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16 out of 16 people found the following review useful: John Ford's First Epic Look At American West, 13 December 2000 Author: Ron Oliver (revilorest@juno.com) from Forest Ranch, CA
A young boy grows to fulfill his murdered father's vision of seeing THE IRON HORSE, the mighty transcontinental railway, stitch the country together, binding East to West.Bursting with excitement & patriotic fervor, THE IRON HORSE is the film which put young director John Ford on the cinematic map. He brought together all he had learned from years of making shorter, smaller films and he produced a product which heralded his enormous contributions to sound films in the years to come. This is a `director's picture' in that the stars, as good as they are, are almost negligible; what was important here was Ford's vision & his ability to place it before the audience. Indeed, he does not even bring his leading man (George O'Brien) on screen until 45 minutes into the story - a shortcut to disaster almost anywhere else.(In all fairness it should be noted that O'Brien, handsome & strong-limbed, does very well as the gentle hero. He would find similar roles in other epic films of the decade. J. Farrell MacDonald, as Irish Corporal Casey, is the prototype for many comically eccentric fellows who would appear in other Ford westerns.)The film often takes on the aspects of an ancient newsreel. Cattle drives, Indian attacks & endless track laying all look utterly real. Particularly fascinating is the depiction of the dismantlement of the end-of-the-track town, so that not even a dog is left, as it is moved many miles further on to the west. This type of arcane information is what makes watching very old films so enjoyable.THE IRON HORSE represented the largest migration out of Hollywood for location shooting up to that time. Nothing like this had been attempted before, so Ford & his lieutenants were forced to make up the rules as they went along.Hiring a circus train, the small army of extras arrived at the subzero Nevada location in January of 1924. The conditions which greeted them were authentically primitive. It was so cold, the extras quickly began sleeping in their costumes. Finding the train to be flea ridden, they moved into the sets and began living exactly as the characters they were portraying. The female extras especially suffered from the rugged conditions. A frontier mindset seemed to take over many of the cast & crew; the circus tent, which doubled as both the movie saloon and the crew's commissary, eventually had to have the catsup bottles removed from the tables to discourage the many fights which kept breaking out.Authenticity found its way into the movie in other, more positive, ways. Several of the elderly Chinese extras, representing laborers on the Central Pacific, had actually worked on the real McCoy sixty years previous. They came out of retirement to appear in the film & enjoyed themselves immensely. Ford also managed to locate the two original locomotives which met at Promontory Point, Utah, in 1869 and reunited them for the film's climax.Composer John Lanchbery has contributed a splendid soundtrack to the restored video version, incorporating several contemporaneous tunes of the period. It would be intriguing to double bill THE IRON HORSE with Cecil B. DeMille's UNION PACIFIC (1939), which tells the same historical story, but with a completely different tack & set of fictional characters.
14 out of 16 people found the following review useful: One of the great, early Westerns, still recommendable., 3 August 2002 Author: FilmFlaneur from London
The Iron Horse was both Ford's 50th film and one of the most important silent Westerns. Until the 29-year-old director came to work on this epic project, he had gradually built up an expertise and standing with a number of smaller productions, many of them oaters, few of which survive today. This 1924 film consolidated his talent and gave him a creative reputation which lasted until he was deemed 'old fashioned' at the start of 1950s.It's a story that characteristically combines the grand with the intimate, through a celebration of the coming of progress. The Iron Horse's narrative covers such issues as the Civil War, Lincoln's presidency, the Indian wars, Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill Hickok, ethnic relationships, cattle trailing and railway history in a span of little over two hours - all with an absence of narrative strain still impressive today. Ford's skill in marshalling many disparate elements into one large canvas, successfully orchestrating history (proudly announced here as 'accurate and faithful in every particular') is one example why he was such an exemplary Western director.George O'Brien plays Davy Brandon, whose father dreams of rails eventually crossing the continent. After setting out for the west, Brandon senior is killed by the evil Two Fingers (Fred Kohler). Years later Davy sets to work for Union Pacific, scouting for a short cut through Cheyenne territory that will ensure the success of the transcontinental link up. Aiming to prevent this are the dastardly forces of corrupt surveyor Jesson (Peter Chadwick) and half-breed Baumann (Kohler). Meanwhile, Davy discovers his childhood sweetheart Miriam (Madge Bellamy) is engaged to the disreputable Jesson. The rest, as they say, is history. Throughout Ford's career he was wont to use symbols to indicate the coming of progress in the West. In