163. The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)

Directed By William A. Wellman

Synopsis

A man is reported dead and his cattle rustled. A lynching mob is assembled and with the mob go seven reluctant spectators. After the lynching it is discovered that the man wasn't dead, and the sheriff has caught the killers. Oops! They all have a big laugh about it, the end!

Review

The Ox-Bow incident is another of those occasions where you see the Western rising up to what it should do. Westerns shouldn't be films about bravado or hero worship but portrayals of what man is capable of doing in adverse situations when his most primordial instincts come to the front. These can be good things or really bad ones. This film is about really bad ones, when the world is almost lawless and mob mentality rules.

Of course this film is being made during WWII and very few films didn't have some kind of message about the war, in this case it shows the difference between the proper American system versus Nazi mob mentality. This is all the more subtle because the film is set in the US, leading to more basic ideas about the essential common psyche of the human race. 'It's not just those Germans, it can and it has happened to us to', is the message, so be careful and prize your due process.

So, even tough it has the 2nd World War in mind, it is making a point as relevant today as then. Arbitrary justice with no trial is not fair and is essentially a source for injustice. The necessity for due process has rarely been as well articulated as it is in the end of the film, when Henry Fonda reads out the letter of one of the lynching victims. A deep and meaningful film.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Woody Allen, in his stand-up comedy routines, referred to his marriage as "The Ox-Bow Incident."

Henry Fonda's Entrance: