Customer Reviews

Iron Road

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This is a joint China-Canada project. It was shot in both countries .. there is a nice documentary that shows a lot more of it was shot in the rather amazing studio's in China then you might think. This story takes place in the 1880s.

The history being told about is true; in Canada we had waves of labour immigration to bring cheap labour from abroad -- Irish were getting more costly (and settled) so Chinese workers were brought in to do the dangerous and labour intensive work of building the railway through the mountains (in this case the "Hell's Gate" passage).

The story of "a woman" dressing as a man to get work is apparently true, but "literary license" was used beyond that in regard to the dramatic plot. That said the background story is true; much like was done with the 1997 movie Titanic -- and if anything played down from the reality. As noted, a "Head Tax" came out of this immigration -- whereby the Chinese were taxes more then the railway cost. Canada formally apologized to China in 2006 for this.

I have shown this movie to several people and they all told me they REALLY enjoyed it. It is broken down into two parts and EVERYONE was very anxious to get Part Two as the cast and story are VERY VERY GOOD. Part Two is terrific too, as it delivers even more then alluded to from the very good first part.

Some things worth noting. First in the 1880s .. that was VERY early in Canadian History; you forget how things were back then; such as it taking a month to travel to and from China. The train shown is a fully operational 1912 model, that was modified to appear to be an 1880 model. Apparently there are some historical errors pretty minor stuff, but some people are into the details.

I highly recommend this movie. It is in spoken English. Special mention again for the terrific cast. Peter O'Toole, (Betty) Li Sun, Luke Macfarlane, Sam Neill (Hunt for Red October), Tony Leung Ka Fai ("The Lover" in 1992). Again, the plot is well done, and keeps the viewer well involved and interested the the outcome of these character's story.