The Iron Horse
The Iron Horse
NR | 24 August 1924 (USA)
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Brandon, a surveyor, dreams of building a railway to the west. He sets off with his son, Davy, to survey a route. They discover a new pass which will shave 200 miles off the expected distance, but they are set upon by a party of Cheyenne. One of them, a white renegade with only two fingers on his right hand, kills Brandon and scalps him. Davy is all alone now.

Reviews
IslandGuru

Who payed the critics

TrueJoshNight

Truly Dreadful Film

Ezmae Chang

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

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Guillelmina

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

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Edgar Allan Pooh

. . . is to History what Today's Fox "News" is to Truth: A Bald-faced Lie! IRON HORSE comes from vastly over-rated director Jack Ford, a Confederate Red Commie Nazi sympathizer who won a record number of "Best Director" Golden Doodads simply because the Elections always have been rigged by the Billionaire Hollywood Plutocrats (which also is why Disney and MGM cleaned up on "Best Animated Shorts" Gelded Statuettes year-after-year during the Golden Age of Looney Tunes). IRON HORSE's "hero" Dave Brandon rides for the Pony Express nearly a decade after its historical demise, Bozo Ford moves the Union Pacific Railhead West, then East Willy-Nilly (with a random bride and groom achieving 21st Century Japanese Bullet Train Speeds by tooling along on the crooked 1868 rails from North Platte to Cheyenne in less than "10 hours"!), and Ford-the-Clown fabricates a Great Cheyenne Two-Fingered War Chief whose day job is spending 99% of his time being an actual WHITE MAN holding a land monopoly on the Sacred Black Hills Burial Grounds of the Sioux Tribe! This entirely Racist depiction of self-deprecating Asian and militarily idiotic Native Americans, along with MGM's GONE WITH THE WIND and hundreds of other Ford, Fox, and MGM Crimes against the Truth perpetuated "Jim Crow" Racism another 50 years in the Deplorable U.S. Red States, resulting in Hate Crimes, Dylan Roof-style Lynchings, and despicable Tweets from Game-Show-Host-in-Chief Rump even to this day!

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ironhorse_iv

One of greatest John Ford's film, I have ever saw. This epic-scale silent western was hugely influential on outdoor films that followed it due to its large production. The Iron Horse was a massive production that employed over 6,000 people; two temporary cities were built to accommodate them, with 100 cooks on hand to serve meals. The project of Fox was the response to the film The Covered Wagon (1923), the Paramount, which was a huge box office hit draw. Shot on location in Arizona in Monument Valley. John Ford love the location so much due to its romantic scenery, that he film most of his westerns there after this. Surprising this movie wasn't directed by John Ford himself, but Kevin Brownlow and David Gill, but you can truly see Ford's influence in the film. The film is about Davy Brandon (George O'Brien) who follows his father's dream that the entire North American continent will be linked by railroad East to West. However, to make this dream a reality, a clear trail must be found through the Rocky Mountains. However, the trial is dangerous with Indians raids, led by a white man name Peter Jesson or Two fingers (Cyril Chadwick). In some versions he is known as Bauman or Deroux, but its Jesson's first right. Trust me. He is named 'Two fingers' due to the lack of fingers on his right hand. Chadwick really had only two fingers on the one hand having lost the others in a mining accident before he became an actor. When legislation signed by President Abraham Lincoln has made it an official mandate. Davy is hired on as a railroad surveyor by Thomas Marsh (Will R. Walling), the father of his childhood sweetheart Miriam (Madge Bellamy). While Davy hopes to win Miriam's heart, he discover that Miriam is already married and shocked to discover her husband is Peter Jesson, now working with the railroad as a civil engineer. As the Union Pacific crew presses on to their historic meeting at Promitory Point, Davy must find a way to earn Miriam's love and uncover Peter's murderous past. The Iron Horse has become one of the biggest successes of Fox, in the era of silent films. The film overall theme is the rebirth of a nation, by its unification physical and symbolic, after the terrible Civil War that divided the country. The film presents an idealized symbol image of the construction of the American first transcontinental railroad. It culminates with the scene of driving of the golden spike at Promontory Summit on May 10, 1869. A historical real life date. There is a note in the title before this scene that the two original locomotives from 1869 event are used in the film, although this is false - both engines (Union Pacific No. 119 and Central Jupiter) were scrapped before 1910. Still, it's pretty close to what it must have felt to be there witnessing East meeting West. The movie nearly mirrors the ending to Union Pacific (1939). I can't help wondering how many times C. B. DeMille watched the Indian attack on the train before he borrowed many elements from it to use in Union Pacific? I think this movie influence that later film. Still, I can do without the title cards telling us that we are watching a film, or how they film it. It took me out of the film, a bit since it's pretty much telling you, don't get too into the film, it's just a bunch of actors acting. It's breaks like that, that detract the audience from the real story and action. Come on, you don't need that. Make the film seems like it's really happening. The film had some very interesting characters/ I love the unabashed masculine chivalry and heroism by the hero, Davy. Despite the oddly wild air swinging badly done fight scenes. I love the loving, strong-willed, independent women as seem in Miriam. It's odd seeing an old film where women are shooting guns and going to battle. The supporting comedic characters were also funny. You get a bit of the Victor Mclaglen and Ward Bond lovable misfits that permeated Ford's later films in Sgt. Slattery and Cpl. Casey. You get a really funny part in similar scenes such as the dentist, getting the guys to join the fight by having a stampede, and a lot of weird Irish jokes. The action was well-done. It was just as good as any modern film. There are two versions of this film. John Ford used two negative, simultaneously, which was a common practice at the time. One was for use in the United States that runs for 149 minutes and the other for other countries which 133 minute runtime. The international has a lot secondary takes and other shots unused in the editing room just to note. Still, the movie goes a little too long after the Indian battle in the American version. The International version is more tightly edited. Many years the only copy that was shown was the international version. For years, the American version wasn't available for viewing. All early Fox Films original negatives were destroyed in a fire in 1937 until it was found. The negative American original, was restored in 2007 and a new musical background was commissioned and now both can be seen. The score is likewise very good. Just wish, we could had heard the traditional tune of the railroad songs like 'Drill Ye Tarrier, Drill". There is a black & white version, Hand-coloring and a tan brown version. Watch the tan version, it looks like a dusty Western, indeed. Unless you are a silent film enthusiast or an aficionado of Westerns then you are probably unfamiliar with this movie so check it out. Overall I am very happy to have this in my collection

