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.
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.