USCCB - (Film and Broadcasting)

Iron Horse, The

Alphabetical Listing of Movie Reviews

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

Iron Horse, The -- Silent saga about the building of the transcontinental railroad after the Civil War, with the plot centering on a surveyor's son (George O'Brien) who loses his childhood sweetheart (Madge Bellamy) after guiding the Union Pacific to a short cut through the mountains, then battles the two-fingered white renegade (Fred Kohler) who killed his father and now heads Cheyenne warriors in attacks on the railroad. Director John Ford enlivens the melodramatic story with colorful characters and furious period action, but succeeds best in lyric interludes picturing the grandeur of the Western wilderness and the heroic effort to tame it. Frontier violence, romantic complications and racial stereotyping. (A-II) (br) ( 1924 )

These movies have been evaluated for artistic merit and moral suitability by the media reviewing division of Catholic News Service. The reviews include the CNS rating, the Motion Picture Association of America rating, and a brief synopsis of the movie.

The classifications are as follows:

A-I -- general patronage;
A-II -- adults and adolescents;
A-III -- adults;
L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. L replaces the previous classification, A-IV.
O -- morally offensive.

Note: Some movies previously were designated A-IV. Older films with this classification should be regarded as classified L.