John Ford The Iron Horse silent (1925) amazing

[oscar]

I have just watched the first hour of this silent western directed by John Ford. I was stunned by the visuals for such an old silent picture and give credit to the BFI for releasing such a landmark film. I had no idea that most of his silent pictures are lost so for me this was a great introduction again to silent pictures after I saw last year Nosferato on the big screen.

Does anybody else have some recommendations for me to purchase ?

One final comment is that I thought that Sergio Leone payed homage to this with his Once upon a time in the west ?

Anybody agree with this

:clap:

[Michael Brooke]

The original screenplay for <I>Once Upon a Time in the West</I> by Bernardo Bertolucci deliberately included references to just about every important Western ever made, and plenty of minor ones as well.

Subsequent editing of an unfilmable 400-page original lost a lot of this material - but <I>The Iron Horse</I> was always one of the key inspirations.

[Pete George]

Does anybody else have some recommendations for me to purchase ?


There are well over 100 silent movies on DVD now, though not nearly that number on R2, so it is difficult to know where to begin with recommendations (you might get some ideas from silent web sites like www.silentera.com )

I would however recommend Pandora's Box which came out last week. This Second Sight DVD is the full length version of the film, running 131 minutes. It uses a good print which is clear and sharp and has a score which fits the action pretty well. As an extra the DVD has an hour long documentary on Louise Brooks, "Looking for Lulu". This documentary is well made with lots of clips from Brooks's films and is both interesting and entertaining.

I'm going to watch The Iron Horse tonight. Interestingly, neither Iron Horse nor Pandora's box is available in the US, a rare case of R2 winning over R1. The americans on alt.movies.silent are fuming and looking into purchasing multi-region players.

Pete George

[Assilem23]

You could try some of the silent comedies - Buster Keaton's 'The General' (1926) is a true masterpiece of filmmaking in general (be it silent or otherwise). I believe it's out on R2, but if you can play, import and afford R1, then there is an excellent boxset out on Kino (which I really want, but cannot afford). The version of 'The General' available on R2 has two shorts - 'Cops' & 'The Balloonatics'. 'Cops' is another excellent film from Keaton. There are also a number of other Keaton films out on R2 but I have not looked into them yet.

Also, recently two excellent boxsets of early silent films from two of the most influential directors of all time have been released. These are the Sergei Eisenstien box set (containing the astonishing 'Battleship Potemkin' (1925)) and a D.W Griffith box set which includes the controversial epic 'The Birth Of A Nation' (1915). These are both R2.

Since it's of interest to some people, I just want to mention one of the best silent era films still available - Greed (1924) - is on TCM on Tuesday 2nd July at 2pm.

[oscar]

Updated included is the direct link to She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

Pete

Just finished watching the 2nd part of The Iron Horse and all I can say is wow, very gripping to watch and the tinted colors were breathtaking to watch even 75 years later on. The music that accompanied the film was excellent indeed. My favorite scenes were towards the end when the two railways joined together while the other is the barroom brawl. This is much better than She Wore a Yellow Ribbon which I purchased from http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/dvd-de/B00004T8EI/customer-reviews/ref%3Dbr%5Flf%5F/028-4370979-4941309 after a tip from HTF which includes an hour long interview with John Fordfrom 1969. The german language track can be switched off as well, and when you sign up with amazon.de as a first time purchaser you get 5 euros off your purchase


Oscar

:clap: :clap: :clap:

[Pete George]

I watched The Iron Horse last night and found it a stunning film. The print was very good and the film told a good story very well. Many of the typical Ford themes are already in place, especially the brawling comedy irish characters. I would immediately rank The Iron Horse in the top twenty silents I've seen and place it just below Ford's very best pictures (The Searchers, Liberty Valance etc). I would have thought that even those people as yet unfamiliar with silent films should enjoy it as it has lots of action and good performances along with one of the cutest leading ladies (Madge Bellamy) to be found in Ford's films.


Pete George

[Mario Gauci]

Quote:

"I have just watched the first hour of this silent western directed by John Ford. I was stunned by the visuals for such an old silent picture and give credit to the BFI for releasing such a landmark film."

Quote:

"Just finished watching the 2nd part of The Iron Horse and all I can say is wow, very gripping to watch and the tinted colors were breathtaking to watch even 75 years later on. The music that accompanied the film was excellent indeed."

Quote:

"I watched The Iron Horse last night and found it a stunning film. The print was very good and the film told a good story very well. Many of the typical Ford themes are already in place, especially the brawling comedy irish characters. I would immediately rank The Iron Horse in the top twenty silents I've seen and place it just below Ford's very best pictures (The Searchers, Liberty Valance etc). I would have thought that even those people as yet unfamiliar with silent films should enjoy it as it has lots of action and good performances along with one of the cutest leading ladies (Madge Bellamy) to be found in Ford's films."

I am pleased to finally be able to read a sort of review of this Region 2 DVD edition of John Ford's silent Western classic THE IRON HORSE and I am glad that you have all been enjoying it so much. I am also quite relieved to learn that the print has been beautifully restored and tinted by the BFI. However, none of you have mentioned anything about the supplementary features. Could this be because there aren’t any? I wouldn’t be surprised! At least, recent Region 2 editions of other important Silent films have been quite comprehensively packaged: BFI’s own SOUTH (1919) and Eureka’s THE FALL OF THE ROMANOV DYNASTY (1927), as indeed seems to be the case with Eureka’s upcoming DVD of Lon Chaney’s THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925).

Although I have never watched the film myself, I am aware of its importance in the John Ford canon. Curiously enough, I have just ordered the Region 1 DVD edition of William S. Hart's TUMBLEWEEDS (1925), released by Image Entertainment. I sure hope that in the future we will be treated to DVDs of two other major early Westerns: James Cruze's THE COVERED WAGON (1923) and Raoul Walsh's THE BIG TRAIL (1930), featuring John Wayne's first important starring role. It would be grand if we could have both the 125 minute “regular” version and the 158 minute “Grandeur” (Widescreen) version on one disc [a` la Image’s THE BAT WHISPERS (1930)] .

Quote:

“Does anybody else have some recommendations for me to purchase ?”
Unfortunately for those who own a Region 2 DVD Player, the selection of Silent film discs is somewhat limited. However, a vast quantity of classic and even relatively obscure Silents have thankfully appeared on Region 1 DVD. I can provide you with a link to some threads in another DVD discussion Forum in which my brother has participated which dealt specifically with Silent films on DVD, some of which dealing with THE IRON HORSE in particular:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?s=&postid=517885&t=8550#post517885
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=57674
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?s=&postid=592317&t=6354#post592317
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?s=&postid=620253&t=2642#post620253
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=68975
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?s=&postid=688596&t=8428#post688596
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?s=&postid=688606&t=9012#post688606
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?s=&postid=713046#post713046
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?s=&postid=769643&t=2941#post769643

[oscar]

Mario

the only extras are production notes of John Ford on the disc and there is music from the Prague orchestra done last year, yet I don't know if that was also originally on the film back in 1925

:nuts: