Hang 'Em High (4K UHD Review)
Director
Ted PostRelease Date(s)
1968 (June 23, 2026)Studio(s)
The Malpaso Company/United Artists (Kino Lorber Studio Classics)- Film/Program Grade: B
- Video Grade: B
- Audio Grade: C+
- Extras Grade: B
Review
An ex-lawman is brought to undeserving vigilante justice—left hanging for dead before being saved and retrieved for trial. Once cleared of the charges, he’s given a badge and told to go out and retrieve wanted criminals, including those who attempted to hang him. So begins Hang ’Em High, arguably one of Clint Eastwood’s most enduring Westerns post the Dollars films.
Hang ’Em High was also the first production chosen for Eastwood’s newly-formed Malpaso Company and was directed by Ted Post, whom Eastwood brought in after having worked with him on the Rawhide TV series. Due to its disjointed nature, the film’s structure suggests that it could have been, at one time, in the works as an anthology Western TV series before being developed into a feature film. Characters slip in and out of the story while events that occur later in the film don’t fully line up with those that take place early on, leading to some out of place moments in the story. Add to that some rather fast cutting and TV-worthy dialogue and it’s clear that it may have been originally planned for the small screen.
The film also manages to merge the new with the old, mixing together the relatively new and profitable Italian Western genre with more traditional American Western tropes and traits. However, some of those clichés were subsequently turned on their head. In fact, only one script revision was purportedly made at the insistence of Eastwood himself who claimed it to be far too formulaic, and since he called the shots (perhaps even ghost-directing to some degree), he managed to get his way—despite the change not entirely making sense on a character level.
The cast is also littered with a number of familiar faces, a facet that would be a major focal point for many Westerns made in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Some of these names include Inger Stevens, Ed Begley, Pat Hingle, Ben Johnson, Charles McGraw, Bruce Dern, Alan Hale Jr., Dennis Hopper, and L.Q. Jones, among others. Some are only given a handful of lines, if any, but their presence surely enriches the cast, which wasn’t entirely out of the norm at the time.
Hang ’Em High was a big financial success for United Artists upon release, even receiving some positive critical appraisal. It also gave Clint Eastwood the chance to step outside of Sergio Leone’s shadow. Although he had put in plenty of time as a TV actor, he wasn’t quite the star that he would eventually become. Not only would he appear in more Westerns, but he would also carve out his own creative path in years to come with the Dirty Harry series, High Plains Drifter, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Mystic River, The Bridges of Madison County, and what many consider to be the greatest Western ever made, Unforgiven.
Cinematographers Richard Kline and Leonard South shot Hang ’Em High on 35mm film with spherical lenses. The results were finished photochemically and framed theatrically at the aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Kino Lorber Studio Classics debuts the film on Ultra HD with a 4K scan of the original camera negative, which has been graded for High Dynamic Range in HDR10 and Dolby Vision, and encoded to a triple-layered BD-100 disc. This has always been an imperfect looking-film since it relies a lot on opticals, meaning that there’s some duped footage, as well as chunky grain during artificially-zoomed moments. There are also appears to be scenes in which sections of the camera negative were not available, for whatever reasons, so the restoration resorts to a previous master or duped footage. That all said, this is still the best the film has looked on home video, with some caveats. The bitrate sits mostly between 70 and 80Mbps with mild scratches and fairly heavy grain that tends to be a little noisy at times. The HDR grades boost detail in the color, which is a bit uneven, and improve the contrast with deep blacks and nice shadow detail. The image is mostly stable and definitely an improvement over previous releases, though it could use some further restorative efforts.
Audio is presented in English 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio with optional subtitles in English SDH. Unfortunately, the original mono is not included and the 2.0 track is a stereo fold-down of the 5.1. Both tracks are mono-sourced, but offer much more spread for Dominic Frontiere’s score. The tracks are a bit unbalanced, though dialogue is mostly discernible and sound effects have decent impact. Neither track really tops the other since they’re essentially identical outside of the amount of speakers they utilize. The absence of the original mono is a real misfire.
The Kino Lorber Studio Classics 2-Disc 4K Ultra HD release of Hang ’Em High sits in a black Amaray case alongside a 1080p Blu-ray and a double-sided insert featuring a version of the Spanish theatrical poster artwork on the front (as well as the slipcover), and the Italian theatrical poster artwork on the reverse. The following extras are included on each disc:
DISC ONE (UHD):
- Audio Commentary by Steve Mitchell
- Audio Commentary by Lem Dobbs and Nick Redman
DISC TWO (BD):
- Audio Commentary by Steve Mitchell
- Audio Commentary by Lem Dobbs and Nick Redman
- TV Spots (HD – 2 in all – :50)
- Radio Spot (HD – 1:04)
- Trailers:
- Hang ’Em High (HD – 2:32)
- A Fistful of Dollars (HD – 2:27)
- For a Few Dollars More (HD – 2:30)
- The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (HD – 3:23)
- Coogan’s Bluff (HD – 2:12)
- Paint Your Wagon (SD – 1:06)
- Two Mules for Sister Sara (HD – 2:36)
- The Beguiled (HD – 2:43)
- Joe Kidd (HD – 2:23)
- High Plains Drifter (HD – 2:31)
New to this release is an audio commentary with filmmaker and film historian Steve Mitchell, who’s always a pleasure to listen to. He’s more off the cuff and conversational than most commentators, but he brings the goods, offering plenty of background and stories on the production, including testimonials from those involved. He also reads some critical reviews from the time, many of which were less than favorable, and highlights many moments throughout the film. Recorded in 2018 is the next commentary with film historians Lem Dobbs and Nick Redman, which covers a lot more ground on the other cast and crew, making both tracks essential in order to gain the full scope of the production. Last are two TV spots, a radio spot, and the trailer for the film, as well as trailers for other Clint Eastwood-related films released by Kino Lorber.
Not carried over from the Shout Factory! Blu-ray release is an audio commentary with filmmaker, film historian, and former Bits contributor Jim Hemphill. It’s also worth noting that the 2024 French Region B Blu-ray release by Sidonis Calysta contains the 2007 documentary Clint Eastwood: A Life in Film, as well as featurettes with author and filmmaker Jean-François Giré, and producer and film programmer Olivier Père.
This release of Hang ’Em High will no doubt be problematic to many viewers for the uneven video and audio qualities, even if it does improve upon previous releases with the additional extras, particularly the Steve Mitchell commentary and promotional materials. If you don’t already own this film on Blu-ray, this UHD is definitely worth picking up, but owners of those previous releases might think twice, or at the very least give it a test run and judge for themselves.
- Tim Salmons
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