Hang 'Em High...

Is the movie quoted by Alaska State Representative and ardent Republican, Jay Ramras.
As reported in the Anchorage Daily News, death penalty fan Jay Ramras was fittingly (yet unknowingly) ironical in his statement: "I'm like Clint Eastwood on this issue, 'hang 'em high.'"

It appears that Ramras and like-minded Republican legislators are attempting to bring the death penalty, gone since 1957, back to Alaska.

Notice the perverse brio of Ramras'boast (one wonders if he's also inclined to quote Groucho Marx in DUCK SOUP: "Line them up against the wall and 'pop goes the weasel!'"").

However, Rep. Ramras is evidently knowledgeable about neither Eastwood nor the western film genre. In the 1968 movie, the words "hang 'em high" were spoken not by the character played by Eastwood, but by "Hanging Judge Fenton," played by the recently departed Pat Hingle.

So where’s the irony? Ramras and other death penalty advocates should note that the man hung in the film was played by Clint Eastwood, condemned by an overzealous justice system for a crime he did not commit.