The Iron Horse

Ford's film is blessed with a momentum that is reminiscent of a steam engine bearing down the track. Ford is also able to hold the tension between both the hope and despair that come with progress. Great film.

This film is one huge mythmaking exercise and that made me weary from the get go, but it started off quite charming and, despite a few bumps along the way, keeps it up for over two hours. It helps that the main characters are equal to the story which balances the grand scale with a strong human element. The film has strong pacing and editing and while the visuals aren't magnificent, they are good. You can certainly see a lot of the seeds for future westerns being planted.

75.500

"It's a large canvas, and one that the filmmaker, then 29, often has trouble filling." - Fernando F. Croce

Much like Stagecoach, there's the buildup of character development, then grand action. Many amazing setpieces and gorgeous photography. The last quarter is silent cinema at its best.

The sheer scope and ambition of this early Ford project trigger an epic feel matched by few other westerns in film history. The Iron Horse deftly shifts gears between action, melodrama, comedy and quiet tragedy (all the while serving as something of a history lesson), with nary a dull moment across its lengthy runtime. The cast impress across the board, with special praise reserved for Fred Kohler's deliciously sinister villain.

Impressive in scale and well made, but the building of the transcontinental railroad ends up being a more impressive achievement than it is an actual story. The romance/drama stuff is done better elsewhere by Ford and others. It's not bad, though. The scale is really something to see, though. It's a Big movie.