Rating: 
Summary: I have not seen this video, but...
Review: I have not seen the video version of this excellent movie, however, I saw this movie when it was out in the theaters (dating myself somewhat). It is one of my all time favorites and I am glad to discover that it is out in video. I looked for it many times in rental stores with no luck. If you like Burt Lancaster, you love this movie. If you like WWII movies, you love this movie. If you like trains, you love this movie. I am about to buy myself a copy right now.
Rating:
Summary: Lancaster's brilliant best
Review: I have reviewed up too 50 war films and given only 3 five stars(the other two being 'Sahara' and 'the Longest Day') This is simply a superb war film which does not boast the star stutted casts of those movies mentioned above. This adds to the films authenticity. This dramatic WW2 story tells of a fanatic German Colonel who is intent on steeling famous French Art (commonly referred too as the 'glory of France) for what seems like his own personal gain rather than for the purposes of his army.In the desperate attemps to save the train, Labiche (played by Burt Lancaster) and his comrades engage in a deadly game of cat and mouse with the enemy, which for the most part seems unjustified as lives are continually lost and others left in the balance. Set on location in several Paris railroads only days from the cities liberation, 'the train' relives the desperate struggle and waste of an occupied people but on the other hand clearly demonstrates the famous 'patriotic' and 'nationalist' values of the French people. If your wanting to see an action packed film then 'the train' is not for you. However it is a must for any serious war film enthusiast.
Rating: 
Summary: not bad
Review: I liked the movie with its many twist.For a WWII movie it wasn't bad.As with every movie Lancaster passion comes out on the screen.There wer some slow moments but the ending was satisfying and entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: Burt Lancaster at his very best in The Train
Review: I remember going to see this terrific film as a lad back in the 1960s. This is one of my favorite WWII action films and there are many great films in this category including The Great Escape, The Bridge on the River Quai, and Von Ryan's Express. Burt Lancaster is one of my favorite actors and he is just tremendous in this film. Even though the film was made in the mid 60s, it holds up to what is being made today.
Rating:
Summary: The Train
Review: Is a work of art worth a human life?
We are near the end of World War II. It's August 2, 1944, the "1511th day of German occupation" of Paris. German Colonel von Waldheim (Paul Scofield) enters a dark museum and turns a spotlight on a painting. He stares at it with the eyes of a lover beholding his best beloved. He turns another spotlight on another painting. The Hun is humanized, and we sympathize with his quiet passion.
It comes as a bit of a shock when he announces that he is taking the paintings, hundreds of Miros and Picassos and Matisses and others, with him when the Germans evacuate Paris. A resistance group, led by railroad worker Paul Labiche (Burt Lancaster), is enlisted to stop them. Labiche initially refuses. It's one thing to blow up a train, dangerous enough - it's another to stop a train without damaging what's inside it. National heritage or not, men will die. There are more important targets than a train filled with art. Things change, though, and eventually Labiche and the remnants of his resistance group find themselves trying the impossible.
I've always been a little leery of Burt Lancaster. Maybe I was traumatized by viewing THE RAINMAKER or ELMER GANTRY at a young and impressionable age. He sometimes seems all horse teeth and braying charm and dis-tinct e-nunc-ee-a-shun. Not so here. In THE TRAIN he's restrained and natural and completely convincing. Scofield is equally strong as his brutal nemesis.
Sometimes the extras on a dvd aren't worth the bother, but I loved the director's commentary by the late John Frankenheimer. It was like taking a course in the art of film making.
Frankenheimer tells us he was trying to give the movie a realistic feel, which I understood before listening to the commentary track but didn't really understand how he went about it. One trick he used was to open the f-stop on the camera and keep everything in focus, something that would have been impossible if THE TRAIN wasn't shot in black and white. Everything is kept in focus and he keeps the background action busy and interesting.
Frankenheimer is an unabashed fan of Burt Lancaster, with whom he made five movies. Not only does Lancaster do all his own stunts in this one, including a dangerous backwards fall off of a moving train, he even fills in as a stunt double for another actor. The original stuntman made a fall off a roof look like an "olympic jump," and `realism' was the keyword in this one. Lancaster did take a nice tumble off the tiles, but you've got to wonder about the wisdom of it all. Lancaster was injured during the filming of THE TRAIN; on his first day off in weeks he played a round of golf and twisted his knee when he stepped into a hole. His right knee swelled up `like a basketball.' Frankenheimer shot Labiche in the leg halfway through the movie to explain the limp.
