Occurence At Owl Creek Bridge Analysis

It is common for different writers and filmmakers to place tension into their own works in order to inspire different characters into action or to get certain events to occur. In Ambrose Bierce’s short novel, “An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge,” Bierce makes sure to include this tension surrounding Peyton Farquhar and regarding his hanging using vivid descriptions. At the end of the story, it is revealed in a twist ending that his “escape” was just an illusion and he had really been hung. Robert Enrico’s short film adaptation, An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge, tries to portray and imitate the tension that was stored in Bierce’s piece. Subsequently, Enrico attempts to show this tension visually and audibly, and uses different camera shots and

editing techniques in order to take full advantage of it being a short film. The adaptation of this story into a short film was able to break the limitations that being a story only in text had. Thus, it even allowed for Enrico to expand upon Bierce’s descriptions. The malleable and highly variable nature of Enrico’s short film allowed Enrico to properly portray the tension that Bierce had inserted into his story with great detail.
Bierce primarily establishes the tension leading up to the ending using vivid descriptions, or imagery. He appeals to the senses by using language that relates to visual and auditory imagery. Farquhar, who is about to face certain death, gains acute senses, and focuses on other subjects aside from his inevitable death in order to clear his head about it. Bierce writes with imagery, saying, “He closed his eyes in order to fix his last thoughts upon his wife and children. The water, touched to gold by the early sun, the brooding mists under the banks at some distance down the stream, the fort, the soldiers, the piece of drift—all had distracted him” (306). He also writes about a sound that drives Farquhar closer to insanity, which “was a sound which he could neither ignore nor understand, a sharp, distinct, metallic percussion like the stroke of a blacksmith’s hammer upon the anvil” (306-307). This imagery helps to develop Farquhar’s emotions. However, aside from fired gunshots when Farquhar was able to escape with maintained acute senses, there is no other audible sounds made. Both of these usages of imagery regarding senses build up stress and tension regarding the situation as the reader comes to realize what predicament Farquhar is placed in. This tension is also significant as it helps to drive the plot further.
Aside from imagery, Bierce also uses flashback in order to boost the tension of the whole narrative. For example, he brings up Peyton’s occupation and his past status in Section II, writing that “Peyton Farquhar was a well-to-do planter, of an old and highly repsected Alabama family…he was naturally an originally secessionist and ardently devoted to the Southern cause” (307). While readers would tend to overlook certain details especially if they do not seem to apply to what is currently happening in the story like this detail, it becomes more prominent later on after he gets back on land and walks through a forest. Bierce describes the forest as “interminable” and that Farquhar “had not known that he lived in so wild a region” (312). If the reader considered what Bierce had divulged during the flashback into Farquhar’s life, it would seem uncanny for an Alabama planter to be unfamiliar of the terrain around him. While this is more likely to raise suspicion than to be counted as tension, it still serves as a tense moment due to how it occurs and the fact that it seems off-putting in general, as if something right was not happening.
In the beginning of the short film, Enrico already makes the tension clear by placing emphasis on nature, such as trees and birds, as well as Farquhar’s hanging in a film editing technique known as shot-reverse-shot, where a shot of a certain object is interrupted by the shot of another object, and the shot of the first object is brought back afterwards. Much of the structure of the beginning of the film is like this, which increases tension. Enrico also attempts to establish the tension of the situation by focusing on Farquhar’s facial expressions in a series of close up shots. In these close up shots, we are able to see the polarizing sides of Farquhar’s emotions. Farquhar’s pain and longing for another chance at life are shown in the first series of these shots, while his elated bliss and relief are expressed in the next series of shots. His range of emotions, primarily in the first series of the close up shots, are meant to cause tension and suspense as the audience is forced to think what comes next. Both of these techniques come together in the end as Farquhar runs to his wife in his plantation in an extremely prolonged sequence. Their reaction to seeing one another is shown simultaneously, with the cinematography cutting back and forth between Farquhar and his wife. The prolonged sequence during which this event occurs is meant to incite more suspense and tension much like the earlier close up shots and are meant to reflect Bierce’s imagery. Enrico is able to pull his technique of holding this tension successfully, especially when the truth of the matter had been revealed and Farquhar was not able to escape in reality.
The sounds used by Enrico in the short film are also representative of the tension in the original story.

In addition to the lack of overall sounds, Enrico does not place any music or major dialogue towards the beginning, where only noises made by nature can be heard. This immediately increases the solemnity of the situation, which increases the tension set by the almost-complete lack of sound. There is no dialogue in the film aside from Farquhar saying his wife’s name in a flashback and the Union soldiers, which ended up being imagined by Farquhar anyways. The soundtrack used by Enrico is quite short, and had also reflected upon the range of emotions felt by Farquhar like close up shots. However, the distortion of the voices singing certain songs such as “Livin’ Man” increase one’s stress level in accordance with Farquhar’s. The ticking of a clock, which ends up being Farquhar’s watch, gradually slowed down and became more distorted, which was meant to distort the dimensions of time in Farquhar’s mind as he dreams up an ideal scenario. This distortion of sound contributes to the overall tension of the film as it leaves the audience to find out what is occuring with the distortion of the music and sounds heard. Through the variety of sounds with the lack of aspects such as dialogue, Enrico is able to encapsulate the tension of the silence and the imagined scenario indicated in Bierce’s story

successfully.
Enrico’s proper use of different techniques and parts of a short film such as different frames and the music was able to lead to the right amount of tension felt by the audience and also of tension in the Farquhar’s situation. In addition, these techniques and aspects of a film act as visual and auditory aids that helps Enrico in establishing the imagery of Bierce. Overall, the abundance of cinematic film methods used by Enrico was able to help in accurately portraying the tension indicated by Bierce in the original short story.