The Ox-Bow Incident
by William A. Wellman
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Anthony Quinn, Dana Andrews, Henry Fonda, Mary Beth Hughes, William EytheDirector: William A. Wellman
Brand: Fox
Cinematographer: Arthur C. Miller
Editor: Allen McNeil
Producer: Lamar Trotti
Writer: Lamar Trotti
Writer: Walter Van Tilburg Clark
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 75 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-11-04
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Movie Reviews of The Ox-Bow Incident
Movie Review: Great deterrent for mob mentality thinking...
Summary: 5 Stars
There are a handful of movies every person needs to see in their life. Not because their entertaining, but because they send a strong message that needs to be heard. Henry Fonda, the great actor that he was, is in two of these movies, 12 Angry Men and The Ox-Bow Incident. Both movies deal with something that we seem to lack these days: common sense, good judgment, and paying attention. Of the two movies mentioned The Ox-Bow Incident is easily the best and most through provoking.
The movie centers Henry Fonda's character, Gil Carter, a rough and tumble cow hand who makes his way into town with his partner, Art (Harry Morgan) looking for a good time. Gil Carter is an anti hero for a genre that was 20 years from embracing the anti hero, and we are given a list of reasons to love him and hate him. Carter's unwillingness to confront situations head on gets frustrating towards the end of the film and you can see in Fonda's portrayal of the character that he knows he could of done something more in the end. The story of a lynch mob heading out to hang the supposed responsible parties for a crime isn't the most original story but with this cast of characters and the present moral arguments makes this film original and thought provoking.
The central core of the movie is to make the viewer a silent member of the lynch mob, thirsty for justice. From the initial formation of the mob, the film gives us reasons to support their actions and reasons to doubt them. We are introduced to characters only by local knowledge and their current actions and words. The characters do not stop to give their back story and what we learn from other characters is usually hearsay. The strength of the film is that it makes you think about what your watching and listening too. This film isn't high budgeted or filled with much action. It is heavy in dialogue and atmosphere.
In researching this film, I came across, on more than one occasion, the quote (which I have to paraphrase) "For evil men to triumph, all good men have to do is nothing". Really, this is the crux of this movie. Carter is faced with strong doubt in this movie from the beginning and even sways with the mob at the beginning. Yet, during the film and the waiting period for the hanging, Fonda's character begins to doubt the merits of the mob and in, the end, makes a final stand for the doomed men's lives, and after he fails, he tries to justify the acts in his own words, blaming the inexperience and naivety of the doomed men for their fates.
The performances in this film are outstanding for the most part and are really the reason to watch this film. Harry Morgan, Anthony Quinn, Dana Andrews, and Jane Darwell all stand out in their roles in the film and really, all shine with their limited dialogue save for Harry Morgan who plays Caters partner, Art Croft. The story does have one minor bump, and that involves the past of Gil Carter and his former love interest. This brief scene could have been left out and the movie would not have suffered one real bit. Perhaps there was something more to initially, but they never got a chance to hash it out.
In an age where we jump to judgment on many things in our lives, it is important to think things out before we pass judgment. Movies like this show us the consequences of rash judgments and the mob mentality and really, it would be good to see this movie right before the election season begins to get us into a critical thinking mode before deciding our elected officials employment fate.
Summary of The Ox-Bow Incident
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