Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

LeonLouisRicci "Cinema Verite"...is a Phrase used when a Dramatic Film is Shot so Real as to be "Documentary Like" in Tone and Appearance. It's Drama Mimicking Real Life.There is "Verisimilitude"...The quality of appearing to be true or real.Both can be Applied to this John Frankenheimer Movie, Starring Burt Lancaster. "Train Magazine" Lists it as the #1 Movie about "Trains.It is a Universally Praised, if Relatively Unknown, WWII Film that is a Wide Open, but Curiously Confined Thriller. The Focus hardly ever Leaves the Train Tracks whether the Bulky, Black, Behemoth is in Motion or Docked and Pampered Upon.There's more Suspense than Action but Both are Utilized in this "Fictional" Tale based on True Events. The Nazi's Pillaging of France's Foremost Frames of Art by France's Foremost Artists. The Occupiers are Determined to take the "Decadent" Pictures Home Despite Their Disdain.It seems the Nazi in Charge has a Secret Lust for the Work and is not about to let the "Apes" Possess what They Cannot Appreciate.Lancaster, on the other hand, Cares Not about the Paintings and is Motivated by the Murderers of His Fellow Yard Workers and Now will Stop at Nothing to Thwart the Germans from accomplishing Their Thievery.Precious and Valuable "Art" vs Precious Human Lives is a Philosophical Conundrum and a Muse throughout this Gripping and Riveting Film. However it is the "Train" that becomes the "Star" of the Movie.Frankenheimer Stages Real Locomotive Train Wrecks and Aerial Bombings and the Results are Nothing Short of Spectacular. The Film is Relentless the way it Photographs the Oily and Gritty Machine and French Resistance Workers Assigned to Operate and Maintain the Mechanics of the Proud and Determined "Iron Horse".The Trains Wheezes, Squeals, and Chugs that says as much in the Movie as its Human Counterparts. It all becomes a Unique and Uncanny War Film and there is Nothing quite Like it.

christopher-underwood Real surprise, this for me, particularly bearing in mind the length (which I wasn't aware of till after watching) never mind the genre! But, forget 'long war film' and think Burt Lancaster giving his all, low key naturalistic acting and a stinking physical performance. It appears at first as if he is just going to be some suited 'yes' man for the Germans but then gets put upon to drive the contentious train. We are not quite sure at the start as to who cares what about this enormous collection of French impressionist paintings and by the end we are wondering about human life versus oil paintings. In between there is the most incredible non stop, human story driven, massive action film with the most amazing steam train action I've ever seen. Nobody comes out of this particularly well but that we are not held up for mournful moments with dying children or romantic pauses for divided lovers, just full on desperate people getting on and doing what seems best without to much pause for thought or much else. The night scenes are particularly effective with the great monstrous engines pulsing along, smoke billowing. Aircraft attacks add to the thrills but it is still Lancaster that dominates the screen. What a presence.

GUENOT PHILIPPE That's the most terrific war film ever, especially about trains. I discovered it when I was a kid, and still am amazed by this pure gem. What a performance from the outstanding Paul Scofield as the evil but so ambivalent German officer; ambivalent because how not to be fascinated by this character so ruthless but in the same time so in love with art and paintings? How? Now the two important things I absolutely wanted to say are this. First, if you can, watch it in FRENCH version with of course subs if you are English or American; why? Because nearly every actor here is french - except Burt Lancaster and some German characters who are German or English - Paul Scofield who is British. So, in french spoken version, all french actors will speak in their genuine language; only Lancaster will be dubbed, but after all, an American who plays an authentic born Frenchman has the right to speak french. See? And most of all, in the french spoken version, German characters among them speak all in German. And in the English spoken version, EVERY ONE speaks English, even french characters and German among them. NONSENSE. So, in resume, please, if you can of course, choose the french spoken version. And the second thing on which I insist is this: a longer version exists of this movie, a version that I watched some decades earlier and that I have never seen since. In this long version, you have a tremendous sequence where the Paul Scofield's character - German officer fascinated by paintings - enters a little church and stands still, like a statue, whilst he admires a little icon painting. As a Christian who would see Jesus moving just in front of him. This scene is absolutely terrific, if you already know the true nature of the character. And this scene has never been shown since. I am very sad because of this. I absolutely wanted to say this folks, about this pure masterpiece.

tieman64 John Frankenheimer's "The Train" stars Burt Lancaster as Paul Labiche, a French Resistance member. It is the 1511th day of the German occupation, and Paul is attempting to prevent Colonel Franz von Waldheim (Paul Scofield) from transporting French art collections out of France and into Germany.Throughout the 1960s, Franhenheimer made a series of films which flaunted their audacious cutting and kinetic camera work. "The Train" is no different. Virtually every shot is special, the film packed with logistically complex sequences, fine location photography and beautiful, now-extinct steam engines, ink-black monsters which lend the film an air of techno-romance."Beauty belongs to the man who can appreciate it!" Waldheim yells, his words speaking to the misguided exceptionalism of whole nations. Labiche shoots him and walks away. This simple moment of revenge is complicated throughout the picture. No painting is worth a life, Labiche tells us, yet strewn around him are the consequences of his very plan to thwart Waldheim; hundreds dead, all for art which Labiche personally has no interest in. Beauty belongs to the man who appreciates, Labiche perhaps wonders as the film fades to black, so long as he's French?8/10 - One of Frankenheimer's finest. See "Decision Before Dawn" and "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold".