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Landmark Work

The Iron Horse

Silent and Early Cinema Landmarks

The Iron Horse is a 1924 American silent epic Western directed by John Ford, dramatizing the construction of the first transcontinental railroad in the United States through a fictional story of a young man avenging his father's death while working on the line, culminating in a reenactment of the 1869 driving of the golden spike at Promontory Summit. Made on an unusually large scale for its time, with thousands of extras and real period locomotives, it was one of the most commercially successful films of its year and established Ford's reputation as a major director of large-scale Western epics. It remains widely studied as an important early statement of the Western genre's foundational myths about railroads and national expansion.

Facts
Release Year
1924 1
Country
United States 1
Classification
Original Language
English 1
Connections

Created By

John Ford, Figures
Source The Iron Horse (Wikipedia)

In Medium

Film, Media Forms
Source The Iron Horse (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. The Iron Horse (Wikipedia)
  • Lead sentence
    The Iron Horse is a 1924 American silent epic Western film
  • Lead sentence, original language
    The Iron Horse is a 1924 American silent epic Western film
  • In Medium: Film, Article lead sentence
    The Iron Horse is a 1924 American silent epic Western film directed by John Ford and produced by Fox Film.
  • Created By: John Ford, Article lead sentence
    The Iron Horse is a 1924 American silent epic Western film directed by John Ford and produced by Fox Film.
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