YMMV / Hang 'Em High

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • When Calhoun appears as the Mouth of Sauron for Captain Wilson, he describes having to kill Matt Stone when he tried to escape. Did killing his friend drive Calhoun to assist the other members of the lynch mob in bribing Cooper, or did he remain loyal to them the whole time and fake Stone's death?
  • Cooper's desire to quit at the end casts doubt about whether he really intends to pursue the last two members of the group that lynched him even after agreeing to remain a marshal.
  • When Miller looks uncomfortable as he watches Jed hang, is this a Pet the Dog moment, or is Miller contemplating how that might be his fate one day?
• Jerkass Woobie: The vigilantes, save for Miller (who is secretly an outlaw himself). They hanged an innocent man without giving him a chance to prove his case. Still, they are previously law-abiding men with roots in the community who had logical reasons to believe he'd murdered two of their neighbors and that the law was spread too thin to punish him. Five of the nine (Jenkins, Tommy, Matt Stone, Charlie Blackfoot, and Maddow) feel remorse for nearly killing an innocent man. They find themselves being hunted down by him, forcing them to choose between becoming outright outlaws by making another attempt on Cooper's life or losing their livelihoods by submitting to arrest or fleeing the territory.
• One-Scene Wonder
  • The cigar-chewing prisoner who tells the hangman to Get It Over With.
  • Dennis Hopper as the Prophet, a crazed prisoner who Marshall Bliss shoots during an escape attempt.
  • Charlie Blackfoot appears in two scenes, but he has no dialogue during the lynching and makes a strong impression with his dignified decision to flee from Jed rather than try to kill him.