The Iron Horse

The Iron Horse was John Ford's 50th film and remains his most celebrated of the silent era. Its theme of enterprise and achievement, its open-air locations and setting in a vigorous and pioneering past proved just the subject to stimulate the young director's talent. The sheer scale of the film surpassed all other Westerns of the silent era, and established Ford as one of the leading directors in the industry. The film combines a conventional tale of double-dealing, vengeance and romance with a poetic sense of history, and an epic theme - uniting a nation by building a transcontinental railroad, and a great man's dream realised by the courage, skill and labour of ordinary folk.