Comparing Ford's Bucking Broadway And The Iron Horse

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The most interesting of Ford's early films is Bucking Broadway (1917), and it does exactly what its title suggests. When Cheyenne Harry’s (Harry Carey) romance with a girl on the ranch hits hard times, she leaves for New York with a slimy city man, and he heads after her. This allows Ford to stage his first truly epic scene as Harry and his gang storm the streets of New York on horseback.

In Ford’s films we tend to learn most about what a character is thinking not by what’s said but by how character’s throw glances towards one another. Ford perfected this during the silent era, reaching its pinnacle in the epic Western The Iron Horse (1924). The film concerns the building of the first American transcontinental railroad and a love triangle.