Ox-bow Incident (1943) (import)

"The Ox-Bow Incident," while a western by genre, is a profound analysis of the social phenomena of lynch mobs. This transcends the classic lynchings through hanging, but the manner by which groups of people presume guilt as condemn the suspect without a fair hearing.

Henry Fonda's character is one man who believes in capital punishment, but also believes in the right to a fair trial. However, he faces down a large posse of bloodlusting men who are not interested in examining the difficult truth, but instead who prefer the convenient satiation of their rage. How does one voice among many speak, especially if they don't want to hear? There is a depth to it, similar to "Twelve Angry Men," also starring Fonda.

Anthony Quinn is one of two men facing a tree-hung noose. MASH's Henry Morgan is very young and dapper here (without his horse, Sophie), and stars as Fonda's friend.

A subplot regards a military leader who essentially leads the posse to the men, and his relationship with his son whom he forces to come along. The son, a prim and delicate sophisticate is opposed to his machismo-laden father in both personality and mission. Their conflict between right and wrong, son against father, man against child is more than a subplot, but a natural part of any such confrontation.

A short film of 75 minutes apparently not yet on DVD, it is acclaimed as a classic. However, it is far from showing the powerful vistas of "Red River" or the gruff but witty one-liners of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." It moves quickly, and its tight editing avoids cliches and limits the viewer from feeling as if he can expect the next line.

I fully recommend "The Ox-Bow Incident." It is the sort of movie worth watching in a high school civics course, or in a movie discussion group.

Anthony Trendl

Sadly this is another example of a very fine Western being unavailable on Region 2. "The Ox Bow Incident"(43) is based on the powerful book of the same name by Walter Van Tilburg Clark. First published in 1940 it has been reprinted many times. Henry Fonda who had the lead role felt it was one of his major vehicles after "The Grapes of Wrath"(40). The film was directed by William Wellman and is without a doubt the finest film that he made. He also directed the Western "Yellow Sky"(48) which was also very good.

The film opens with Fonda and his pard, Henry Morgan riding into a town and entering the saloon. A wrangler has been shot. A posse is formed and they all ride out lusting for blood. Three cowboys are found camped at Ox Bow played by Dana Andrews, Francis Ford (Brother of the legendary film director John Ford) and Anthony Quinn as the Mexican. They proclaim their innocence but are hung after a kangaroo court. Dana Andrews is allowed to write a last letter to his wife. It is later found that the men were innocent after all and the posse return in shame to the town. In the film Fonda reads out the letter in the saloon although in the book it is never read. This is perhaps the one flaw in the film. Some things are more powerful left unsaid.

The film is a strong warning against taking the law into your own hands. Henry King explored the same themes in "The Bravados"(58) but to lesser effect. The film has a deep touching poignancy. It is easy to see how we are swayed by more powerful characters. Sadly this very honest film was not in keeping with the escapist films of WW2 and the film flopped at the box Office. War time audiences wanted to see something more optimistic than innocent cowboys being lynched. But since then it has deservedly been hailed as a classic. It is certainly a fable for our times. It shows how ordinary folk banding together to dispense justice can be reduced to the lowest form of intelligence. The film is also ground breaking in being the precursor for the psychological Western. Powerful viewing. Highly recommended.

This movie packs an amazing amount into 75 minutes. Not a moment is wasted by director William Wellman as the events leading to a brutal lynching, illicit in every sense, are charted with chilling skill.

While the film makes a powerful case that the rule of law must underpin any society that calls itself civilised, in no sense is all filmic interest subordinated to this one narrative purpose. For a start, this is almost a Western in name only in that the 20th Century Fox chief, Darryl Zanuck, stipulated it be made almost entirely on studio sets, much of the 'outdoor' action taking place at night against painted backcloths. This gives the film an artificial, cramped, but beauitifully lit feel that will not appeal to people who like their westerns to inhabit the high sierra and the buffalo plains. On the other hand the claustrophobic feel focuses attention on the social comment aspect of the film which is its raison d'etre.

It is astonishing what variety and subtlety of character has been stuffed into the brief running time. Henry Fonda as a simple cowboy changes and develops in the course of the night, and most of the members of the lynch posse stand out as individuals - the implacable, self-appointed leader, his initially timid but ultimately brave son, the lawless deputy sheriff, the sadistic hangman, the tricoteuse, and the trio of suspects who meet their fate in their different ways.

A group of character actors do great work here, with Jane Darwell as the heartless trocoteuse making your hair stand on end with her demonic cackle and Frank Conroy a sinister figure as the self-righteous vigilante. But this is Henry Fonda's film. It's quite a feat to stand out as a relatively quiet leading man when a posse of character actors are making hay with juicy parts all around you. But Fonda's great screen presence, his ability to attract the viewer's eye to him when he's doing next to nothing is a tremendous asset here. The very last scene where he reads out one of the lynched men's letter from the grave is a classic; the letter is couched in unfeasibly literary terms for a simple rancher, but Fonda's laconic yet emotional delivery banishes all scepticism.

A powerful, economical film.