Western Union Fritz Lang

USA 1941

"Western Union" (1941) is Lang's second color film. It is a Western about the building of the first trans-continental telegraph line in the USA. This interest in modern high tech mass communication is distinctly Langian. Lang will return to this aspect of the subject, the actual physical building of a communications infrastructure, in a later color film, "American Guerrilla in the Philippines" (1950). These films share several elements in common. Both are non-crime films, a fairly rare occurrence in Lang's career. Both are in color. Both deal with an entire team of people trying to fulfill an idealistic dream, rather than with a single hero. Both are about the building of a high technology communications system. Both have elaborate shots of massed food items. Both take place in the outdoors, and have much beautiful landscape photography.

Excerpt from Mike Grost's review located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: January 31, 1941 (New York City, New York)

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Recommended Reading for Western Genre Fans (CLICK COVERS or TITLES for more information)


The Crowded Prairie: American National Identity in the Hollywood Western (Cinema and Society) by Michael Coyne	The Invention of the Western Film : A Cultural History of the Genre's First Half Century (Genres in American Cinema S.) by Scott Simmon	The Searchers (Bfi Film Classics) by Edward Buscombe	The Western Genre by John Saunders	Westerns: Films through History (AFI Film Readers) by Janet Walker	The Encyclopedia of Westerns (The Facts on File Film Reference Library) by Herb Fagen, Tom Selleck	Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America by Richard Slotkin	The Western (Inside Film) by David Lusted	Red River (Bfi Film Classics) by Suzanne Liandrat-Guigues

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DVD Review: Optimum Classics (Western Classics) - Region 2 - PAL

Big thanks to Henrik Sylow for the Review!

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Optimum Classics Region 2 - PAL
Runtime	1:31:33 (4% PAL speedup)
Video	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.53 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate
Audio	2.0 Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles	None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Optimum Classics Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.33:1 Edition Details: • None DVD Release Date: February 21, 2005 Keep case Chapters 12

Comments

Being an early Technicolor film, the images are actually quiet nice. There are problems, with slight halos, grain, lack of details, but overall an acceptable image.

- Henrik Sylow

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