Moral of the story is:
Hang em high.
"Who has got the time, I'm all ready busy doing nothing"
No, the moral of the story is:
That sometimes those who undergo the capital punishment... are INNOCENT!
Also, Ha-ha, made you LK!
I'm not sure this is meant to have a moral.
Basically it's a story about how the harshness of life twists poople who were once OK into crazed little knots. It's kind of hard to walk away from that with a useful life's lesson.
Life sometimes sucks: frontier life sucked far worse and far more often.
-is that a moral?
It's a Western: people in dusty clothes rode horses, rustled cattle, drank in saloons and were shot raped and hanged.
-Sounds like it did its job.
I caught HANG 'EM HIGH on AMC this morning, thoroughly enjoyed it and came away thinking that among the morals of the story was that taming the West called for measures we now consider callous and extreme (hanging the young cattle rustlers), but that was the price of bringing order to a disordered world. Pat Hingle, so wonderful as the "hanging judge," explains that at a couple points in the picture.
There was also something implied about accepting responsibility. At the end of the film, Eastwood, his thirst for vengeance slaked, wants to live a normal life with Inger Stevens, but Hingle persuades him into taking back the badge and joining him in bring law and order to the territory.
Finally, I think there's a message of forgiveness. One of my favorite scenes is when Eastwood goes to that horrible dungeon prison and visits Bob Steele. Eastwood lets him know he's forgiven and freed from any guilt for being in the hanging party. Steele appreciates that absolution. I wondered if Eastwood wasn't provoked to do that by hearing Inger Stevens tell of how her life is dedicated to seeking vengeance. That is no life.
A good and thought-provoking Western film.