Rent The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)

4.1 of 5 from 87 ratings
1h 12min
Rent The Ox-Bow Incident Online DVD & Blu-ray Rental
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Synopsis:
Set in a small Nevada town where tensions are running high thanks to a spate of cattle rustling, things reach boiling point when cowboy Larry Kinkaid is murdered. With the sheriff out of town, the residents form a posse and head to Ox-Bow Canyon to find the three men they believe to be guilty - including Dana Andrews and Anthony Quinn in early major roles - and enact their own form of justice.
Actors:
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Directors:
Producers:
Lamar Trotti
Writers:
Lamar Trotti, Walter Van Tilburg Clark
Studio:
Optimum
Genres:
Action & Adventure, Classics
Collections:
21 Reasons to Love, 21 Reasons to Love..Modern Westerns, Getting to Know..., Getting to Know: Clint Eastwood
BBFC:
Release Date:
02/08/2010
Run Time:
72 minutes
Languages:
English LPCM Mono
Subtitles:
None
DVD Regions:
Region 2
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Full Screen 1.33:1 / 4:3
Colour:
B & W
BBFC:
Release Date:
04/07/2016
Run Time:
75 minutes
Languages:
English LPCM Mono
Subtitles:
English Hard of Hearing
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Full Screen 1.37:1
Colour:
B & W
BLU-RAY Regions:
B
Bonus:
  • Audio commentary by American West historian Dick Etulain and William Wellman Jr
  • Introduction by Peter Stanfield, author of Hollywood, Westerns and the 1930s: The Lost Trail and Horse Opera: The Strange History of the Singing Cowboy
  • Scene-select commentaries by Stanfield
  • Henry Fonda: Hollywood's Quiet Hero, a 45-minute documentary on the actor from the Biography series
  • Stills Gallery
  • Theatrical Trailer

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Reviews (1) of The Ox-Bow Incident

Anti-vigilante western (spoilers). - The Ox-Bow Incident review by Steve

Spoiler Alert
17/04/2022

Wellman's low budget adaptation of the classic classroom text is set within the framework of the western, but really it is a dramatised polemic against mob justice. In Nevada, 1885 a popular rancher is reported dead and three cowboys passing through the territory are summarily lynched on insubstantial evidence.

Some of the men react to the supposed death of the local man with a lust for instant revenge. This desire passes through the group, but each has his own personal motivation for their reckless, unlawful action. There is little room for reason and even those who oppose the lynching are reluctant to speak in case the mob turns on them too. Once the craving is in motion, it must be satisfied.

And of course, the local farmer wasn't dead at all and the three strangers were just in the wrong place at the wrong time and several of the mob are charged with murder. This is a brief film which makes its case with little diversion, which enables its impact to be precise and powerful. There is a fine ensemble cast, with Dana Andrews particularly effective as a victim of the vigilantes.

Henry Fonda is the lead actor. His role as one of the few opposing the murder isn't especially prominent, but it is interesting to place The Ox-Bow Incident as a forerunner of 12 Angry Men (1957). This is a real curiosity. Obviously hardly any money was spent. There is no incidental noise on the soundtrack, no extras, hardly any set decoration. The studio look is artificial. It's a skeletal, dark, schematic tragedy that lingers and haunts the memory.

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