112 The Iron Horse

[swo17]

The Iron Horse



The 1924 blockbuster that launched John Ford into Hollywood’s emerging A-list of directors, The Iron Horse is an epic mythification of the American railroad’s birth: a rambunctious blend of historical drama and Western actioner, revenge story and saloon comedy, noble biopic and all-bets-off tall tale.

Neighbour to the pre-presidential Abe Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois, young Davy Brandon accompanies his father westward to realise the elder’s dream of a rail line bridging the ends of the continent. Years after Brandon Sr.’s murder and scalping by a two-fingered Cheyenne half-breed, the adult David (played by George O’Brien, three years before his lead role in Sunrise, here in the first of ten films he made with Ford) joins in the effort now underway to lay track and accommodate “the iron horse”. Once more stir the blood and butterflies of Davy’s past as Ford guides his characters’ fates towards final convergence, like the merging of the tracks from east and west.

With its expressive compositional prowess, incredible stunt work, and generous humour, The Iron Horse anticipates the bounteous universe that Ford would go on to calibrate perfectly in his greatest works. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present The Iron Horse in its US, full-length version for the first time on DVD in the UK.

SPECIAL TWO-DISC DVD EDITION:

• Original, US, 150-minute version of the film, accompanied by a 2007 score by Christopher Caliendo
• Shorter, international 133-minute version of the film (which includes alternate takes), accompanied by an adaptation of the Caliendo score
• Audio commentary for the international version of the film by scholar Robert S. Birchard
• Then Came a Dream, a new and exclusive 20-minute video essay by Tag Gallagher, author of John Ford: The Man and His Films
• A lengthy illustrated booklet containing vintage press and publicity material, and more!

[swo17]

I remember this being a pretty solid film and look forward to revisiting it. I wonder how much this will add to the Fox edition (which has two cuts of the film) or if the main draw here is just to have the film available again in R2.

[knives]

It's probably the later since purchasing this means dropping all of the other silents in the package.

[swo17]

I'm not sure what you mean. This is already available outside of Ford at Fox, if that's what you're getting at.

[peerpee]

There will be a brand new Tag Gallagher video piece on our 2 x DVD edition of THE IRON HORSE (plus a mad thick booklet too).

[knives]

I'm not sure what you mean. This is already available outside of Ford at Fox, if that's what you're getting at.

I had thought that the silents were still in this box with no separate releases. My mistake on that front.

[What A Disgrace]

This isn't my favorite silent Ford by a long shot, but you sold me at Tag Gallagher.

I hope this isn't the last Fox silent that MoC gets their hands on.

[Peacock]

I never got round to picking up the Silent Ford set, have never seen this film, love Tag Gallagher's visual essays and consider Ford the greatest American director by a long shot: so this is a must buy for me! Even if it's not in HD

I hope this isn't the last Ford that MoC gets their hands on... (?)

[matrixschmatrix]

I hope this isn't the last Fox silent that MoC gets their hands on.

I hope they release Upstream, I'd love to see that from somebody

[feckless boy]

There will be a brand new Tag Gallagher video piece on our 2 x DVD edition of THE IRON HORSE (plus a mad thick booklet too).

Are you going to do your own encodes or are these going to be straight-up Fox ports?

[Will Barks]

I'm in love with the cover artwork! Just gorgeous!

[peerpee]

There will be a brand new Tag Gallagher video piece on our 2 x DVD edition of THE IRON HORSE (plus a mad thick booklet too).

Are you going to do your own encodes or are these going to be straight-up Fox ports?

We do our own encodes from Fox's masters (both versions). So they're the same source, but they're our DVD encodes. It's clear that the American version of the film is the key version, but unfortunately, it's not in very consistent shape. Parts look astonishing and would pop in 1080p, other parts are very damaged and soft. On the whole, it's the best the film's ever looked, but we all agree it wouldn't be wise to put a Blu-ray out (even though both versions have been scanned in HD).

It's going to be a very nice edition. Glad folk are liking the artwork. The Fox DVD sleeve had been heavily touched up, and it looks great, it's just very different to the original psychedelic 'mountain range on fire' artwork which we have used.

[What A Disgrace]

Specs, courtesy of Amazon

-Original, US, 150-minute version of the film, accompanied by a 2007 score by Christopher Caliendo
- Shorter, UK, 133-minute version of the film (which includes alternate takes), accompanied by an adaptation of the Caliendo score
- Audio commentary for the UK version of the film by scholar Robert Birchard
- New and exclusive 30-minute video essay by Tag Gallagher, author of John Ford: The Man and His Films
- A lengthy illustrated booklet containing vintage press and publicity material, and more!

[matrixschmatrix]

Hell, I'm sold. I'd buy Norbit if it came with a 30 minute Tag Gallagher essay, though.

[MichaelB]

We do our own encodes from Fox's masters (both versions). So they're the same source, but they're our DVD encodes. It's clear that the American version of the film is the key version, but unfortunately, it's not in very consistent shape. Parts look astonishing and would pop in 1080p, other parts are very damaged and soft. On the whole, it's the best the film's ever looked, but we all agree it wouldn't be wise to put a Blu-ray out.

I'm running both versions side-by-side on the same 1440p monitor (with a lot of pause-button juggling), and it's very clear indeed that while the US version is unquestionably superior on almost every count, the quality of the print is much more variable.

The UK print is consistently pretty decent, whereas the US print veers wildly from eye-poppingly sharp to very soft indeed - and it's also noticeably more damaged, which I suspect would be exaggerated on a Blu-ray transfer even on the high-quality footage.

It's really fascinating to see just how different the two versions are - the intertitles were clearly aimed at different audiences (the US railroad is from Omaha to Sacramento while the UK railway [sic] is merely from east to west; both have an opening dedication to Abraham Lincoln, but while the US print goes into far more detail, the UK one adds an additional dedication to George Stephenson), and the US version obviously got the lion's share of the best takes - the buffalo hunt scene is far more exciting, concluding with a show-stopper of a shot in which the animals stampede right over the camera, whereas the camera used for the UK print takes a more discreet distance. And almost every shot is clearly either a different take or the same take shot with a different camera.

I haven't seen the booklet yet, but presumably it discusses these differences in some detail?

(UPDATE: It doesn't mention them at all - assuming the PDF I have reflects the final printed version)