The Ox-Bow Incident
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Movie Reviews of The Ox-Bow Incident
Movie Review: FRONTIER INJUSTICE...
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a classic, black and white western about frontier justice gone awry. Based upon a true incident that was memorialized in Walter Van Tilburg Clark's best selling novel, this film was a Best Picture Academy Award nominee in 1943, losing to "Casablanca".
This timeless and classic western, about how mob rule can carry the day, is set in Nevada around 1885. Cattle rustlers are the bane of the town's existence, when cowboys Gil Carter (Henry Fonda) and his illiterate side-kick, Art Croft (Henry Morgan), return to town. On the heels of their return, word gets around that a popular rancher, Larry Kincaid, has been murdered, shot in the head, and his cattle stolen.
The townspeople, mostly men, decide to deputize a posse on their own and take justice into their own hands, rather than wait for the return of the sheriff from the Kincaid ranch. The one woman, "Ma" Grier (Jane Darwell), is a harridan as bloodthirsty as the men. The mob disregards the sane, rational advice of the town's judge and of those townspeople who have cooler heads. Instead, those with blood lust in their veins prevail, and the so-called posse rides out in pursuit of frontier justice. Gil and Art join them, despite being of a mind that it would be best to wait for the sheriff.
The posse happens to come across three sleeping travelers with a herd of cattle. A dapper Mexican (Anthony Quinn), a young husband and father (Dana Andrews), and a piteous, slow-witted, old man constitute the hapless trio. With blood lust rampant, the mob obtains some seemingly damning information from them and quickly forms an opinion as to their guilt. Even though seven men, Gil Carter and Art Croft among them, disagree with the decision, the merciless majority prevails, and rough frontier justice is meted out without benefit of formal trial or due process.
This film is similar in some ways to the 1957 film, "12 Angry Men", also starring Henry Fonda. There, despite a seemingly open and shut case, twelve men are prevailed upon to weight the facts very carefully and to examine the evidence in an objective rational fashion to ensure that justice be done. In "The Ox-Bow Incident", one sees what can happen when one seemingly has an open and shut case but fails to examine the evidence in an objective and dispassionate manner. In one case, justice is done. In the other, a travesty of justice occurs.
This is a superb film, deftly directed by William A Wellman, who exacts marvelous performances from the entire ensemble. Despite its brevity, being only approximately seventy-five minutes in length, the film manages to pack a dramatic wallop. Moreover, the sets are realistic looking, with a dirty, dusty, and gritty feel, as are the seemingly threadbare, dirty, and ratty clothing worn by some of the actors. The film deservedly earned its 1943 Academy Award nomination for best picture.
The transfer to DVD is great, as the print has apparently been re-mastered, providing the viewer with clear, crisp visuals and excellent audio. The DVD also provides some extras, such as a commentary by western scholar Dick Eulain and William Wellman, Jr., the director's son, an excellent A & E Network "Biography" episode, "Henry Fonda: Hollywood's Quiet Hero", as well as a stills gallery. This is a well-priced DVD of a great film, which should find its place in the personal collection of all those who love such films.
Movie Review: Admirable Drama in Xenophobic Small Town Western...
Summary: 5 Stars
The Ox-Bow Incident displays a very real situation with ordinary people making rash decisions based on feelings, prejudice, and group dynamics. The story takes place in Nevada where the inhabitants of a small village take the law into their own hands in the year of 1885. There were thousands of small towns such as this one spread out throughout the west of the Mississippi. Each town had their own elected sheriff that upheld the law, and often with a bias toward the townsfolk. Strangers did not often come through small towns and these strangers often experienced some level of xenophobia, which is even noticeable in the beginning of Ox-Bow Incident when one of the strangers points out that they have to be careful as they are strangers.
