← Back to Reviews
in
The Ox-Bow Incident (William Wellman 1942)
The title says it all...The Ox-Box Incident...It's about a tragic incident. It's not an action driven film, nor is it a character driven film. It's a study of a moment in time, a chain of events that lead to an incident.
The director puts us in the shoes of the hanging posse. He did that by not giving a backstory on the characters. We don't know anymore about the accused men, than the posse knows. We don't even know much about the outsiders played by Henry Fonda and Henry Morgan. As far as we know they might end up with a rope around their necks.
The events take place in real time as they occur...there's no flashbacks or intercut stories. The film's one focus is on an incident that happened at the Ox-Bow. I think that worked brilliantly and makes this film much more different than other westerns of the 1940s.
I found the events to be very believable because the actors play it very realistically. That's import, as if suspension of disbelief doesn't come into being then a film isn't believable and then the emotional impact of what you're watching has little effect. The Ox-Bow Incident had great effect on me!
And that's thanks to the streamlined script, the director and the actors. Henry Fonda is the star and does a great job but it's Dana Andrews who pulls off the near impossible of being a scared, innocent man who's about to be hung. I can't see many actors of that time being able to do what Dana Andrews did.
It's a haunting film that has stayed with me.
The Ox-Bow Incident (William Wellman 1942)
The title says it all...The Ox-Box Incident...It's about a tragic incident. It's not an action driven film, nor is it a character driven film. It's a study of a moment in time, a chain of events that lead to an incident.
The director puts us in the shoes of the hanging posse. He did that by not giving a backstory on the characters. We don't know anymore about the accused men, than the posse knows. We don't even know much about the outsiders played by Henry Fonda and Henry Morgan. As far as we know they might end up with a rope around their necks.
The events take place in real time as they occur...there's no flashbacks or intercut stories. The film's one focus is on an incident that happened at the Ox-Bow. I think that worked brilliantly and makes this film much more different than other westerns of the 1940s.
I found the events to be very believable because the actors play it very realistically. That's import, as if suspension of disbelief doesn't come into being then a film isn't believable and then the emotional impact of what you're watching has little effect. The Ox-Bow Incident had great effect on me!
And that's thanks to the streamlined script, the director and the actors. Henry Fonda is the star and does a great job but it's Dana Andrews who pulls off the near impossible of being a scared, innocent man who's about to be hung. I can't see many actors of that time being able to do what Dana Andrews did.
It's a haunting film that has stayed with me.