Adaptation of a short story that heavily relies on interior monologue such as "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce to film encounters numerous challenges. Although much more detail to time and place is included, which aids in creating the setting, any observations about the external world by the characters remain internal. However, the video version of this particular composition renders the human will to survive quite successfully even without spoken dialogue.

Both the written and film versions of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" begin with a scene of Federal troops preparing to hang a man from a railroad bridge over a stream. In the short story, Peyton Farquhar, the Southern gentleman to be executed, falls through the ties of the bridge when the sergeant steps off the supporting plank but drops off the side of the bridge in the movie - a slight alteration in specific detail that does not affect the outcome of the story.

As Farquhar awaits his death, he notices a piece of driftwood floating in the current of the water, a detail represented in both the written and film accounts of the short story. In the narrative, though, he expresses his thoughts on how slowly the stream appeared to be moving the driftwood along. The film presents only the image of the piece of wood.

During the last moments before being hung, Farquhar thinks about his wife and children but is interrupted by the sound of his pocket watch. As if time were slowing down in his last seconds, the interval between each tick seems to slow down to a deafening, maddening pace until he again reflects upon his family and a way in which he could perhaps escape in the written account. In the film version, conversely, he perceives his watch as speeding up until one of the officers assisting in his hanging steals the watch from Farquhar by removing the timepiece from his coat pocket. At this time, the sergeant moves off the supporting board.

Whereas in the film with Farquhar falling directly into the water after the counterweight is removed from the plank, the narrative includes information on the reason for his execution. Farquhar and his wife are enjoying the evening outside their Southern plantation when a gray-uniformed soldier, who later transpires to be a Northern spy, rides up to the couple and asks for a drink of water. While the wife fetches the soldier his water, Farquhar and the man discuss the orders from the Union to hang any civilian caught meddling with the railroad with Farquhar accidentally informing the Federal spy of his plans to burn down Owl Creek Bridge. Although not affecting the conclusion of the story, the addition of the explanation of his hanging in the written story develops the character more so than in the movie and supplies a motive for the Federal troops.

From the point where Farquhar plunges into the water after the rope used to hang him with breaks, both the written and film versions of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" are essentially the same; however, the emotional differences between the composition and the movie due to internal monologue become intensely apparent.

In the movie, Farquhar breaks free of the bonds on his appendages, removes the noose from around his neck, and swims for the surface of the stream, similar to his actions in the written narrative. Without spoken dialogue, though, he cannot express on film like in the printed story his thoughts on his physical feelings and situation, which intensify the dire circumstances of the scene.

As the darkness above him increases whilst he sinks to the bottom of the river, Farquhar realizes he is already suffocating from the rope around his neck and thinks that perishing underwater on a streambed is ridiculous. He recounts the pain shooting throughout his body and the loud sounds he hears in his ears. When he removes the noose from his neck, he feels as if he is watching himself perform the task from above, not consciously taking off the rope. He commands his hands to put the cord back once a severe pang speeds through his entire body, but they disobey and propel him toward the surface - all details that are important to the internal state of the character but are unexpressed in the movie.

Once he bursts forth from under the water and inhales a deep breath of air, Farquhar looks around at his surroundings and notes more specific details on everything he sees: individual trees, veins on leaves, dewdrops on blades of grass, insects, spider webs. The movie renders this heightened awareness by focusing up close on each target for a few seconds but also includes a corny ballad in the soundtrack, which is unnecessary and redundant in revealing his increased alertness.

When the soldiers begin firing guns at their escaped prisoner, Farquhar begins swimming farther down stream until he is tossed onto a rocky bank. Conveyed in the short story but not in the film are his thoughts as bullets rush past him. But once he reaches the shore, hidden from his pursuers, both the narrative and the movie effectively portray his exhilaration of being alive. He rolls in the shiny sand and tosses the beautiful pebbles in the air.

After shortly rejoicing in his narrow escape, Farquhar takes off running through rugged forest in the direction of his home and does not stop until he reaches his smiling wife on their plantation. As he reaches her embrace, he is abruptly thrown back to Owl Creek Bridge where his dead body, neck broken from the noose, sways gently under the bridge. Though a number of difficulties are encountered when adapting a story that includes mostly interior monologue as opposed to spoken dialogue to film, both the written and movie versions effectively render the final irony of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge."