The Ox-Bow Incident is a movie about mercy refused. The citizens of Ox-Bow are hardened men and women, reacting in fear against an outside terror that binds them together into an unthinking mass and blinds them to the real humanity of their victims. Yet throughout the film there are glimpses of a more excellent way, such as the example of Sparks (Leigh Whipper), an African American man who has seen this kind of violence before and steps forward to offer comfort, if not salvation, to the victims of the mob. The film ends with Gil (an excellent Henry Fonda) reading the letter of one of the victims. That letter summarizes the themes of mercy found at the heart of The Ox-Bow Incident: “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?”
—Nathanael T. Booth