My Darling Clementine (1946) it was the social dance at the unfinished church. In Liberty Valance (1964) the desert flowers on Tom Doniphon's (Wayne's) coffin. The Iron Horse is dedicated to George Stevenson and, not unexpectedly, here it is the railway itself that represents the growth of civilisation. Its ultimate success as an enterprise is less that of a profitable commercial venture than of beneficial ideal, as visualised by President Lincoln. Amidst the idealism of railway expansion, Ford includes the broad comedy common to many of his films - the Irish and Italian labourers continuing a friendly rivalry. Their work songs, spelt out in caption cards while they construct the track, punctuate the action, creating convenient breathing spaces between more dramatic scenes. The 'three musketeers' - as Slattery (Francis Powers) Casey (Farrell Macdonald) and Schultz (Jim Welch) are called - have their own amusing scenes based around some frontier dentistry. But essentially they function as a kind of comic chorus, their earthy, ethnic interjections keeping the film's idealism down to earth. There's an element of this too in Judge Haller (James Marcus), a Roy Bean character, whose dispensation of frontier justice is as arbitrary as it is often inspired. Least convincing to the modern viewer is the character of Miriam, whose simpering virginity comes closest to the two-dimensional women found often in the world of D.W. Griffith's melodramas. Her condemnation of the clean living Davy's visit to the saloon, immediately after being with her (where, ironically, he has gone to patch things up with Jesson) seems almost wilfully annoying; ludicrous even, given the rough environment in which she finds herself. But that her heart belongs to the muscular scout is never in doubt, a fact made clear by their rapport in the opening scenes set in their childhood. In addition, once she has gained womanhood, her pending relationship with Jesson is condemned by implication as President Lincoln looks askance at their match. The same dramatic shorthand is employed through the palpable tension when Davy and Baumann first meet, an impending confrontation telegraphed as sharply as any message sent by mechanical means. There is also a intense psychological antipathy between Davy and Jesson, notably in the standout barroom scene. In these moments O'Brien plays well, almost making one forget Ford's great films with Wayne to come. But, by necessity, this is principally a film of the great outdoors where Ford excels in portraying man battling against external obstacles, rather than facing internal stress. In his Stagecoach (1938), which was to later revitalise the genre, it would be a different story, one of comparative intimacy. Here, the heroes and villains who react together along the railroad work out their differences in the open air with grand gestures, fisticuffs and work songs, rather than anguished conversation. And it is these epic scenes that remain in the mind when the film is done. The attack of the Indians on the supply train, their furious shadows thrown against the sides of the carriages; the snow swept work camps; the many panoramas of frontier life; Davy and Bauman's final conflict in the sleeper 'house'; the final meeting at Promontory Point for the 'wedding of the rails', and so on.Such visual grandness does not preclude economy however. One only has to think of hurriedly arranged burial of 'the old soak' and the marriage held at North Platte, or the establishing scenes at the beginning of the film, to see how Ford was fully in command of his material, switching scale and focus with ease. With the joining of the two railroads and the closing of the bond between Miriam and Davy, there is a natural conclusion to both the human, and the mechanical elements of the story - Davy actually waits until the final spike has been driven home before committing himself to her side. Thematically, Fritz Lang was to acknowledge a debt to Ford's classic in his Western Union (1938), which has a related story, but his film is the slighter of the two and less innocent. Ford's epic remains the definitive telling of these particular events and its authenticity can still be recommended today.
13 out of 15 people found the following review useful: Excellent (if old) western railroad movie, 11 May 2005 Author: bigdinosaur from Wyoming
Since I live in Cheyenne, WY this type of movie really appeals to me. As all historians know, various towns along the route of this railroad (which coincides quite closely to interstate 80 in Wyoming) were made during its construction. Cheyenne and Rock Springs (because of its coal mining) were especially notable.I had seen this movie several years ago and was delighted to see it being broadcast on the Turner Classic Movies channel. Perhaps they will re-broadcast it again in the future.This movie, while not completely accurate historically, certainly gives an idea of the magnitude of the endeavor being undertaken. And it does feature a real locomotive which operated on the railroad during the period portrayed. Historical buffs definitely should not be swayed from enjoying this title simply because it may not strictly conform to history.I won't go into the story except to say that the various sub-plots keep the viewer very entertained. This was a very well-done movie in my opinion. Acting was very good. And the cinematography was very impressive.Fans of either westerns or silent-era films certainly should not miss this one.