Xenophobia plays a big part of the film, which often stemmed from hearsay and stories told by friends in small towns throughout the west. Some of these stories can be read in old newspapers that exaggerated tales in order to increase sales. This has also been exploited in many Westerns. Then you have those who lived by the status of protecting themselves against others, and in that perspective strangers were commonly seen as threats. Despite the prevalence of xenophobia many of the towns such as the one in Ox-bow Incident, they would have insisted that their town were the nicest and most pleasant of them all. If this was the case, then why would there be stories of lynching and vigilantism in the decades after the Western expansion, stories such as the Ox-Bow Incident.
The film opens with two strangers riding into the quiet small town of the story's focus, as they tie their horses outside the town's saloon. One of the strangers gives a friendly gesture to one of the townsfolk, probably to ease possible tension within the town. These two men, Gil Carter (Henry Fonda) and his friend, are visiting Gil's girlfriend, Rose Mapen, but it happens that she has left most likely due to the married women who saw her as a threat. Upset Gil ends up in a fight with a cowboy, Jeff Farnley (Marc Lawrence), who suggests that he has stolen some cattle since he is a stranger after all. Instead of getting in trouble, Gil teaches the man a lesson by beating him up and making him look foolish. Shortly after, a young boy rushes into the saloon and yells that Kinkaid has been killed and his cattle are missing.
The emotions are flowing and a vice-Sheriff improperly deputies the townsfolk who set out to find the killer. Gil and his friend have no choice than to go with, or they might be perceived as the guilty party, which might be enough for a rowdy mob. It turns into a journey of legal madness where lawlessness prevails in the hands of those in emotional turmoil while xenophobia reaches its pinnacle. But instead of displaying an ordinary tale of vengeance, the Ox-Bow Incident depicts a moral story of justice and humanity in darkness. The culminating ending delivers a potent lesson when the posse returns to the saloon where it all once began. The director William A. Wellman truly created a brilliant cinematic experience through this Western tale, which opposes the greatness of the Western and instead displays the wickedness of lawlessness.
Movie Review: A conversation with a Chinese professor of film studies ...
Summary: 5 Stars
The place and time: Beijing, 2000.
Chinese professor: Thank you so much for giving us those videotapes! My graduate students and I watched three films in one day!
American: What did you think of "The Ox-Bow Incident"?
Chinese professor: Oh, it is a fine movie. The English is so clear! There's no slang and coarse language like in the modern American films.
American: And the plot?
Chinese professor: Yes, the film is about lynching! We read in our history books about lynching in the United States! The film helps us understand how lynching oppressed the people.
American: Professor, this film is as much about lynching as "It's a Wonderful Life" is about banking. The banking, the lynching -- they are just frames for the moral content of the films.
Chinese professor: Oh ...
American: It's about lawlessness, when people don't receive trials, but it's about a special kind of lawlessness. Do you remember that as the posse rides off to find the rustlers, they all agree to "follow the will of the majority"?
Chinese professor: Yes ...
American: The members of the posse decided that they represented the people when they decided to hang the men they apprehended.
Chinese professor: The people ... the majority ...
American: Remember, the book was written in 1940 and the movie showed in 1943. All the fascist dictators said they represented their people's will.
Chinese professor: The war ...
American: And Stalin murdered and purged and sent people to death in the Gulag before, during, and after the War. Later of course, there were the Red Guards during your own Cultural Revolution, who said they were implementing the people's will as they humiliated or betrayed or killed even their own teachers or their own relatives.
Chinese professor: For the people's revolution ...
American: So while the movie's set in the American West, it's about the Cultural Revolution in China too. And isn't it interesting that a movie about the Cultural Revolution was made 20 years before it happened? Which means that the movie addresses something universal, something that can happen in any place, at any time.
Chinese professor: Ahhh ...
American: Which means that "The Ox-Bow Incident" is a film for Americans, and for Chinese, indeed for any people tempted to take shortcuts with the law.
Chinese professor: Ahhh ... let me think about it.
Movie Review: Morality play meets Wild West
Summary: 5 Stars
Have you ever thought you knew what the right thing to do was, but couldn't convince others of your reasoning?
