Defending Ox-bow
"I especially do not like liberal propaganda films disguised as westerns," says Gary North, writing for LewRockwell.com, of The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) , a film I own and respect — How Liberals Killed the Western: A Case Study. The author is a well-known advocate of Christian Reconstructionism, which "advocates the modern-day application of Old Testament law in 'reconstructing' the Kingdom of God... on earth."
Mr. North describes the movie as "the story of mob rule leading to a vigilante hanging," which it is. He decries the film as "low-budget" and points out its "bloopers," including "a black man who is accompanied by singing angels" who "does not look black" but "looks like a white actor with what Ann Coulter would call swarthy guy makeup" but "really was an African-American, the founder of the Negro Actors Guild." Mr. North delivers many such insignificant details, but fails to deliver what his title promises.
Mr. North's deeper criticism seems to be this: "Nothing is resolved judicially. Injustice triumphs.... The book's theme was contrary to the popular western, where injustice gets its due reward." I can't really see where his criticism goes beyond that that the film did not have a happy ending. I fail to understand how a Christian could take excpetion to this statement, made by the lynched man in the film:
An old Negro Spiritual appears to great effect in the film; it is sung below by the great Mississippi John Hurt:
Mr. North describes the movie as "the story of mob rule leading to a vigilante hanging," which it is. He decries the film as "low-budget" and points out its "bloopers," including "a black man who is accompanied by singing angels" who "does not look black" but "looks like a white actor with what Ann Coulter would call swarthy guy makeup" but "really was an African-American, the founder of the Negro Actors Guild." Mr. North delivers many such insignificant details, but fails to deliver what his title promises.
Mr. North's deeper criticism seems to be this: "Nothing is resolved judicially. Injustice triumphs.... The book's theme was contrary to the popular western, where injustice gets its due reward." I can't really see where his criticism goes beyond that that the film did not have a happy ending. I fail to understand how a Christian could take excpetion to this statement, made by the lynched man in the film:
- A man just naturally can't take the law into his own hands and hang people without hurting everybody in the world, because 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?
An old Negro Spiritual appears to great effect in the film; it is sung below by the great Mississippi John Hurt:
Labels: America the Beautiful, Folk Music, Heresy, Law, Paleolibertarianism, Race Matters, Separated Brethren, The Seventh Art
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