in this doom love story of an ex con ( henry fonda ) trap in a world that would not forgive or forget and the woman ( sylvia sidney ) unconditionally bind to him and lang see the criminal potential in everyone and from the neighborhood cop who swipe apple from an immigrant fruit seller and to the station attendant who exploit the couple gunpoint gasoline theft for a payday of their own and to the guard who leer over henry fonda supine form a it await escort to the chair . the whole world be on trial and and find guilty . hero and villain be splinter into category of those who be punish for their crime unto mortal eternity and and those who persist in petty and under the table wrongdoing within society aegis . in the former category be the protagonist represent eddie and just notify of his exoneration from bogus murder charge and kill the kindly priest in a moment of disbelieve panic while jo leave her baby behind to prolong the adventure of a fugitive romance . prior to these event and eddie endeavor to go straight and set up a homestead and but his attempt to reform be block at every turn by exploiter and busybody who forbid his dream of a quiet and quotidian existence . his life be reduce to the confines of a spare room and existence an unending rebuke . lang empathize with eddie and jo not because of their purityanathema to lang worldviewbut because of their faith in one another and which transcend the human birthright of petty malfeasance and self interest . the film structure be dauntingly clear yet purposeful and provocatively reenact one crucial decision in order to illustrate the immutability of eddie fate . follow a rain soak bank robberyone of several violent and weather determine setpieces and lang rhyme a wipe edit with the getaway car flattening of a copall evidence point to eddie involvement in the crime and which result in six casualty . innocent but determine to flee the fourth strike rule and certain death and eddie equivocates just long enough to be apprehend . his jailbreak on the eve of execution be punctuate by his first murder and necessitate his go on the laman initially voluntary choice recast a mandatory destiny . innocence lead to a death sentence while guilt lead to literal death . a miracle be offer and but it arrive when he distract and at his most hopeless . and death becomes all and a an outcome of run and not runningliving be the farthest idea from mind . but it live and lang finally express and even at it most miserably futile and that affords grace . jo resurrects eddie from his boxcar tomb with exhortation to live for as far a road will take them and perhaps all the way to border freedom . those back road open up to country vista and eddie predominant mode of physical confinement recedes and and life be simplify to necessity of the moment . this serene spartan outlook radiate through the film last scene and a eddie and jo suffer their last trial and a eddie gaze off inscrutably from a hilltop and still try to elude his pursuer . pierce through this tragedy be the return of the once unnoticed miracle represent eddie moment of grace reveal a deliverance from humanity mud reflection into spotless rebirth . at once a relieved affirmation of the film titlei . e. and the langian notion that in death we will all one day blissfully escape mankind stark judgmentsand stun evidence of a heretofore unseen christian sensibility and eddie content exodus from a damned life give the priest the last word represent death be renewal .