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To me, this movie is perfection.

Strong and Moving!

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

John Ford's breakthrough Western epic blazed a trail for one of American cinema's major figures, so I really wanted to like it. But this is a film less about history than it is history, a dusty collection of tropes and sentimentality that falls well short of Ford's timeless standard.The movie opens in Springfield, Illinois, where we see a man puffing at his pipe as he looks off in the distance. "Having another of your day dreams about rails across the continent?" his neighbor laughs expositionally. Eventually the dreamer is killed by Cheyenne, but not before finding a deep cut in a mountain range that will simplify the building of a national railroad. It's up to his son to see his father's dream become reality.Silent films don't age equally well. Horror films and comedies hold their value, even improving in some instances. Period dramas and mysteries that require a fair amount of talking to move the plot, on the other hand, often do not. Silent films are great at establishing mood, but often struggle at meaning."Iron Horse" is a good example. Because you can't hear people talking, you need their expressions to tip you off on what's going on. Some silent directors struck a good balance; Ford here doesn't. The opening Springfield section is full of over-emoting, whether it's the scoffing neighbor or the icky tears of a lovestruck girl. One creepy tall guy stares intensely at two children for minutes on end, but it's okay because he's not a perv but our 16th president, just a log-cabin lawyer here but one who shares the dreams of an express to California.Poor Abe never had any luck with theatrical presentations. Here he seems to be trotted out as Ford's seal of approval, a leaden figure who moves through the early story like Christ in a Passion Play. The film also has two dedications to Lincoln, and a bas-relief image of the man superimposed between them. I admire the man enormously, but enough already.As an epic Western, "The Iron Horse" gets as much spectacle in as possible. This includes some memorable shots. One I often see in Ford and western retrospectives is of sunlit boxcars suddenly being darkened by the shadows of Indian warriors. Ford also uses perspective to great advantage, like a slight overhead of a Pony Express rider being chased by Indians, or a buffalo herd stampeding into frame.That buffalo herd is part of the problem, too. It's very loosely connected to the rest of the movie, a bit of explanation about how rail-building crews were fed. Otherwise, you need it as much as a cattle run glimpsed later in the film or the seduction of a character we already know is going to turn out bad. Ford liked to futz around in his movies with various ancillary tangents, but there's something about a silent that makes such an approach very slow viewing.The best thing in the movie by far is star George O'Brien, playing Davy, the son of the dreamer all grown up. When he finally arrives in the 45th or 55th minute (depending on whether you are watching the European or longer American version), he provides a natural, affable presence the movie sorely lacks. Before he comes riding in, you are stuck between the eyelash-batting heroine Miriam (Madge Bellamy) and the eyebrow-cocking comic relief of Casey (J. Farrell MacDonald), representing two poles of very bad acting.The central problem with the movie is how ridiculous its story is. The DVD cover quotes Leonard Maltin approvingly: "This movie invented what later became clichés." Without getting into spoilers, I ask you to ponder the real identity of the lead villain, or the goofy way the heroine decides to hold it against Davy for exposing her fiancé as a lying heel. "You promised me and you've broken - your word" she tells him, whereupon he bows his head mutely.If it was a sound film, he could have chewed her ear off making a case for himself. What you are stuck with here instead is an insipid and uninvolving melodrama relieved occasionally by a cool gun battle or a nice horizon line. "Iron Horse" shows Ford starting out with little more than a good eye and a taste for grand spectacle still somewhat beyond his powers to corral.

