The Ox-Bow Incident

In 1940, Walter Van Tilburg Clark published his novel, The Ox-Bow Incident.  In 1943, the movie version of the book was released, starring Henry Fonda, Harry Morgan, Frank Conroy, Harry Davenport, Dana Andrews, Anthony Quinn and Francis Ford (older brother of famed director, John Ford).

Two cowboys, Gil (Fonda) and Art (Morgan), ride into a small town in Nevada in 1885.  Shortly thereafter, news arrives that some cattle have been stolen and worse, a well-liked cattleman has been murdered.

The local sheriff is out of town, so the townspeople are left to consider what to do.  Some want to take the law into their own hands, fearing a legal system that tends to side with outlaws.

Leading this group or mob is Tetley (Conroy), an arrogant cattle rancher who was an officer in the Confederate army.  He and many others favor a lynching when the guilty are captured.

Opposed is Davies (Davenport), a local store keeper, who insists on bringing the accused back for a fair trial.  Not many support his position.

In the middle of the night the group or mob comes upon three sleeping cowboys who have about 50 head of cattle.  They are led by a man named Martin (Andrews).  With him is a Mexican (Quinn) and a feeble-minded old man (Ford).

Circumstantial evidence leads the group or mob to the conclusion that the three men are guilty of murder and cattle rustling, deserving to be hanged...immediately.  Martin vehemently protests their innocence and demands a fair trial.  

Martin says, "What do you care about justice? You don't even care whether you've got the right men or not. All you know is you've lost something and somebody's got to be punished.”

In the end of the movie, Gil reads the letter Martin wrote to his wife.  Interestingly, it was photographed without showing Gil's eyes, as in justice is blind.

My dear wife: Mr. Davies will tell you what happened here tonight.  He's a good man and did everything he could for me.  I suppose there's some other good men, too only they don't seem to realize what they're doing.  They're the ones I feel sorry for because it'll be over for me in a little while, but they'll have to go on remembering for the rest of their lives.  Man just actually can't take the law into his own hands and hang people without hurting everybody in the world because he's not just breaking one law, but all laws.  Law's 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 it is 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 got to say except kiss the babies for me and God bless you.  Your husband, Donald.