Thoughts on 1968 movie HANG 'EM HIGH

Watched the Clint Eastwood Western Hang ’Em High (1968) last night – only the second time I’ve seen it. The first time, some decades back, I was sorely disappointed; I think I was expecting something more like the Dollar films, or High Plains Drifter, while this offering is more traditional (although I’ve seen it described as revisionist, which I’d dispute). I thought I’d be fair and give it another go.

It’s not as bad as I remember it – but it’s a long way from good. With an almost 2 hour (sometimes too leisurely) running time it could benefit with at least half an hour snipped off. The mass hanging scene, especially, feels interminable. I appreciate the director wanting to convey some of the inappropriate carnival atmosphere such an event would have generated, but it could have been conveyed just as well – or maybe better – with the judicious application of scissors. The story line meanders too, and feels unfocused.

There’s a parade of familiar and famous faces – such as Dennis Hopper, Alan Hale Jr., Bruce Dern, James MacArthur and Ben Johnson – but too often they’re little more than extended cameos or filler material; their characters flitting across the screen in the service of Eastwood’s, then discarded as though the writer/director had grown bored with them. All Hopper is given to do is escape from a holding cell and get shot down in the street for his trouble – not exactly stretching his talents. And Johnson’s Marshal Bliss – after cutting down Eastwood's hanged but still living Jed Cooper and delivering him to Pat Hingle’s Judge Fenton – is written off in a couple of lines of dialogue (killed in a gun down, off-screen). Alan Hale Jr. fares little better. And the inevitable love interest, in the shape of Inger Stevens, feels just as incidental, her own tragedy denied any type of closure.

The film was, of course, an attempt to cash in on Eastwood’s rising star and, since he’d come to fame in an Italian Western trilogy, what better than to cast him in an American Western. At the time, Variety described it as “a poor American-made imitation of a poor Italian-made imitation of an American-made Western.” Which is a bit harsh (many Americans felt the Italian cinema was trampling all over a beloved art form and only the US should be allowed to make Westerns), but close to the truth. For a while Hollywood, recognising the box office appeal of so-called Spaghetti Westerns, tried to copy their style, with little success. It occurred to me that the film has a slightly unfinished feel to it, as though rushed out to capitalise on Eastwood’s name (after all, they probably weren’t to know he’d still be a major earner almost half a century later: movies and their audiences are fickle things). Judicious editing and overall tightening would make a better film – although still not a great one. Those were still in the future.

Pulp Heroes: Marion Pitman

Marion Pitman contributed the Western "Meeting at the Silver Dollar" for THE ALCHEMY PRESS BOOK OF PULP HEROES 2. Here she slaps leather and trades shot for shot in a short interview.

Would you like to briefly introduce yourself: what inspired your writing and when you began, and – if possible – of all of your published work could you tell me which your favourites are (and why)?

 

I’ve been telling myself stories ever since I can remember, and writing since I learned to write. I just have a need to tell stories. I think John Ford, asked which was his favourite of his films, said, “The next one.” I perhaps have a fondness for “The Seal Songs”, which I think was my first sale, and so far the most successful! I think it works well, and is well-constructed.

 

 

Do you have a favourite genre, or sub-genre? What exactly is it that attracts you?

 

I like all genres, and non-genre – it’s all stories, it’s all good. Anything with a sense of the extra dimension to the universe, the spiritual or whatever you like to call it, meaning and significance.

 

 

Some say Pulp is a genre, others a style; which side do you come down on?

 

Eesh, there’s a question. I think style. The subject matter can be anything, so I wouldn’t say it’s a genre. Mind you I’m very dubious about the whole genre thing anyway – as I said, it’s all stories, or should be. Genre is a marketing construct J. When I was a kid I read everything, I never thought about what genre it was.

 

 

What was the inspiration for “Meeting at the Silver Dollar”?

 

Well, the first thing was thinking, OK, what sort of thing is the editor looking for here? And I read the first book and decided that it was as much the concept of heroes as the pulp aspect. Then, I’ve been going through a re-immersion in the Western, which I adored as a kid, partly due to reading Harry Carey Jr’s memoirs about working with John Ford, COMPANY OF HEROES. Then I treated myself to a DVD of a rather bad movie called JOURNEY TO SHILOH, made from a rather good book by Will Henry. And then I thought for a bit, and various Western tropes and odd lines from movies came together and I wrote this story. Oh, there’s probably echoes of THE SHOOTIST as well.

 

 

Do you have a particular favourite author, or authors? What is it about their work which appeals to you?

 

Neil Gaiman’s high on my list, as he is on a lot of people’s. He writes about people you can relate to, and his world is rich and many-layered. Also he writes superbly and always with humour.

 

Other authors I read and re-read are Diana Wynne Jones, GK Chesterton, Dorothy L Sayers, Sarah Caudwell – all for much the same reasons: good writing, involving characters, a meaningful universe. And I still like CS Lewis, despite being aware of his faults.

 

 

Outside writing, what else occupies your time (assuming you have any free time left)?

 

Trying to earn a living, which involves selling second-hand books; watching cricket and rugby; interacting with friends (very important); travelling as much as I can afford. Reading, naturally. Trying to sing.

 

 

Is there any particular style of music – or musicians – which appeals to you?

 

Folk music has always been my favourite, leaning more towards the traditional. Also early music – 17^th century and earlier. I also like classical, jazz, and some (by no means all!) rock music. Musicians – probably too many to mention.

