Union Pacific [VHS] Overview
"The legend of Union Pacific is the drama of a nation, young, tough, prodigal and invincible, conquering with an iron highroad the endless reaches of the West." This stemwinder of a foreword strikes the pseudo-biblical/American Empire keynote for Cecil B. DeMille's "history" of building the transcontinent railroad. Only the bombast--and Arthur Rosson's second-unit direction--rises to the film's epic mission. The mustache-twirling villainy is right out of 19th-century melodrama, and the romantic triangle of Joel McCrea's railroad troubleshooter, Barbara Stanwyck's aggressively "Oirish" postmistress-on-wheels, and their black-sheep chum played by newcomer Robert Preston is a feeble distraction. Worse, the stars do their stuff on studio sets, in sterile isolation from the locomotives, Indians, and buffalo hovering slightly out of scale on process screens behind them. There's not one but two train wrecks (always a DeMille favorite); in every other department, John Ford had C.B. beat 15 years earlier with The Iron Horse. --Richard T. Jameson
Customer Reviews
My favorite western of 1939, with the excuse of Cooper, Wayne, Fonda and Power. Joel McCrea as efficient as the hero, but Cooper or any of these would make a much more romantic partners-in-the-wings for Barbara Stanwyck, perfect for their roles. Yes, the plot seems a bit 'crazy, maybe there are too many flag-wavers and stereotypical characters, but you have an entire train with famous people, a series of action sequences and a complicated romanticDance with Stanwyck through most of this movie long. Things are never boring, because there is a pantry full of thieves, the deal becomes a stage for McCrea and his gay bodyguard, often humorous. Anthony Quinn does not like his role as a crooked beard, refused to order another film by DeMille to make his future father-in-law too. Brian Donley is perfect as another devil in human form. Robert Preston, who often confused with Donlevy, has a more complicated tasktry to whose side you Stanwyck and decide who is really in love.
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