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Michael_Elliott

Iron Horse, The (1924) ** 1/2 (out of 4) John Ford's first epic was a massive production for Fox who pretty much spent a ton of money hoping that the film would bring people in, which it eventually did. The film made a ton of money for Fox but more important it took Ford out of the gutters of "B" Westerns and made him a director to be reckoned with. The film tells the "true" story of the first transcontinental railroad as Davy Brandon (George O'Brien) tries to fulfill the dreams of his father who was killed by Indians years earlier. Davy must also try to win the heart of a former love (Madge Bellamy) while fighting off a man who wants to see the railroad fail. There's no question that Ford and Fox pretty much threw everything into this film and you can tell because it's story is all over the place. While I think the film isn't nearly as good as its reputation you still can't help but be impressed by many of the visuals. According to legend there were over 6000 people employed on the production with most of them being extras to give all the scenes a more epic look. I'd believe this legend because the scenery is downright beautiful to look at and there's no question that it has the look of a mammoth epic. The highlight for me were all the scenes where we see the railroad being built as the boards are placed and railings hammered down. There were many future films that dealt with the railroad but I must say this one here makes it look the most realistic. We get many other great action scenes including countless fights with the Indians where once again you can see the large scale with the amount of people, horses and of course stunt men. I think what really hurts the film is the fact that it really doesn't tell a clear story. I'm not sure if the film originally ran much longer but the 135-minute running time feels way too long but the reason for this is that so much happens and often times it doesn't really connect together. Instead of telling one full story, it seems the screenplay bounces all over the place and tries to tell as much as possible. One minute we're dealing with the railroad and then we jump to some town being built up. One moment we're dealing with the Indians but the next moment we're worried about the dress Bellamy is going to wear. It feels as if we're just getting countless vignettes pieced together without much need to bring everything together. Perhaps Fox was going for a Cecil B. DeMille type epic but this here didn't fully work. The film starts off saying that the history is true but that's clearly not the case as there are certain historic figures used in the film that had no place in the original events (like Buffalo Bill). Both O'Brien and Bellamy are good in their roles as are Cyril Chadwick, George Waggner, Will Walling and Charles Edward Bull who plays President Lincoln. THE IRON HORSE is certainly worth watching once for its importance to film history and while there are many impressive moments on the whole I think the film comes up a tad bit short.

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w4crypto

I'm a very big fan of this great epic, and have been searching on my TIVO for it for some time. I was surprised and super pleased when Turner Classic Movies aired a new 2007 restoration (complete with 20th Century Fox searchlights at the end) at 12 Midnight-2:30a Eastern Time this morning. I was also quite surprised at the quality of the restoration and the cuts, viewing it on and HDTV screen. Following the movie, Robert Osborne was pitching a new Turner Classic Movie collection of some 24 Ford DVDs (and book, "Ford at Fox"). Now . . . if only someone would do Buster Keaton's classic 1965 "The Railrodder" as a remake in DVD (chuckle). 12.25.2007 An additional comment on reading many of the other comments: The film was not done in Arizona as mistakenly stated by Robert Osborne, but mostly in or about Wadsworth, Nevada in the Truckee River canyon East of Sparks/Reno. Ford also used "Beale's Cut" where old CA Hiway 14 entered the Newhall area. This was quite close to the Willam S. Hart Ranch, so it would have probably been well known to most directors of that era (this was that very severe "cut" in the mountain, which I hiked through in the early '50s). There were also scenes indicative of Chatsworth CA area (at the Northwest end of the San Fernando Valley).

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