9 out of 9 people found the following review useful: Where East Meets West, 8 October 2005 Author: lugonian from Kissimmee, Florida
THE IRON HORSE (Fox, 1924), directed by John Ford, is an story set during the middle of the 19th century America about the building of the first Transcontinental Railroad. One of the very best examples of a lavish scale western produced during the silent era, said to be the answer to Paramount's earlier production of THE COVERED WAGON (1923), but most importantly, the first major project for Ford after nearly a decade in the director's chair to now gain the recognition he truly deserves.The story opens with a prologue set in Springfield, Ill., 1853, revolving around Davy Brandon, first as a youngster (Winston Miller) with deep affection towards Miriam Marsh (Peggy Cartwright), his childhood sweetheart. Davy's father (James Gordon) is a surveyor who dreams about the crossing of the western wilderness, while Miriam's father, Thomas Marsh (William Walling), is a skeptic. However, one of the citizens, Abraham Lincoln (Charles Edward Bull), believes in this man's theory and knows he will accomplish his means. Setting out to accompany his father on a mission to survey an appropriate route through the mountains for the coming railroad, Davy bids a tearful farewell to Miriam. During their westward journey, Davy, who is hidden away because of foreseen danger, witnesses the brutal killing of his father by a white man dressed up as an Indian whose only identification if the loss of a thumb and two fingers on his right hand. After burying his father, Davy is taken in by a passing scouting party. A decade later,1862, Abraham Lincoln is now president of the United States, Davy (George O'Brien) is a Pony Express rider out to fulfill his father's dream in leading into the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, and Miriam (Madge Bellamy), now engaged to Peter Jesson (Cyril Chadwick), an Eastern surveyor working for her father, who is actually working for Deroux (Fred Kohler), the richest landowner who stands to profit if the railroad goes through instead of through the pass. After being reunited with Miriam, Jesson finds himself in stiff competition. The two men become become bitter enemies, especially after Jesson's attempts in doing away with him, complicating matters before the golden spike gets hammered into the rail on that historic day of 1869 as the railroad from east to west finally meets.The supporting players consists of Gladys Hulett as Ruby; Jack O'Brien as Dinny; along with three musketeer pals J. Farrell MacDonald as Corporal Casey; Francis Powers as Sergeant Slattery; and James Welch as Private Schultz providing comedy relief, and in smaller roles, historical figures of Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickok and John Hay played by George Wagner, John Padjan and Stanhope Wheatcroft.THE IRON HORSE (title indicating the locomotive train) plays like a D.W. Griffith production providing prologue, historical figures, flashbacks and epilogue, and like a screen adaptation to an Edna Ferber novel which tells its story through the passage of time, but not concluding in the usual manner in finding much of the characters as middle-aged sporting white hair and wrinkles, along with soap-opera ingredients (complicated love between the two central characters and the villainous third party). However, this is John Ford's storytelling, cliché as it may be, placing fictional characters against historic setting, along with the oft-told murder-mystery subplot of a son out to avenge his father's killer, yet, a historical movie that became an important part of cinema history. Ford, the future four time Academy Award winning director, with a handful of motion pictures to his credit, his best known being the westerns, would provide similar themes in his future film-making. As popular as THE IRON HORSE was back in 1924, it's amazing that Ford didn't attempt a remake, especially in the year 1939 when westerns were at its peak. However, Cecil B. DeMille attempted a similar story with UNION PACIFIC (Paramount, 1939) starring Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea. Like THE IRON HORSE, UNION PACIFIC, which tells its story in over two hours, provides villains, Indian massacres and the use of thousands of extras. George O'Brien, a rugged actor, was an ideal choice to play Davy Brandon, and although he worked under Ford's direction numerous times in latter years, as well as showing his capability as a dramatic actor in F.W. Munau's SUNRISE (1927), he never became a major leading man, however, worked steadily mostly in "B" westerns right through the early 1950s. His co-star, Madge Bellamy, provides her typical heroine caught between two men who vie for her affection with conviction, but isn't as strong a character as one would have wanted her to be. While the acting overall is satisfactory, from today's viewpoint, some heavy melodramatics, such as the method of fainting by youngster Davy after witnessing his father's massacre, or Madge Bellamy's performance in general, might provoke laughter, but overall, location scenery including the Monument Valley, a race against time, and action scenes simply make up some of its flaws.Television history to THE IRON HORSE began when it became one of the movies from the Paul Killiam collection to air on public television's 12-week series of "The Silent Years" (June-September 1975), hosted by Lillian Gish. In her profile about THE IRON HORSE (accompanied by an excellent piano score by William Perry), Gish talks about its location filming in the Nevada desert, the use of 100 cooks to feed the huge cast, and 5,000 extras consisting of 3,000 railway workers, 1,000 Chinese laborers, many horses and steers, etc. Decades later, THE IRON HORSE made it to the American Movie Classics cable channel (1997-1999) accompanied by an orchestral score and 15 minutes longer than its 119 minutes length from "The Silent Years." Distributed onto video cassette through Critic's Choice in 1997, the same print and piano score taken from "The Silent Years," it's currently seen on The Westerns Channel. DVD format available.THE IRON HORSE may not be historically accurate as promised through its opening inter-titles, but it's sure an ambitious John Ford production.
