(The) Ox-Bow Incident

Lynching!

Say it out-loud once and tell me it does not conjure up a visual image that creates a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach. It is an ugly word, an act committed by individuals caught up in the frenzy of a mob, who for their own individual reasons, justify taking the “law” into their own hands.

Lynching and the “lynch laws” is not something they used to teach kids in the public or Catholic school system so I had little knowledge about it until I researched and wrote a piece about Ida Wells-Barnett for a children’s history magazine. Born many years apart, she educated me and it is a lesson that has stayed in my mind long after I wrote the final paragraph for that piece.

(The) Ox-Bow Incident is also a novel written by Walter Van Tilberg Clark, but I can’t tell you how well the movie follows it as I have never read it, but maybe someone else can share if it stays true to the book.

Quotes

Major Tetley: This is only slightly any of your business, my friend. Remember that. Gil Carter: Hangin' is any man's business that's around.

Gil Carter (reading Donald Martin’s letter to his wife to the lynch-mob): "My dear Wife, Mr. Davies will tell you what's happening here tonight. He's a good man and has done everything he can for me. I suppose there are some other good men here, too, only they don't seem to realize what they're doing. They're the ones I feel sorry for. 'Cause it'll be over for me in a little while, but they'll have to go on remembering for the rest of their lives. A man just naturally can't take the law into his own hands and hang people without hurtin' everybody in the world, 'cause then he's just not breaking one law but all laws. Law is a lot more than words you put in a book, or judges or lawyers or sheriffs you hire to carry it out. It's everything people ever have found out about justice and what's right and wrong. It's the very conscience of humanity. There can't be any such thing as civilization unless people have a conscience, because if people touch God anywhere, where is it except through their conscience? And what is anybody's conscience except a little piece of the conscience of all men that ever lived? I guess that's all I've got to say except kiss the babies for me and God bless you. Your husband, Donald."

Plot Summary

It’s 1885 and an entire Nevada “cow” town and the surrounding ranch-folk are on edge because there are some cattle rustlers operating in the area. Strangers Gil Carter (Henry Fonda) and Art Croft (Henry Morgan) ride into this community to have a “cool drink” at the local saloon and to see an old flame of Gil’s. Gil finds out from the bartender that his lady-love did not wait for him and a little later in the movie that she has married.

Gil and Art are talking to the bartender when two local cowboys come in. The bartender pours the local boys a drink and mentions to them that the Sheriff is still in the area (working on a case). Art asks if it is “about that rustling people were talking about last fall” the two local cowboys, wary of strangers, move down on the other end of the bar. The bartender explains why it’s a “touchy subject” in town and they (meaning the local folks) only like to talk about the rustling with people “they sleep with.” Gil says to the bartender, “Wouldn’t people know if there were any strangers around?” The bartender replies, “There hasn’t been any except you two.” Gil answers, “That ain’t funny.”

Tempers flair and a fight breaks out between Gil and one of the local cowboys who hints that Gil and Art might be the rustlers. Several punches later, the local cowboy goes down and the bartender knocks Gil out with a bottle. Gil wakes up just as a man runs into saloon and shares some urgent news. He says one of the local ranchers has been shot and killed and “they” think the rustlers did it. He, the rider, was sent into town to get the Sheriff.

What follows next is a series of suppositions based on no concrete fact checking as frustrations and anger mounts over someone killing “one of their own.” Unable to locate the Sheriff, the town folk and the acting deputy (along with Gil and Art) form a posse to “find the men who did this.” What they find are three men, strangers to the area, driving cattle. Are these the cattle rustlers or are these innocent men? Lines are drawn, people choose sides, and before this movie is over we see what each person in the “lynching” scenes are really made of.

Life Lessons

“The darkest corners of hell are reserved for those souls, who when they know what is right and speaking up in someone elses defense would make a difference, remain silent.”

(The) Ox-Bow Incident is about mob violence and bullies. It gives movie goers an inside look about how a group of people, carry bullying to the extreme. It is also about people with courage who stand up for what is right and refuse to participate in the madness around them.

It’s not lynching, but let’s take a look at a prevalent problem in school systems and a boil on the backside of school children from every walk of life - bullies.

Why don’t school administrations and PTA groups work together to create anti-bullying programs sponsored by a combination of guidance counselors and/or teachers and/or parents with youth leader experience and/or one community police officer, but ran by the students themselves – think a peer board of review which gives students, who are bullied, a safe place to go to tell their story.

The bully gets called in before the peer group for evaluation with the panel of adult sponsors in attendance for back-up support. Questions are asked – all sides are heard, and young people are made accountable for their actions. In extreme cases when there are repeat offenses -- the bully has to report for counseling with a school psychologist and just to make sure Mr. or Miss Bully are not emulating or “acting out” on patterns of behavior they learned (or are subject to) at home – mom and/or dad (or their Guardian(s)) are going to have to report to the school psychologist sessions too.

It is a win-win situation. The child being bullied and the bully themselves get the help they need. If your school system already does something like this or has a productive anti-bullying program in place, bravo!

If it doesn't - why not?

The Ox-Bow Incident Movie Cast

Henry Fonda as Gil Carter
Dana Andrews as Donald Martin
Mary Beth Hughes as Rose Mapen / Rose Swanson
Anthony Quinn as Juan Martínez / Francisco Morez
William Eythe as Gerald Tetley
Harry Morgan as Art Croft (credited as Henry Morgan)
Jane Darwell as Jenny Grier
Matt Briggs as Judge Daniel Tyler
Harry Davenport as Arthur Davies
Frank Conroy as Major Tetley
Marc Lawrence as Jeff Farnley
Paul Hurst as Monty Smith
Victor Kilian as Darby
Chris-Pin Martin as Poncho
Willard Robertson as Sheriff