 

 

What are you currently working on?

 

Couple of short stories, in the weird/fantasy/supernatural field, and a novel that I don’t know how to classify, which takes place partly in contemporary England and partly in another dimension, where one of the characters is mad, one’s been dead for years, and it kind of goes on like that. It’s good.

Agents of SHEESH (with apologies)

 

I’ve been a fan of American comic-book superheroes for decades; in fact one of my earliest memories is of going on holiday, on a coach (we didn’t have a car at the time) reading a Green Lantern comic – over and over, as only young children can. I discovered Marvel comics several years later and became an instant convert to the garish, OTT universe its characters inhabited (at the time DC was definitely in the doldrums – despite having the lion’s share of the market – with repetitive and frequently boring storylines). These days I don’t hold a torch for either company – preferring individual characters (such as the Batman) or artists (like Howard Chaykin) over universes which are becoming mind-numbingly over-complex. When they’re not getting the far too frequent reinvention and clear-out treatment. But when movie technology finally caught up with the visual insanity of the comic-book worlds, I for one was delighted.

 

I think it’s fair to say that, in the movies anyway, Marvel is doing slightly better, with the separate X-Men, Spider-Man and Iron Man/Thor/Captain America franchises. The Batman and Superman films (all of the sequels and re-boots) have had their successes – but Green Lantern was, I’m sad to say, a disappointment (doubly so for me for, as a youngster, the Gil Kane illustrated Green Lantern and Carmine Infantino’s Flash were my favourite characters). Talk of a Justice League movie remains just that – talk – whilst Avengers Assemble has not only spawned a cartoon version, but has been spun out into the Joss Whedon produced Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD. Which is where everything gets flipped.

 

 

Over the past couple of decades there have been various attempts to get superheroes on TV. I won’t mention the Dr Strange and Captain America TV movies, both of which suffered from tiny budgets; nor do I intend to cover The Hulk or Wonder Woman (other than to say the first was simply The Fugitive all over again, and the second a camp throwback to the mid-60s Batman show). In the wake of the X-Men films there was a dire series named Mutant X which somehow managed to survive three seasons; whilst the DCU came up with Birds of Prey (based on the comic of the same name) which was cancelled before all of the first season was aired (don’t ask me why: it was far from perfect, but still superior to Mutant X) Some years earlier there had been a Flash TV series which only lasted one season even though it was quite fun and – unlike Hulk and Wonder Woman – actually had a few super villains (such as Mark Hamill’s Trickster). And of course Supes was represented by both The New Adventures of Superman (aka Lois and Clark) and Smallville, both of which had long runs and – in the case of Smallville anyway – did a good job of presenting a version of the DCU to a largely unfamiliar audience. Plus there were all the cartoon series: Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, Justice League, X-Men and the Avengers.

 

 

Notice something: with the exception of the animated series, nearly all of these shows are based on DC characters.

 

Which brings us up to the present day: the DCU represented by Arrow; Marvel by Agents of SHIELD. And what a difference. Whilst Marvel certainly has got into its stride with movies, they’re still lagging on TV.

 

Based on the Green Arrow comic book, Arrow seems to be more a spiritual twin to Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy: shadowy, angst-filled – there’s even a budding Batman/James Gordon style relationship building in the second series between Arrow and the demoted policeman Quentin Lance. Although aiming less for the spandex look, there’s still an impressive roster of characters from the DCU: Deathstroke, Deadshot, Roy Harper (Oliver Queen’s younger sister, Thea, already has the nickname Speedy – so it’ll be intriguing to see where that goes); Black Canary has become an established part of season two, with the promise of Barry Allen/the Flash later. Although it’s occasionally a little too po-faced the series is confident, and clearly knows where it’s going.

 

 

Agents of SHIELD, on the other hand, is so far suffering from what I can only see as a failure of nerve. Growing out of the crazy Marvel universe (in many ways a direct sequel to Avengers Assemble), with Joss Whedon at the helm I had expected so much more. SHIELD was Marvel’s answer to James Bond and The Man from UNCLE, and the comics were brash and OTT: operatives typically dressed in form-fitting one-piece suits, with shoulder holsters that held something far more exotic than a Glock automatic. They even have a flying aircraft carrier. So why, when AoS finally hit our screens is it so much like any number of other cops-with-fancy-technology shows? To be blunt, the hardware on display in CSI:NY was more fantastic than most of what Agent Coulson and his band of cyphers have so far encountered. It doesn’t matter how many times they name-check Captain America, this doesn’t feel like the same universe in which New York was invaded by a gang of other-dimensional creatures, master-minded by a Norse god, and involving a death-worshipping alien. It’s just too ordinary. Audiences in both the US and UK must feel the same, as viewing figures in both countries drop weekly. Unless things change, I don’t see AoS being picked up for a second season.

 

 

But maybe I’m being overly pessimistic. Recently I’ve started rewatching the first season of Babylon 5 – and I’m surprised at just how bad it is, with no sign of the heights it would attain in later years (ignoring the final series, which should never have been made). So perhaps AoS will make it yet; perhaps they’re still establishing the characters, and we may expect some real Marvel comic-book action. I hope so.

Bring back Hydra I say, introduce AIM (both have been name-checked either in the series or the films) – and let’s throw the automatic pistols away in favour of shoulder-holstered blasters, before it’s too late.