MovieChat Forums > Hang 'Em High (1968) Discussion > First five minutes - classic

First five minutes - classic

posted 16 years ago by rac701
7 replies | jump to latest

The first five minutes of this film, the pre-title sequence, as it were, is absolutely great, and ranks right up there with some of the classic western film scenes of all time.

[–] narnia4 16 years ago

Yeah, the first five minutes were really promising... after that the film kind of sucked, unfortunately.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] Mississippi20 15 years ago

You know who would have been perfect in this part...... John Wayne he's done the cattle baron part in Red River, McClintok, Big Jake, he could have done it with his eyes closed. Overly sure of himself, somewhat sanctimonius, can you picture the build up to the setting of accounts between Eastwood & Wayne, it would have been an instant classic.

You think the possibility of accepting this role would've entered Wayne's mind even for a second? What a laugh.

The seemingly tacked on love story with "ice queen" Inger Stevens didn't help either.

She plays prominently in the story and its theme, so way to pay attention.

I'm not saying the picnic scene and the music that accompanies isn't exactly a little cliched........but she's definitely not a "tacked" on character.

All in all, Hang 'em High was Eastwood's first American movie and it was a cheap production and it shows. But all in all, it's still a pretty good western.

[–] sockscats 16 years ago

Yeah it starts great but it is not original. Taken almost exactly from the oxbow incident. Almost identical!

In the oxbow incident 3 men are running cattle purchased from who they thought was the rancher and rightful owner. They didn't know the owner was murdered and they were buying the cattle from the murderer.

Like in oxbow he is asked to describe the man that sold him the cattle and his description was off. Like in oxbow he asks to go back to the man who sold him the cattle to prove he didn't steal not knowing about the murder.

Even the river is from the oxbow incident since the men were grabbed right after crossing a river and hung on a tree right by a river.

In both this movie and oxbow there are proof of sale papers that are not typical.

[–] TheBeardedWonder 15 years ago

No way, a movie used a plot from another movie? Holy crap, someone, alert the presses!

But seriously, this has been happening since the camera was invented. Just to dislike a movie because it has a similar plot is silly. As long they do it well, who cares if it's been done before?

The only gripe you seem to have with this movie is that it's somewhat of a remake... you don't actually say why you dislike the movie because of what happens in it (ie directing/acting/etc...). That's like saying "Dark Knight sucked because there are already batman movies...see how silly that is?

We thought this was a great intro to western movies, back when they used to develop characters through actions and scenes rather than dialogue... but yes the first 5 minutes are the most well done part of the movie...

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[–] joekiddlouischama 10 years ago

Yeah it starts great but it is not original. Taken almost exactly from the oxbow incident. Almost identical!

But apparently killing off the star before the movie really starts is indeed original.

[–] zzapper-2 15 years ago

Yes marvelous, stunning, taking you right back to those times. Somebody says the rest of the movie doesn't reach the same levels, but we must be grateful for 5 perfect minutes as most movies don't have even 5 worthwhile seconds.