John Ford's silent western about the building of the transcontinental railroad. It's the movie that put Ford on the map, so to speak, and helped pave the way for many epic westerns to follow. George O'Brien stars as a man who works to realize his father's dream of a railroad that connects east to west. Between this and fighting Indians, he barely finds time to romance Madge Bellamy. It's a beautiful-looking film, with a praiseworthy amount of work put into it. My favorite scenes were all related to the trains and railroad construction. The effort to make these scenes are realistic as possible is very impressive. The scope of it all, with the history, the great scenery, the thousands of extras, the wonderful action scenes -- it's just a damn fine piece of work from a director who would become one of the all-time greats. Really that road for Ford starts here. One final note: Winston Miller, the child actor who played the younger version of O'Brien's character, would go on to become a screenwriter and producer. One of the scripts he co-wrote was John Ford's classic My Darling Clementine.
Review of The Iron Horse
