A Gritty Clint Eastwood Western Inspired A Beloved My Chemical Romance Song

By the time they announced their first break-up in 2013, New Jersey rockers My Chemical Romance had established themselves as one of the biggest and most influential emo bands on the planet. Indeed, if you're not into the whole emo thing, it's probably their name that springs to mind if the genre ever comes up. For a group who positioned themselves as outsiders, they made a pretty big impact on the mainstream, too; the anthemic "Welcome to the Black Parade" reached Number 2 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and topped the charts in the U.K. and New Zealand. With their gothic stylings and dark topics including cancer and suicide, My Chemical Romance came to define the gloomy look and attitude of emo culture for a new generation, even though the guys themselves rejected the "emo" label. In short, they didn't seem like the kind of people who would sit around watching old Clint Eastwood movies, but one gritty western from 1968 inspired one of their most beloved tracks.

"Hang 'Em High" takes its title from Ted Post's movie of the same name and it can be found on My Chemical Romance's second studio album, "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge." The song opens with whistling that instantly recalls composer Alessandro Alessandroni's unforgettable work with Ennio Morricone for Sergio Leone's 1960s trio of spaghetti westerns, "A Fistful of Dollars," "For a Few Dollars More," and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." It may be splitting hairs to point out that neither the whistler, composer, or director were involved in "Hang 'Em High," as the film was Eastwood's first American western after shooting to stardom in the "Dollars Trilogy." Nevertheless, evoking Morricone is neat shorthand for the western style that M.C.R. are going for here, and a galloping rhythm accompanies their usual driving guitars and angsty pop-punk vocals. The theme continues with lyrics like "riding into the sunset," "grab your six-gun from your back," and the refrain of "so get your gun and meet me by the door." 

The Man With No Name, or indeed Jed Cooper (Eastwood's character in "Hang 'Em High") would be proud. But is the movie that lends the song its title worth checking out?

We're down old Oklahoma way where we meet Jed Cooper (Clint Eastwood), a former lawman now making a living as a regular cowboy. He is rounded up and lynched on the spot by a posse for the murder of a local cattle rancher and his wife, but luckily marshal David Bliss (Ben Johnson) is on hand to cut him down. Bliss hauls Cooper off to town to see Judge Adam Fenton (Pat Hingle), facing the possibility of swinging a second time if he is found guilty of the crime. Due process wins out and the judge frees Cooper, but he warns that he will hang if he seeks revenge outside of the law. To compensate, Fenton offers Cooper a job as a federal marshal and demands that he brings the lynch mob in alive for trial.

After the roaring success of the "Dollars Trilogy," "Hang 'Em High" gave Eastwood the chance to get back in the saddle after spending a year dubbing the Man With No Name for English-speaking audiences. It also provided Eastwood a star vehicle to build upon his international fame without sharing the limelight with other big names. In that respect, it was a wise choice; he chose it over "Mackenna's Gold" (an all-but-forgotten western starring Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif, and Telly Savalas) and it helped cement his reputation as Hollywood's hottest new tough guy.

As a film, however, "Hang 'Em High" is a pretty average. Director Ted Post self-consciously tries to emulate Sergio Leone's visual flair with big zooms and mega-closeups, but he lacks the Italian's operatic sense of drama and suspense. Composer Dominic Frontiere was given the unenviable task of producing an Ennio Morricone-style score in just eight days, and he got the basic beats right without any of the maestro's playfulness or lyricism. Eastwood gets capable support from Johnson, Hingle, and Ed Begley, but they can't hold a candle to the extraordinary faces that Leone assembled for his spaghetti westerns. Inevitably, "Hang 'Em High" draws far too many comparisons to a trilogy of far superior films, and feels like a pale imitation as a result. It's a solid enough revenge thriller and it is always satisfying watching Eastwood gun down bad guys, but don't expect anything close to a fourth "Dollars" movie.

Clint Eastwood's "Man With No Name" persona is virtually synonymous with Ennio Morricone's incredible scores for the "Dollars Trilogy." The maestro is one of the best film composers of all time and his body of work was prodigious; Morricone created over 500 film and TV scores during his lengthy career. His music played such a key role in establishing the tone of Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns that it's impossible to imagine them without his iconic tunes, and they have become arguably the most sampled pieces of movie music ever.

You can find snippets and homages to Morricone in just about every genre, and his overall discography has been sampled over 600 times on various tracks (via whosampled.com). To give just a few examples, Jay-Z sampled "Ecstasy of Gold" from "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" on "Blueprint 2," as did Coolio ("Change") and Raekwon ("Wu Chant (Outro"). Over in the world of heavy metal, Metallica have opened their live shows with the piece since 1983 and also covered it for a 2007 tribute album dedicated to Morricone. Angus Young of AC/DC has also revealed that the guitar break on their track "Shoot to Thrill" was inspired by the final showdown in the same film.

Away from Morricone, Eastwood has inspired other musicians. Most obviously, "Clint Eastwood" was the debut single from Gorillaz' 2001 self-titled album, and the virtual band paid homage to him again with "Dirty Harry" on their second L.P. "Demon Days." Country artist Toby Keith took the title of his song "Don't Let the Old Man In" directly from a conversation he had with Eastwood at a golf tournament, and the filmmaker liked it so much he included it in "The Mule." 

Rappers French Montana and Max B used an old P.S.A. of Clint warning people about the dangers of crack cocaine as an interlude on their 2009 mixtape "Coke Wave 2," and British band Big Audio Dynamite used samples from Eastwood movies on "Medicine Show." Although Eastwood's voice didn't feature in the original recording of Technotronic's "Pump Up the Jam," someone heard the refrain of "Make My Day" and added the appropriate snippet of dialogue to the Ultimix version. Lastly, while none of the songs were directly influenced by the actor himself, Nitro Records released a compilation of punk tracks called "Go Ahead Punk... Make My Day."