Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 5-August-07
Spoiler Rating: High

The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)

"The Ox-Bow Incident" is one of those tales that unfolds through the eyes of neither the hero nor the villain even though such characters exist. As in "Twelve Angry Men," Henry Fonda falls in with a group of people who advocate a killing under the pretense of justice but really because it suits them. The difference is, here he is not the lone voice of reason but a run-of-the-mill person coming to grips with a crappy world.

Yes, this western portrays both the worst and best of humanity, and it seems like the worst always has the louder say. The incident takes place one night after Fonda's character and his sidekick (Henry Morgan of TV's "M*A*S*H") ride into a few-horse town after a long time out on the range. The barkeep in the empty saloon tells them they have five choices for fun: eat, sleep, drink, play poker, or fight. Fonda tries a couple of these before an excited local appears with the secondhand news that a cattleman was shot dead on his ranch. Quick as a wink all the men in town (and one tough broad) form a lynch mob. With the sheriff away, only three people argue for legal proceedings: the judge, the preacher (who, being black, is barely acknowledged), and an old man (Harry Davenport) whose years have made him wise to the ways of mankind. Their efforts are fruitless.

Off the mob goes, all 30 of them, with a pompous Southern major at the head (Frank Conroy) and Fonda in tow because he is as bored as the rest. The preacher and wise man go too, ostensibly the weakest but certainly the bravest. In the wee hours of the morning they find three men asleep in a clearing and disarm them, charge them, and sentence them to hanging with the delight of revelers kept waiting. The leader of the prisoners (Dana Andrews) is a plainspoken stranger whose story is unlikely but whose face shows his innocence. He is accompanied by a doddering geezer and a cocky Mexican (Anthony Quinn), both naturally disenfranchised. Only a few of the party join the original opponents of the hanging, among them Fonda and the major's gentle son (William Eythe). It is the most basic form of compassion versus the basest form of barbarism in a land where majority rules.

"The Ox-Bow Incident" is an immensely powerful film despite being shorter than most (it would barely clear an hour without a token female scene). At the end Fonda delivers a message through words that aren't his own, capping the movie's emotional force and summing up what westerns are all about. What he says is still relevant and will be in any time or place. Short but not sweet, it's a message well told.

Copyright © 2007 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.