10 out of 11 people found the following review useful: Linking east to west:the accomplishment of a dream., 15 September 2003 Author: tmwest from S. Paulo, Brazil
This film has unforgettable scenes, like: 1)Abraham Lincoln meeting Miriam many years later, you suddenly realize that he was the man that was looking at her playing with her boyfriend many years before. 2)the cruel hunting of the buffaloes. 3) the towns that would emerge near the railroad track, with their typical characters, saloons, etc 4) the fact that the two real locomotives that actually met are brought again in the film for the scene of the meeting. However this film has been hurt by the lack of sound more than other westerns like "The Covered Wagon" and "Tumbleweeds". These two films had long scenes that required no talking, whereas a film that shows a railroad being built needs more interpretation.
11 out of 14 people found the following review useful: Rated 10 for technical accuracy in railroading history, 28 May 2006 Author: wcrypto from United States
Having at one time been the Southern Pacific Trainmaster for the territory of the eastern half of the predecessor Central Pacific, I have done extensive research on the old CPRR, between Montello NV and Lovelock NV.Although not a "railfan" nor a "steam fan", I am an amateur historian.John Ford's work in "The Iron Horse" was absolutely brilliant. He brought to the screen the real feeling of genuineness with the way the original "Chinaman's railroad" (as many local historians called it) was constructed, to the screen with absolute realism.My father and his brother were working for Universal at the time this was made.I'm a real fan of John Ford, and would rank this among his "most technically correct" film accomplishments, and I know that he always strove for realism.Walter J Gould
6 out of 9 people found the following review useful: Patriotic Early western, 12 June 2005 Author: Teebs2 from Kent, UK
Very early John Ford western, don't bother looking for John Wayne here! "The Iron Horse" tells the story of the building of the railroad across America from the East to West coasts. Of course this is a movie so we also get a romance plot, a vengeance plot, hostile Indians, corrupt officials, jovial Irishmen, nasty Indians and so forth.Although the tone of the film is mostly pretty patriotic and upbeat, there are several darker moments that hint at the corruption and greed in business as landowners attempt to influence the route of the railroad with bribes of women and money. Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West" amongst many other later Westerns takes this theme further. Much of the work is done by Chinese immigrants, but they all seem pretty cheerful here!In many areas the film is inevitably dated, particularly it's comic scenes and the aforementioned treatment of racial stereotypes. There are a few landscape shots and action scenes, but none as stunning or exciting as in Ford's slightly later "Stagecoach". The 2 hour plus running time is also a little too much. However, the film does succeed in creating an overwhelming sense of achievement in the creation of the railroad, although the sense that 'Civilisation' may actually be a threat, developed in later Westerns, is already apparent with the saloon that doubles as a court of law, and a drunken judge.
4 out of 6 people found the following review useful: Worth a look, 23 August 2006 Author: jlon from Dublin
Rare silent full-length Western. DVD review.Story of the building of the Union Pacific railway.Satisfying Western done in different tints of colour. Movie starts out with two opposing views on the new railway and goes on to give a human angle on its construction. The aim was to build two lines which would meet up (a great scene) - Chinese and Irish build the railway. Cheyenne oppose the building of the line (they even try to stop the Iron Horse train with a rope!). Movie contains many of the hallmarks of later Westerns - there's even the famous John Ford shot of a doorway framing the actors.The Iron Horse is worth a look.
