| |  | 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 21-25 of 57
 CAN A WESTERN BE A NOIR? April 12, 2006
Kenneth Kapel (Chicago,Il, USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
YES! In fact there are a number of Westerns that can justifibly be called noir,"The Furies","Persued",and "Blood on the Moon",just to name three."THE OX-BOW INCIDENT" is a one in a lifetime film experiance.The acting,direction(William Wellman) and screenplay(Lamar Trotti),from a Walter VanTilburg Clark novel is all top-notch.Henry Fonda (Gil Carter) and Henry Morgan (Art Croft) are the leading players in this chilling tale of "frontier justice',in the 1880s'Nevada territory.Frank Conroy,Jane Darwell,Dana Andrews,Anthoney Quinn,and Leigh Whipper stand-out in the supporting cast.The commentary is very good,especially that portian that deals with the problems director Wellman had in getting this film made.An excellent film and an excellent DVD from Fox.
A conversation with a Chinese professor of film studies ... December 29, 2007
Donald M. Bishop (Virginia)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
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.
More Than A Western November 21, 2002
A.Trendl HungarianBookstore.com (Glen Ellyn, IL USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
"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
editor, HungarianBookstore.com
A BEAUTIFULLY ACTED & REALISTIC WESTERN February 14, 2003
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
A cowboy is unable to prevent three wandering travellers from being unjustly lynched for murder. One of the great Westerns to date, THE OX-BOW INCIDENT - based on an actual event occuring in 1885 Nevada - is a powerful and ugly portrait of mob violence that equals majestic Greek tragedy. This is a Wellman masterpiece, shown through a glass darkly or not, one where he uncannily penetrates the psyche of his characters with brilliant exposure. The whole film is coated with shadow (for doubt and fear) and it has a gritty, worn-out feel to its atmosphere right down to the threadbare costumes on the actors, in keeping with the somber tale. Much of this is due to Arthur Miller's outstanding cinematography which is ably supported by a suitably downbeat musical score by Cyril J. Mockridge. Fonda, Andrews and Quinn are superb in their roles, and the movie was directed awesomely by William Wellman: he drew suitably subtle performances from some & properly bombastic renderings from others - i.e. Quinn as Juan Martines, etc. The film was purposely given a sort of "claustrophobic look" - via its being set-bound with painted backdrops - in order to create a mood of pervasive doom and maniacal intent of the two dozen "average citizens" to commit a capital crime. Fonda was justly proud of his bravura work in this rather controversial and somewhat depressing Western. As a curious trivial footnote, the film was originally to have showcased Mae West - of all people - as a sort of wisecracking saloon hostess around whom the story would have revolved (!)
Frontier Justice April 9, 2003
Randy Keehn (Williston, ND United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I had read "The Ox-Bow Incident" some time before I had the opportunity to see the movie. I'm not sure what channel I caught it on but I was smart enough to tape it. Unfortunately, I was foolish enough to have a Beta VCR at the time. This is a timeless movie with a superb script that was well-adapted from Walter Van Tilberg Clark's western novel. The acting is terrific with Henry Fonda putting in an outstanding performance along with an excellent cast overall. The movie probably isn't even 90 minutes in length but in the time we have we are witness to an exceptional story. The plot is simple: In the late 1800's, news of the murder of a popular rancher reaches the local western town. In shock and anger, a posse is formed and the chase is on. They find the three men they seek, hold an on-the-spot trial and deliver justice in the frontier form of capital punishment. The bulk of the movie focusses on the "trial" of the three men who protest that they are innocent and unaware of the crime. We see how anger and hatred can close otherwise open minds. We see how people can be intimidated to not speak up against an authoritative majority. It reminds one of the quote of Edmund Burke that the only thing necessary for the success of evil "is that good men do nothing". This movie is a spellbinding drama that came out in the midst of WWII. One can often enjoy many of the "propaganda" slants of the movies of that era. However, this is a very sobering message that suggests that the evils we were then fighting could become our own if we weren't careful. Perhaps the director chose this movie as a way of making a statement about the Japanese internments of the time. If so, it was an excellent yet subtle message. It is a timeless reminder to all of us.
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