| |  | Director: William A. Wellman
Actors: Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Mary Beth Hughes, Anthony Quinn, William Eythe
Studio: Fox Home Entertainment
Buy New: $99.99
Rating:  57 reviews
Sales Rank: 100270
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Original Recording Reissued, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 75 Minutes
UPC: 024543055907
EAN: 0024543055907
ASIN: B00008MTW4
Theatrical Release Date: May 21, 1943
Release Date: August 4, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 11-15 of 57
 Powerful, but Flawed October 11, 2003
Douglas Doepke (Claremont, CA United States)
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
At times the sets look like the results of a high-school art class, while the preachy last scene is about as necessary as sugar on steak, yet this film remains arguably Hollywood's most powerful anti-lynching statement. It's a real oddity, an expressionist challenge amidst the confines of the traditional Western. But then time and place are clearly secondary to the movie's main point, its topical message. In 1943 Jim Crow was too strong to attack directly, at the same time the South remained a bastion of box-office movie-goers. So the screen adaptation keeps to the safer setting of 1880's Nevada, even as the the Confederate major and the Negro preacher embody the allegorical social message. What makes the film work, however, are uniformly fine performances from a nucleus of unheralded players: Frank Conroy as the imperious major, William Eythe as the weakling son, Paul Hurst, Leigh Whipper, and in perhaps the best performance of a so-so career, young Dana Andrews as the most sympathetic victim. It's his touching mixture of desperation with stricken disbelief that grips the audience and reveals the depth of the tragedy. There's an emotional honesty here that endures. Stand out too, are the posse scenes leading up to the lynchings. Their raucous byplay and casual cruelty underscore a mentality more concerned with a boy's night out than with the demands of real justice. Then too, who can forget the piercing guffaw of Jane Darwell's bawdy old harridan that mocks the proceedings and demeans the suffering. The cross currents here between lust for blood and plain old lust for power have seldom been more subtly or searchingly drawn. All in all, it's an ugly depiction, one not easily papered over by a remorseful wrap-up. Henry Fonda's role goes little beyond an interested onlooker, and it's to his credit that an established star would accept such a secondary part. If only the studio had trusted audience reaction, ditched the letter gimmick, and allowed the events to speak for themselves, this could have been a classic, instead of the erratically wrought commentary it finally is.
The bleak nihilism of William Wellman... November 6, 2006
Roberto Frangie (Leon, Gto. Mexico)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
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...
 A Memorable Western With A Moral, Powerful! August 1, 2000
Bertin Ramirez (San Ysidro, California United States)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Considered by western purists not to be a 'real' western. Mainly because of its passive hero, lack of action and dramatic power. Well maybe it isn't a 'true' western but it's definitely a memorable one. Among the best and most powerful westerns ever made it remains an unforgettable and unflinching account on the tyranny of mob rule. Henry Fonda is great as Gil Martin, a drifter who happens to hang around for a lynching but also bares witness to the inhumanity and stubbornness of a lynch mob who hang three innocent suspects. Fonda was in peak form when he made this small little known western, just three years after 'The Grapes Of Wrath', one wonders why he bothered to make this small western that tries to make a difference, maybe he agreed with the moral and waned to make a statement. Dana Andrews and a young Anthony Quinn are the unlucky suspects. An unforgettable western that was directed with cold realism by William A. Wellman which separates it from the usual 'cowboys and indians' fare. Intense, powerful and fast paced. Also short (only 75 min.) but that's enough to make a chilling and unforgettable movie. From a scale of 1-10 I give this film a 9!
Masterly anti-Western July 8, 2005
F. J. Harvey (Birmingham England)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
The list of movies addressing the issue of lynching as its major theme is small but impressive. Fritz Lang's great " Fury " leaps to mind as does the Mervyn LeRoy drama " They Wont Forget" but for my money it is this calssic that bears away the crown in this field .Its powerful portrait of mob violence rises to the level of Greek tragedy in its air of inevitability and catharsis, and in its brilliant examination of the psyche of its principal characters
The movie is based on events which took place in Nevada in 1885 . Henry Fonda and Harry Morgan play two drifting cowboys who ride into the town of Bridger's Wells and promptly head for the saloon .They hear of a popular local rancher being shot by rustlers ;a posse is set up lead by the blustering and pompous ex-Confederate army officer " Tetley "( Frank Conroy)who dons his old uniform for the venture .and insists that his sensitive son (William Eythe) goes along ,because it will " make a man of him ".Fonda and Morgan reluctantly accompany the mob .The main reason they do so is to avoid being accused of the crime thenselves .
The mob come upon 3 men -horse traders -by their capmpfire .These men -Dana Andrews , Anthony Quinn and Francis Tesa) -are accused of the crime even though no evidence exists of their guilt .They are strung up on the spot ,Andrews pleading to be allowed to write a last letter to his wife ,a request that is granted .
The posse return in high good humour only to be shown as not vigilantes but murderers .The finale when Fonda reads Andrews' letter aloud is sentimental but moving .
I have called this an anti-Western and I stand by that description for the movie is critical of what most Westerns deem a virtue -the pioneer spirit .These are men and women embittered and crippled emotionally who resort to mob rule to cover up their own cowardice and personal inadequacies .This is most obvious in the figure of the homesteader played by Jane Darwell .This type of character is usually shown in a positive light by the conventional Western-hard working ,salt of thre earth types .Here the woman is shrewish and shrill ,an empty sounding brass of a woman utterly devoid of compassion or moral feeling .Then there is the bartender (Paul Hurst) who accompanies the posse-a slimy rabble rouser and the embittered vengeance seeking man played by Marc Lawrence .All claim lyching is part of the " Code of the West" and cannot see that it is its very opposite
The Colonel is a fraud and a bully ,his son an emotional weakling
It is also an anti-Western in its turning away from the wide open spaces of popular genre myth-the movie was largely shot on the studio lot with some obvious painted backcloths .These help the movie rather than hinder it ,giving a sense of claustrophobia which adds to the power .It is West where meanness and suspicion have replaced optimism and heroics .
The movie has been criticised as solemn and dull ,James Agee saying it suffered from "rigor artis" and was too static.I disgree but otheres will echo Agee's sentiments ,especially if they insisit on lots of action in the genre
Brilliantly acted all round with Quinnn scoring heavily in a small role as a man with a criminal past but being killed forsomething he did not do .Subtle direction from William Wellman and outstanding photography from Arthur Miller .This movie even looks authentic with the clothes appearing well worn and dusty
Downbeat and grim but a powerful morality play that makes grim but powerful viewing
A Timeless Classic October 28, 2006
Terence Allen (Atlanta, GA USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
The Ox-Bow Incident is one of those seminal films where everything about it looks right, feels right, and sounds right. The acting, directing, and script are almost more accurate than we can stand, given that the main thrust of the story proves how methodically misguided people can be.
Henry Fonda and Henry Morgan play two drifters who happen into a Western town reeling from the murder of a popular and powerful rancher. They join the town's posse, and catch three men in possession of the rancher's cattle. The posse quickly turns into a lynch mob, with Fonda trying to keep things calm and rational.
The story reveals the sometimes dark and disturbing tendency of society to react with haste and violence rather than with reason and mercy. Based on a true story and a best-selling novel, The Ox-Bow Incident is a cautionary tale, but it is also a mirror. One that is easier to break or ignore than it is to look at.
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