Good start, but then it gets ruined

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Union Pacific is directed by Cecil B. DeMille (aided by others due to illness) and based upon the novel Trouble Shooter, written by Ernest Haycox. It stars Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, Akim Tamiroff and Lynne Overman. Story is a fictionalised account of the building of the railroad across the American West, encompassing the trials, tribulations and rivalries that formed as history was being made."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. For the West is America's Empire, and only yesterday Union Pacific was the West".A big production that went down a storm at the box office on release, Union Pacific, in spite of its overt patriotic bluster, is an entertaining and important part of the Western movie story. Alongside John Ford's Stagecoach, which was released a couple of months previously, DeMille's movie helped take the Western to a new, more adult, level. It wouldn't be until the 50's that the Western truly found its mojo, but the influence of both Stagecoach and Union Pacific was firmly felt thru each passing decade. Film manages to be literate whilst puncturing the plot with doses of action, while the story is underpinned by a love triangle between McCrea, Stanwyck and Preston. The former as the stoic troubleshooter brought in to keep order, the latter as the charming villain with a heart. Cast all work well with the material to hand, and if one is not bothered by the historical tampering involved in the story? Then it's an easy film to recommend to Western movie seekers. 7/10

What was it that Cecil B. DeMille gave to his movies? Well, how about sentimentality as thick as mashed potatoes, florid exposition, corny humor, American patriotism on a platter, shameless death scenes, ethnic stereotypes, casual and condescending racism, hypocritical bible thumping, leering sex, truly hairy beards and mustaches, ponderous oratory and the kind of obviously manipulative situations that can turn even the best actors into mannequins. Did I leave anything out? But DeMille knew how to serve up spectacle and action, paced to keep the story moving faster and faster. His movies are awful, even if a few still at times stand up to current tastes. In an unfair world, they nearly all are still watchable, with their flaws often as enjoyable as their merits. That brings us to Union Pacific, DeMille's telling of the great effort to build the first rail line across the American continent. Or as the movie tells us, "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. For the West is America's Empire and only yesterday Union Pacific was the West." The Central Pacific would build east and the Union Pacific, from Omaha, would build west. The idea was to meet in Ogden, Utah. The company that gets there first will establish a major rail terminal and make lots and lots of money. If unscrupulous financial opportunist Asa Burrows has his way, it won't be the Union Pacific. If Captain Jeff Butler (Joel McCrea) does his job, it will be. Butler is the smart, brave, handsome, fast-with-a-gun, true and honest chief troubleshooter for the Union Pacific. Opposing him is Burrows' unscrupulous agent, the gambler Sid Campeau (Brian Donlevy). The plan is simple. Campeau will bring in gambling, easy women, bullyboys and liquor to put all those Irish tracklayers working for the Union Pacific out of commission. Helping him is his partner, Dick Allen (Robert Preston), a smooth gambler with loose ethics...who happens to be a close war buddy of Jeff's. What could be missing...oh, yes...Molly Monahan, an Irish colleen whose father is an engineer and who is the postmistress for end-of-track, the moving base camp that services the construction. She's pert, feisty and as Irish as a shamrock. Jeff and Dick both fall for her. She's also Barbara Stanwyck. The Union Pacific's struggle to bridge the continent with steel track, not to mention Jeff's struggle to make it happen and win Molly, will not be easy. Or as the movie tells us: "For three valiant years Indians redden the rails with the blood of tracklayers. But the ROAD pushes on! Spawning, in its wake, roaring, lawless towns - and fighting the hidden hand that tries to fight its progress." DeMille's Union Pacific is a sprawl of massive train wrecks (two), heroic track laying, Indian attacks, mistaken sacrifice, back shooting, brawling Irishmen smoking little clay pipes and speaking with terrible Hollywood Irish accents, and some smart gunplay by Jeff. The comic relief is corny and overplayed (no fault of Akim Tamiroff and Lynn Overman who play Jeff's sidekicks), with awful Indian stereotypes. Joel McCrea is first rate when he can be brave and clever at the same time. When he's just brave, DeMille makes him into something with a noble chin. Preston is just fine, but he's doing nothing much different from what he did in any number of his second lead movie roles. On the bright side is Brian Donlevy as a snake. It's all Hollywood hokum but Donlevy was good at being bad. And there's Barbara Stanwyck. What a strong presence she was in all her movies. She survives this one with energy and lovability to spare...but her Irish accent would make any real Irishman go pale. "Me heart's still shaking' on me back teeth," she chirps at one point. Somehow, Union Pacific manages to be a watchable movie. DeMille knew how to keep us hooked in spite of ourselves. If it's not nefarious plotting it's our hero's standard response to being asked to take brave action. When Jeff drawls, "Mebbe," we know something worth watching is about to happen. And those two train wrecks are wowzers. DeMille knew what the movie goers wanted and exploited this with skill. He was no artist and barely a craftsman. He made up for it by being an utterly confident showman. DeMille, with all his ego, knew how to tell a story, even if it was as phony as a drugstore Indian. His pompous, dynamic, melodramatic and self-important spoken narratives and introductions give a perfect picture of the man. He died at 77 in 1959, just in time, perhaps, to realize that his movies would most likely go down as being quaint. In 1957, David Lean had come up with The Bridge on the River Kwai. In 1959 it was William Wyler with Ben Hur. DeMille's era of old fashioned, corny spectacle was on life support, and the ticket buyers knew it.

Contrary to what another viewer wrote, this movie is not hard to sit through at all--in fact, I wish it could have been longer and had dealt a little more with the upper level corruption of Barrows and the too-kindly treated Oakes Ames, the politician behind the Credit Mobilier scandal. As it is, it gives a good approximation of what the great adventure of building the Transcontinental Railroad must have been like at the time, and all the actors are excellent in the context of the romanticized depiction of events. SPOILER WARNING!!! Great train wreck scene, and the scenes between Overmann and Tamiroff are reminders of why today's movies, though faster paced, are not likely to be considered as rich and entertaining 50 years from now--today's movies have no depth when you get away from the main character. Look at the scene when Barrows is able to drive home the Golden Spike, watch the byplay between Barrows, Leach and Fiesta, and see how beautiful the results can be when you let secondary characters have a chance to play a real part in the story, rather than just filling the frame.

It's not a bad film but it's too long. Man, at 136 minutes this is tough to sit through although if you can make it to the halfway point, you are way ahead of the game because the slowest part is the first half.Barbara Stanwyck was still young, fresh-looking and spunky and I enjoyed her. Robert Preston seemed to be the most natural of the male leads. Joel McCrea seemed a little stiff in his delivery. Brian Donlevy was good as always.What detracted me from enjoying this movie was the dated special-effects. Every time somebody was on something that was moving - a horse, wagon carts, trains, etc - it really looked hokey. Obviously, they were in a studio with a screen behind them. It was so phony it made the film lose credibility. The classic movies that hold up better, generally speaking, are the ones that don't rely too much on realism, action-wise.