The Train

Yes, these people were willing to risk their lives to save their country's history of culture in art, but are they truly any more courageous than the brave souls that have gathered together a collection of nearly lost to time vines that they think about every day? Youtube is the new Louvre.

At its core, the film begs the question, "Is the world's greatest art worth a single life, or many?" or perhaps even more accurately "What petty conflict justifies war over any other?" The suspense and craft of all the action scenes is astounding. And overshadowing all this spectacle is the film's posited thought of the pointlessness of it all. They're paintings. There will be more in the future. It may be no less absurd than fighting over lines on a map. Damn fine war film.

A conundrum oft-posed: the value of a life compared to the history of Life? A Nazi will take life to steal culture, the resistance hesitates to sacrifice life to save culture. The film pivots on this conflict, but feigns no moral authority. It's an elevating wrinkle in an otherwise exciting action thriller. Trains are classic filmic devices, and here's a doozy for locomotive enthusiasts. It dwells on great mechanical detail, and capitalizes on the tensions of timing and momentum.

Not one of Frankenheimer's best. But it's good.

This one took me completely by surprise. Frankenheimer's direction is legendary: he delivers on scene after scene of taught action and suspense that keeps you glued to the screen. Burt Lancaster is great as the Rail-line man who slowly gets sucked into a plan he wanted nothing to do with. Highly recommended.

An impeccably crafted though a mite overlong telling of a remarkable story of men who risked and often lost their lives trying to prevent a large number of priceless paintings from being looted by the Nazis in the final days of Germany's occupation of France. In addition to being genuinely tension filled, especially the scenes toward the end, it suggests interesting questions about whether the loss of human life to protect art/history and heritage is worth it. Very fine film.

I liked it when Schmidt got owned.

Meticulously detailed and beautifully shot. Too slow at times but the final 40 minutes are truly terrific. In comparison The Monuments Men should be ashamed.

Not as good as I expected. Still a good, vigorous movie; especially impressed by the smart characters on both sides. There are no brainless henchmen, which makes it rather intense at times.

John Frankenheimer is such a baller director. With movies like Ronin, Seconds and The Train, you can literally hear studio execs go: “sounds challenging, are you sure it will work?” and him saying: “watch me..” A bit overlong but otherwise an exciting war film thanks to some great direction and Burt Lancaster in a commanding leading role.

It's strange to see a film so acutely aware of the wrongness of the message it is so strongly pushing. Not that art isn't important, but it's so meaningless in the context of the film that the film's stakes and motivations get completely twisted. The things that happen are absolutely absurd, too, which doesn't help. It's still a tense WWII thriller with some really good scenes, but held back by its awkwardness.

Viewed April 7, 2018.

Decent enough WWII-thriller, without really getting my juices flowing, and Frankenheimer has done way better. The art-mad nazi Waldheim is a great character though, and Paul Scofield is electrifying in the role, as he growls and perspires like a pig. Wonderful Michael Simon is gritty as always and 'Circus-Lancaster' does what he does best, jumping off trains, sliding down ladders and shooting a stengun like a pro.

WOW!!! Never even heard of this one. Not only a great war-time thriller, but the photography was outstanding.

In 1964 I remember this as a very suspenseful movie. In the 21st century I think we're just too far removed from WW II to relate to trains. Compared to modern special effects in movies this falls short. But it was a believable, engaging story 40 years ago. I still remember spending my allowance to see it.

The real star is John Frankenheimer--his masterful direction and the immediately recognizable visual style of his earlier movies. And it's always wonderful to see the radiant Suzanne Flon. Well worth watching if you have the chance.

This movie is simply epic. A true monster. A monster which shakes one to the core.

Entertaining and well directed thriller with an interesting story. Not much else to say really. I enjoyed it but nothing about it really grabbed my attention.

"The Train" has some action with bits of judgment and reasoning to give the film some emotion.

The piece was slow but still had some action. The plot was a little thin over all, but not too bad.

Heavy film that almost implodes under the weight of the drama behind a story thats feels like an Alistair McLean novel. Paul Scofield's character has exceptional development while Burt Lancaster seems thin in terms of screen time and dialogue.

I remember reading about a survey in which people were asked, what other public building is an art museum similar to? The more affluent someone's family, the more likely they were to say a library. The less affluent, a church. This movie seems to me to extend that idea somehow by asking, what aspect of art is also worth dying for? Its culture? Humanity? National identity? Monetary value?

Good film.

An intriguing true story like this practically writes itself? Not really. People have to write and make it, and these being Hollywood people, The Train turns out to be completely imaginary, depressingly unrealistic, emotionally void, relies on boring stereotypes for the German characters, and stars the annoyingly wooden Burt Lancaster. In other words John Frankenheimer screws up this interesting story in much the same way as he did Birdman of Alcatraz. It's also overlong as usual with him.

Well paced, well acted and very watchable.

I'm glad Burt Lancaster didn't try a French accent.

A cracking yarn. Burt Lancaster is a pillar of strength in the role.

a nice collection would be non-military people carrying out special forces style shenanigans.