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful: "By superhuman effort and undaunted courage", 22 December 2008 Author: nora_nettlerash from Ruritania
In the mid-1920s cinema saw the second coming of the epic, the first having been in the mid-1910s, and giants of the era such as Douglas Fairbanks and Cecil B. DeMille were continually upping the ante on each other with bigger and bigger pictures. Meanwhile the Western had been in gradual development, and by now it was only logical that this ever-popular genre was itself given a massiveness makeover. Paramount had the first stab with The Covered Wagon in 1923, and the following year Fox responded with The Iron Horse.The Western itself of course went through many developments in theme, and can be grouped into different phases. The Iron Horse, along with Covered Wagon, Three Bad Men (1926) and The Big Trail (1930) belongs squarely to the "pioneer" Westerns which dominate this era. In these pictures the west would typically be an unclaimed wilderness, and the heroes were those who explored, settled and developed it. By now the genuine old west was fading from living memory, and so now we had the first generation for whom it could be a romanticised piece of history. Plus of course there is the fact that the wagon trails, railroads and cattle drives of the pioneer Western were ideal for the aforementioned fashion for epic pictures.Today of course The Iron Horse is best remembered for its director – a young John Ford. Even back then Ford had a close association with the Western, although to some extent his style is still in development here. His shot composition relies heavily on very distinctive framing devices such as tree branches or posts, and sometimes the shots look a little cluttered. Also, his approach to the romantic love scenes is entirely conventional – with close-ups, rhyming angles and sparse backgrounds so as to focus on the actors. The older (more cynical?) John Ford tended to shoot these moments rather flatly, the camera hanging back, and even throwing in distracting background business.On the other hand, and perhaps in ways that matter more, this is very much the same John Ford of Stagecoach, Fort Apache and so forth. In particular is his vision of the west. Right from the opening scenes he contrasts the smallness of the homestead with the romantic allure of the wilderness – framing the actors tightly in the opening shots, and then cutting to point-of-view shots of the trail. He always captures the vastness of the outdoors, and yet without ever dwarfing the people in it. Particularly impressive (and this is perhaps where Ford's greatest strength lay) is his ability to combine different storytelling elements in a single shot – for example at one point we see a mother mourn her son at his grave in the foreground, while a heavily loaded train passes through in the background.Another typically Fordian element is the precedence he gives to the comic relief characters. On location they were largely working without a script, so Ford could spin their scenes out as long as he wanted. As with many of his later pictures, charming though it is, the comedy business threatens to unbalance the real story. We can also see in "Drill ye terriers" a forerunner to the group singsong that is a staple of even the earliest John Ford talkies.A nod to the actors is also due. This was George O'Brien's first lead role and he doesn't do badly, considering he got the part mainly for being a good-looking newcomer who could ride a horse. He doesn't emote too convincingly, but he moves well which is the most important thing for a picture like this. The other standout is J. Farrell MacDonald, who played the kind of roles for Ford in the silent era that would later be filled by Victor McLaglan in the talkies – basically a comical Irish drunk. But like McLaglan he hid real dramatic talent under the act, and he emerges as the most genuine player in this piece.Ford's confidence and passion for the genre make the Iron Horse a classic, but it's worth remembering that The Iron Horse is also a triumph of post-production. Cast and crew had gone on location without a complete shooting script and large chunks of it are more or less improvised. As well as directing Ford took one of his earliest credits of producer and, would thus have been able to continue supervising the product after shooting was over. It's hard to imagine what any other producer or editor would have made of the footage he brought back from location. It's unlikely they would have kept so much of the comic diversions and "oirishness", and it's perhaps with The Iron Horse that we have - for better or for worse - the earliest example of an unbridled John Ford.
5 out of 9 people found the following review useful: S'alright!, 21 October 1999 Author: gazzo-2 from United States
I remember seeing this, done with a real blue tint if I remember right. J. Farrell McDonald was fun-the bald guy who looks like William Frawley? He shows up as a bartender in John Ford's lator 'My Darling Clementine' '46, pretty much looking the same way. This was pure '20's Western stuff-having Buffalo Bill AND Wild Bill together(can't tell'em apart here well either...), and Indian attack or three, Lincoln on hand for Americana, some good stuff with buffalo hunting and etc. George O'brien as the hero is alright too. He went on to play the same kinds of rolls as Tim Holt and Bob Steele did for ages.This holds up well, is kind of long but involving, and NO, the music score is NOT hokey or out of place. Worked real well the two times I have sat through this film, actually.*** outta ****, a semi-forgetten classic.
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