moral gray areas. The tale probes vigilantism and the cost of solitary justice in a tense frontier town, with Eastwood in a restrained, weary mode.

Hang Em High contributed to Eastwood's evolving antihero image and helped steer late 60s Westerns toward grittier questions of law and order. Its practical shootouts and tight scripting set a template that directors later mined for tense confrontations and high stakes.