"The Ox-Bow Incident" could be best described as a western disguised as a morality play on mob justice, or vice versa. It definitely is a film which is based on not the traditional western format of "shoot em up" but rather takes a philosophical approach to what mob justice really entails, and what its consequences are.
Two men, Carter (Henry Fonda) and Croft (Harry Morgan), come into town and get themselves entangled with a group going out to find the murderer of a man in the local town. While the two feel reluctant to go out and be a part of this, they are urged on by another man, Davies, to go and make sure that the criminal or criminals will get a fair trial. Because the sheriff is not around, one deputy decides to "deputize" all the posse going out to find the killer, giving them the power to act as a majority. As the posse crosses a patch of area, they spot three men who they believe to be the killers. Rather than being judicial, one of the men, Tetley, becomes the ringleader of mob justice, wanting to hang the men on the spot. From here, the story becomes a dilemma in morals, where those who feel the men deserve a fair trial counter against those who feel that justice is "slow and careless." Carter emerges as one of the voices for the three men, who he feels deserve some form of fair justice.
As one reviewer alluded to, this is not a film that wastes words or time. Each scene of the film is concise and important to the eventual outcome of the story. Henry Fonda is a great leading character in the film, despite not getting as much of a role as one would assume. However, after the highest point of the film, and especially during the film's final fifteen minutes, Fonda's role really shines.
This is a unique look at the idea of mob justice played out on a Western scene. As far as the extras, what I really liked was the biography of Henry Fonda as Hollywood's Quiet Hero, detailing his many roles on screen and off screen. It really shows the talent of this actor, and the integrity he brought to his many roles in such films as The Grapes of Wrath (where he plays Tom Joad) and Twelve Angry Men (where he plays the man who has to convince eleven other jurors of a man's innocence).
Over all, this is a wonderful, profound film, with "no fat" extras.
Movie Review: Not your usual Western
Summary: 5 Stars
"THE OX-BOW INCIDENT" is a film based on an excellent book by Walter Van Tilburg Clark, which I am currently reading in my English III class. The movie is one of the best Westerns ever made, if not one of the greatest movies ever made. It is the terrifying story of two drifters caught up in the hanging of three innocent men accused of cattle rustling and murder. These two drifters, Gil Carter (Henry Fonda) and Art Croft (Harry Morgan) do not always get along, but they do stand up for each other. And that is what the movie is really about- not the shootouts or the fighting, but the character relationships. They come into the sleepy town of Bridger's Wells not looking for trouble, but for the activities of what everybody does when they come into town: eat, drink, play cards, fight, talk, or sleep. However, while in this town, they do stumble across something unusual- a rumor of a murder and cattle rustling. Nobody that reports on what has supposedly happened has one shred of proof, but alot of the townsmen and ranchers from the area (including the character referred to as "Ma", played by Jane Darwell) suddenly appear seemingly out of nowhere. They have not a thing to go on, but they are sure they have to do something. What follows is a lot of talk and speechifying, arguing and hard feelings. While this part of the story is a little slow in the book, the film keeps right on track. Eventually, they all set out to find the so-called murderers/rustlers, even though they do not have an idea of where they are going or what they are looking for. In the end, it all comes full circle for everyone involved, and the impending doom is undeniably haunting. However, the story is also very ironic in that they are finding justice for a murdered man and his stolen cattle, but they have assuredly done worse things in their own lives, not to mention that it is only in the end that they realize the horrors of what has occurred.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Theatrical Trailer
A&E Biography: "Henry Fonda - Hollywood's Quiet Hero"
Stills Gallery
Also Recommended: "JESSE JAMES" (1939), "THE GRAPES OF WRATH" (1940), "THE RETURN OF FRANK JAMES" (1940), "MY DARLING CLEMENTINE" (1946), "THE LONGEST DAY" (1962)
THIS REVIEW IS DEDICATED TO ANYONE, LIVING OR DEAD, INVOLVED IN THE MAKING OF "THE OX-BOW INCIDENT".