The Ox-Bow Incident
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Movie Reviews of The Ox-Bow Incident
Movie Review: The oxbow incident
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a classic not your ordenary Western. It one that makes you think throughout the whole movie Enjoy. The Railroad manMovie Review: Injustice is the worst kind of pain...
Summary: 4 Stars
You know those films that just make you angry; the films that grab at some sense of inner justice and make you just squirm in frustration as you try and try and try to make sense of the abhorrent injustice taking place on the screen? I think the first time I experienced that was when I saw `The Crucible'. I remember getting all choked up in and clenching my fists in rage as I watched these horrible atrocities befall innocent people. I remember similar feelings watching the more recent `House of Sand and Fog'. When I related my feelings to my father after seeing `The Crucible' a few years back he told me of this movie and told me that it would send me into a rage. Since then I've been planning on seeing this movie, I just never made the time.
I finally saw this last weekend and I must say; I was PISSED.
Adapted from the novel written by Walter Van Tilburg Clark, and based on a true story, William A. Wellman's 1943 film `The Ox-Bow Incident' is as tragic as they come, and is surely going to send shivers down your spine. The film centers on a dusty Western town that is thrown into a frenzy when one of their friends and neighbors is reportedly murdered for his cattle. Instead of waiting for the sheriff to return and justice to be handed out legally, a group of overzealous men (and one woman) form a lynching mob and set out to find to guilty party. When they find three strangers who claim to have purchased the deceased cattle that morning they struggle with whether or not to believe the men.
The film tragically shows how power can corrupt and how imperfect justice is never `just'. There are few in the party who feel a lynching is unfair, but the majority rules and thus results in an unspeakable tragedy.
I haven't seen too many films with Henry Fonda. His later works I wasn't too fond of (I always use the term "I'm none to fond of Fonda" when I'm referring to his daughter Jane, but I can't say that for Henry), but the earlier work I've seen have been refreshing for me. His powerful presence is seen here as well. The way he reveals his characters emotional resolve is flawless, letting us see just enough of this man to comprehend just who he `really' is. The acting as a whole is very good, especially from Dana Andrews, who just shatters my soul as the doomed Donald Martin (why was he not nominated for an Oscar?).
My only issue here is the films brisk nature. The tale is so tragic and so poignant and yet the running time is only 75 minutes, not even an hour and a half. Yes, there are some brilliant `short' films (just look at Charlie Chaplin's career) but to be honest, a film of the emotional weight NEEDS some length to build that depth. The film almost feels incomplete upon its ending because they didn't take advantage of the story to really flesh out everyone involved. There could have been a lot more character development going on here. Instead they develop little more than the storyline. It is still a great film, and the gut-punch is still there, but I can't help but think of what another thirty or forty minutes of pure character development would have done for the films overall impact.
I also was not a fan of the content of Martin's letter, for I felt that it was a cheep way at expressing a moral. It didn't make any sense that Martin would have penned those words to his wife, no sense at all, but the director used his letter as a way to express to the audience how he wanted them to feel about the actions taken. If he had slowed the film down and really got into the meat of the people involved then that letter would have been unnecessary. In fact, in the novel the contents of that letter is never revealed, and personally I feel that that should have been left alone.
In any case, the film is a must see. It is hailed as a classic and one of Fonda's best films. I can say that he is very good in this, and the film itself is well worth watching. Injustice can be very aggravating. If only enough people would allow themselves to be transformed over by the mistakes of others.
I hate it when things like this happen.
Movie Review: Transcending the Western genre
Summary: 4 Stars
Sometimes Amazon's "Editorial Reviews" absolutely burn me up. Do these people even watch these films? The "one cowboy who tried to turn the mob aside" apparently refers to Fonda's character, who actually observes and doesn't get very involved, speaking aside to his friend and therefore serving as our narrator; there are actually other characters more directly involved with the events pictured here who try to stop the lynching, and in any event, NONE of these "ultimately prove" the innocence of the accused. Finally, Fonda made this film years after "The Grapes of Wrath," with "The Ox-Bow Incident" coming just before he entered the service in WWII; "My Darling Clementine" was his first release after the war. Sheesh.
But what you really want to know, those of you who haven't yet seen this film, is whether this classic holds up to its reputation and is fit for viewing today. The answers are yes and yes, absolutely. It's a simple little story but well told, based on true events that portray a miscarriage of justice in the American West. The story could just as easily have taken place in any time or place where people are tried in the court of public opinion and then take matters into their own hands. It happens in the cities of the world today, after all.
An America at war wasn't interested in seeing this downbeat film at that time, and I doubt if 20th Century Fox has yet retrieved its investment for having given the project the go-ahead. It eventually earned its reputation as public moods shifted, and is well worth a viewing. A cautionary tale for those (the majority?) of us who tend to shoot our mouths off regarding the actions of others when we know little about them. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, and there were plenty of fools at the Ox Bow...but not enough angels.
Movie Review: The bleak nihilism of William Wellman...
Summary: 4 Stars
The theme here is based on William's Wellman's stern, uncompromising study of mob rule, set in the Old West... It is one of tragic misunderstanding, the sort of witches brew of error, impatience and intolerance, which must have often characterized Western rough justice...
Mob fury surrounds a little cattle-town like a fever... Most citizens seem only too eager to join a manhunt for the murderer of a rancher... Henry Fonda and his sidekick Henry Morgan have to go along with the tide, if only for the fact that, as wanderers passing through, they are not above suspicion themselves...
The unofficial posse, under the leadership of Major Tetley (Frank Conroy) comes upon the campfire of three suspects...
On the basis of circumstantial evidence, Tetley exhorts the mob into an on-the-spot trial... Despite the pleas of a few dissenters, a guilty verdict t is quickly reached and a triple lynching is performed...
Then, riding back, the lynch-mob gets the news that the rancher is still alive and the real villains have been taken...
"The Oxbow Incident" was never a box office success, but was rewarded with an Oscar nomination for Best Picture... However the film makes its point, as well as it ever did... It's not only about the social injustice of instant justice; it's also about human nature, all its oddities, frailties and the perils therein... It's often said that it laid the beginning of the psychological Western... That's perhaps too big and ambiguous a claim... What it does possess to a marked degree is keen observation, and a fine distinction that is never difficult to see...
Movie Review: VERY POWERFUL FILM IN A MASTERFUL LOOKING DVD
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Ox-Bow Incident" concerns itself with a murder and a lynching - hardly standard Hollywood film fare and probably the primary reason why the film, on its initial release, did not do well at the box office. However, "The Ox-Bow Incident" is probably one of the finest films you are likely to ever see. Director, William Wellman, fills the screen with sweeping social commentary and imbues his lead character, played by Henry Fonda, with the righteous every-man perspective that would become Fonda's hallmark and a main staple in American cinema in the decade's that followed.TRANSFER: FANTASTIC! After the rather shoddy work done on their studio line's Mark of Zorro and The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, I wasn't holding out much hope for their subsequent B&W releases. But "The Ox-Bow Incident" has been remastered with the utmost care and attention to detail. The gray scale is impeccibly rendered. Blacks are black. Some fading is evident but nothing that will distract. Film grain and age related artifacts are kept to a bare minimum. There is no trace of edge enhancement, pixelization or shimmering of fine details for a film like presentation that is visually smooth. The audio - remixed to stereo, is nicely cleaned up and well balanced with minimal background hiss.
EXTRAS: An audio commentary that is rather ho-hum and a "Biography" special on Henry Fonda that suffers from too much to say, but not enough time to say it in.
BOTTOM LINE: Very nice transfer. Well worth the average film collector's time and money.