It's hard to know where to start with a review of this film, because it has so many different elements woven together expertly in interlocking layers. Suffice to say that in the closing scene (not a spoiler as we already know what happened at Promontory Point), a bunch of big-wigs (Leland Stanford, etc.) pose for a group photograph in front of the two locomotives (the original two that met at the actual event, if the title card is to be believed: the Jupiter from the C.P. and #116 from the U.P.). The picture is taken, but the movie viewer wonders who all these people are; as in real life, the big, important people in society get the credit and fame for a job that was done by the unimportant but very interesting little people.This movie is about those little people, pretty much all of them it sometimes seems, and in it a young John Ford does all the things right that, as an older man, he would get wrong in "Cheyenne Autumn." Ford was making "The Iron Horse" for audiences who were already familiar with the gritty realism in William S. Hart's films, so he had to give it almost a documentary feel in some parts, as another commenter noticed. There's also a lot of give-and-take between ethnic groups that at times gets pretty sharp-edged, just like reality, but it always (and sometimes very subtly) is resolved by their work on a common project, for a common goal.Ford also seems to build clichés just to blow them away. (Spoiler coming up.) The big Indian attack on workers at the end of the line goes pretty much as we expect at first, up to the point where the reinforcements arrive--no cavalry in this movie; it is fellow workers coming to the rescue, but only after a verbal brawl between the Irish and the Italians back in town, which was resolved when Texans arrived with several thousand cattle, and when they saw what was going on, stampeded them through town to force the Italians to get onto the relief train (Ford uses his excellent "run directly into the camera" view with the stampede and also a few other places in the film). See what I mean about layers? Right; back at the end of the line, the Indians are still whooping it up in a circle around the workers who are holed up under the cars. Reinforcements arrive and drive the Indians off. But then the Indians regroup, line up, and charge, cavalry style. Things look desperate for our heroes but they are finally rescued...by more Indians.It's a well-prepared surprise and that is so enjoyable. There are no deus ex machina moments in "The Iron Horse"; you just start wondering what is going to happen next and watch it all come together perfectly.Other excellent points include the casting of Charles Edward Bull as Lincoln (what else did he do, I wonder; his IMDb bio is empty). The bar fight scene is excellent, too, and so is the death match between Davy and Two Fingers (which O'Brien's training as a fighter makes especially realistic).By the way, Miriam doesn't care that Davy went into a bar; her problem is that Davy broke his word by fighting Jesson after telling her he would not. It's a really stupid move on her part, and the audience recognizes that - kind of an old melodrama touch, but it keeps the story moving.It's interesting to see Ford's explanation of the buffalo hunts in this movie (they were food for the workers) and contrast it to the one suggested in "The Searchers" (they were slaughtered to starve the native people off the land).Well, enough. See this movie. It's over 2 hours long (how many reels was that, I wonder) and that is just the right length.

In Springfield, the surveyor Brandon dreams on building the first transcontinental railroad while his skeptical friend Thomas Marsh (Will Walling), who is a small constructor, believes he is nothing but a dreamer chasing a rainbow; their children Davy Brandon and Miriam Marsh are best friends. Brandon heads with Davy to the west, where he finds a possible pass for the railroad. However, a group of Cheyenne led by a white renegade kills and scalps Brandon; Davy, who is hidden, sees that the killer has only two fingers in his right hand. In June 1862, President Abraham Lincoln (Charles Edward Bull) authorizes the construction of two railroads: the Union Pacific from Omaha, Nebraska, to West; and the Central Pacific, from Sacramento, California, to East. His old friend Thomas Marsh is responsible for the construction of the Union Pacific and his daughter Miriam (Madge Bellamy) is engaged of his engineer Jesson (Cyril Chadwick). After many incidents during the construction, Thomas Marsh is short of money and he needs to find a shortcut other than the original route through Smoky River. However, the powerful Bauman (Fred Kohler) that owns the lands where the railroad should pass, bribes Jesson to keep the original route. When the grown-up Davy (George O'Brien) appears in the town bringing the mail, Miriam is glad in meeting him and he tells to Thomas that his father had discovered a pass through the Black Hills. Thomas assigns Jesson to ride with Davy to check the ravine, but Bauman convinces the engineer to kill the rival. Jesson cuts the rope that Davy is using to descent to the pass; returns to town and tells that Davy had an accident and died. However, when Davy returns to town, he discloses the truth and the situation of the engineer becomes unbearable. The desperate Bauman uses the two fingered renegade to convince the Cheyenne to war against the workers and Davy has the chance to meet the killer of his father. On 10 May 1869, the locomotives 116 and Jupiter meets each other in the intersection of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific."The Iron Horse" is indeed an impressive silent epic western of John Ford. Of course this western is flawed, with excessive patriotism, subplots and running time of 150 minutes. But considering the limited and primitive technical resources in 1924, it is amazing how the director could have made, for example, the scene of the stampede or the Cheyenne attack. Further, there are unusual angles of camera and the take from below the train arriving to save the workers is sensational in the prime cinema that used huge cameras. The plot seems to be based on the true story of the two North-American transcontinental railroads and the lead story of Davy, Miriam and her father is engaging. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Cavalo de Ferro" ("Iron Horse")

"The Iron Horse" is the first trans-American railway system; the story of its construction is told in this film. Chief among the other plot lines is the love story featuring hero George O'Brien (as Davy Brandon) and heroine Madge Bellamy (as Miriam Marsh). Villainous Cyril Chadwick (as Peter Jesson) comes between them. Will Mr. O'Brien and Ms. Bellamy come together? Will the Central Pacific railroad and the Union Pacific railroad hook up? Only time will tell… This film takes a long, long time to pick up steam. Star O'Brien (and many regular cast members) appear only after a prolonged prologue. Some of the supporting cast are dispensable, like the unfunny "three musketeers". Fortunately, "The Iron Horse" is expertly directed by John Ford; and, lead actor O'Brien is very appealing. ****** The Iron Horse (8/28/24) John Ford ~ George O'Brien, Madge Bellamy, Charles Edward Bull, Cyril Chadwick