The only phony movie aspect to this movie is the dubbed voices of some of the French actors. You can't hide dubbing very well, and Frankenheimer doesn't have much to say about it. I wouldn't knock a star or even a half-star off because of it. This is a tremendously entertaining film.
Rating:
Summary: The Train
Review: Is a work of art worth a human life?
We are near the end of World War II. It's August 2, 1944, the "1511th day of German occupation" of Paris. German Colonel von Waldheim (Paul Scofield) enters a dark museum and turns a spotlight on a painting. He stares at it with the eyes of a lover beholding his best beloved. He turns another spotlight on another painting. The Hun is humanized, and we sympathize with his quiet passion.
It comes as a bit of a shock when he announces that he is taking the paintings, hundreds of Miros and Picassos and Matisses and others, with him when the Germans evacuate Paris. A resistance group, led by railroad worker Paul Labiche (Burt Lancaster), is enlisted to stop them. Labiche initially refuses. It's one thing to blow up a train, dangerous enough - it's another to stop a train without damaging what's inside it. National heritage or not, men will die. There are more important targets than a train filled with art. Things change, though, and eventually Labiche and the remnants of his resistance group find themselves trying the impossible.
I've always been a little leery of Burt Lancaster. Maybe I was traumatized by viewing THE RAINMAKER or ELMER GANTRY at a young and impressionable age. He sometimes seems all horse teeth and braying charm and dis-tinct e-nunc-ee-a-shun. Not so here. In THE TRAIN he's restrained and natural and completely convincing. Scofield is equally strong as his brutal nemesis.
Sometimes the extras on a dvd aren't worth the bother, but I loved the director's commentary by the late John Frankenheimer. It was like taking a course in the art of film making.
Frankenheimer tells us he was trying to give the movie a realistic feel, which I understood before listening to the commentary track but didn't really understand how he went about it. One trick he used was to open the f-stop on the camera and keep everything in focus, something that would have been impossible if THE TRAIN wasn't shot in black and white. Everything is kept in focus and he keeps the background action busy and interesting.
Frankenheimer is an unabashed fan of Burt Lancaster, with whom he made five movies. Not only does Lancaster do all his own stunts in this one, including a dangerous backwards fall off of a moving train, he even fills in as a stunt double for another actor. The original stuntman made a fall off a roof look like an "olympic jump," and 'realism' was the keyword in this one. Lancaster did take a nice tumble off the tiles, but you've got to wonder about the wisdom of it all. Lancaster was injured during the filming of THE TRAIN; on his first day off in weeks he played a round of golf and twisted his knee when he stepped into a hole. His right knee swelled up 'like a basketball.' Frankenheimer shot Labiche in the leg halfway through the movie to explain the limp.
The only phony movie aspect to this movie is the dubbed voices of some of the French actors. You can't hide dubbing very well, and Frankenheimer doesn't have much to say about it. I wouldn't knock a star or even a half-star off because of it. This is a tremendously entertaining film.
Rating:
Summary: cinematography
Review: It's a great film, but never mind the plot. The cinematography is fantastic! Every shot is a winner - if your into photography check this film.
Rating:
Summary: cinematography
Review: It's a great film, but never mind the plot. The cinematography is fantastic! Every shot is a winner - if your into photography check this film.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Railroad scenes, fair story
Review: It's a matter of record that the Germans plundered art during WWII. Whether or not it happened quite this way is debatable. But the story is entertaining if not totally believeable. What is outstanding about this movie is the railroad scenes. If I remember correctly, this film was made when the French National Railway was getting rid of obsolete steam locomotives anyway, so having locomotives for special effects was not really an issue. There are awesome train wreck scenes in this movie that would be very difficult to duplicate today. The scenes showing Lancaster and his co-stars operating and repairing the locomotives seem pretty true to life as well. Good movie for railfans.
Rating: 
Summary: Is it really that great? Well, maybe, maybe not...
Review: John Frankenheimer directed this semi-grim WWII action film, with Burt Lancaster as a one-man army out to stop the Nazis from plundering all of France's greatest modern art treasures. Frankly, not the greatest script, but there is some pleasantly flashy B&W cinematography, and an interesting cameo by oafish French character actor Michel Simon (who was the heart of Jean Vigo's 1934 masterpiece, "L'Atlante.") This film's okay, but there are plenty of war films that are better.
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