Union Pacific

The 1860s. The railway that will link America east to west is under construction and two companies are racing each other. Jeff Butler is responsible for security on the line, against gambling houses set up to sabotage the work, raids on the payroll, and his old friend Dick Allen. Between them stands Mollie Monahan, the telegraph operator. Cecil B. DeMille directs. Joel McCrea plays Butler, Barbara Stanwyck plays Mollie, Robert Preston plays Dick. The scale is what you expect from DeMille: real locomotives, real track, and lines built specifically for the large crash sequences. The Union Pacific company opened its archive and its equipment to the production. There is also a detail that belongs to festival history. The first Cannes Film Festival, planned for 1939, was cut short by the outbreak of war and no prize could be given; the festival awarded it to this film much later, in 2002. The narrative itself frames the railway as progress. Whose land the line crosses, and the position of the Native population, are treated in the terms of the period, and that is the most troubling thing about it now. Who it is for: viewers who like classical Hollywood epics and large scale westerns. Who it is not for: it runs over two hours, the romance is long, and the history is told from one side only.