Tonight on TV: Clint Eastwood’s darkest and most nihilistic Western yet

After collaborating with Sergio Leone in the Man With No Name trilogy (One Fist for a Dollar and A Few More Dollars, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), Clint Eastwood achieved some notoriety in Europe.

Preparing to return to the United States, he founded his own production company (the Malpaso Company) and joined forces with United Artists to produce the western Hang them high and short. Clint Eastwood first offered it to Sergio Leone, who turned it down to devote himself to Once Upon a Time in the West. Considering Robert Aldrich and John Sturgess, Clint Eastwood decided to hire Ted Post, a prolific TV series director he had sympathized with while filming Rawhide.

Therefore, under his guidance, the actor lends his qualities to Jed Cooper, a young man responsible for reviving the lynchings of those he has wronged, so that they can be judged in a good and proper manner.

A hanging scene at the beginning of the film shows all its brutality. harsh and violent Hang them high and short It benefits from a strong script and impeccable acting that highlights the difficult establishment of a judicial system in a land without faith and law.

In the skin of a tormented, inflexible hero determined to satisfy his revenge, Clint Eastwood excels, already presenting the beginnings of The Man of the Solitary, but also Inspector Harry’s questions around individual revenge against the law.

When it came out in 1968, Hang them high and short Finally began his career in the United States. Acclaimed by critics, the film was also a success at the box office. In two weeks, it is already making a profit of $1.6 million before finishing with $6.8 million in the US territory.

Hang them high and short By Ted Post with Clint Eastwood, Inger Stevens, Ed Begley…

from the age of 10

Tonight on Arte at 9 o’clock.