Rating: 
Summary: Renoir, Cezanne, Degas, Matisse, , ...
Review: John Frankenheimer's "The Train" is an outstanding Black and White WWII ("action") film from the unforgettable 60's, when much emphasis was placed on good acting and characterization.Close to the end of the war, while withdrawing, the Nazis attempted to lute famous French museums, and transport to Germany art treasures, hundreds of paintings of world fame - part of France's national identity. Among many popular French performers, such as Michel Simon ("Le diable et les dix commandements") and Jeanne Moreau ("Jules et Jim") - remember ? we've seen her in Beson's "La Femme Nikita") shine America's unforgettable Burt Lancaster as Labiche, the French "cheminot" who opposes England's Paul Scofield, perfectly cast as von Waldheim, the German colonel obsessed with "his mission" to "save" the painting by having them transported by train from Paris to Berlin. Real life adventure with a believable plot, attention to details, image, dialogues, and ever growing tension until the final "denouement". It's the same director who gave us the more recent "Ronin" (filmed in France), and classics, such as "Seven Days in May" (also with Burt Lancaster) and "The Manchurian Candidate", and, if want to see more of Paul Scofield, consider watching one more time, Fred Zinneman's "A Man of All Seasons". Very good DVD rendition of a truly great film from John Frankenheimer !
Rating:
Summary: john frankenheimer's great work of film art, wonderful
Review: listening to the director's commentary,helps me to appreciate the movie even more, this is a great movie indeed
Rating:
Summary: A triumph of BW photography
Review: Lots of reviewers have commented about the excellence of this movie's plot, direction and acting. In addition to all that, I would like to add that the black-and-white photography alone would make the movie worth watching. You might start wondering why they ever had to start using colour in films...
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful film
Review: One of John Frankenheimer's best early works. Nazis about to steal the National Heritage of France? Not since Burt Lancaster has anything to say about it! Wonderful score, lots of great supporting actors. I don't know how many trains they wrecked in the making of this film, but certainly enough for any action buff. And since this was the days before computer generated models, it is obviously the real thing (which somehow makes it even more compelling). Unlike other reviewers, I found the story as riveting today as in 1964, when I first saw this on the big screen. We all know that the bad guys could never get away with this, but how can just a few men stop them? Lancaster was at his young, strong dramatic best here, telling the art lover that like these paintings, the men of the Resistance cannot be replaced. Paul Scofield is at his evil best as the German officer who becomes obsessed at moving the trailload of purloined art from Paris to Berlin (so obsessed even, that when he has obviously lost, he taunts Lancaster even as Burt points a machine gun at him!). Scofield does have the most timeless line in the film, though, musing about "the curious conceit which would attempt to dictate tastes and ideals by decree". Are you listening, Mayor Guiliani?
Rating:
Summary: One of the best!
Review: One of my all time favorites. Great plot and acting
Rating:
Summary: excellent commentary
Review: Read other reviews for the plot. This is an excellent DVD well worth the money for anyone interested in movies.A really great package, a model of what shouold be provided. Includes picture booklet, trailer and directors commentary. no chattering here to fill space. Goes into detail of why he chose a particular composition, of Lancaster and his doing his own stunts, problem scenes, details of staging the train footage, even comments n the photography, the f stop used for a scene and why, what he was aiming for in a scene. He does the same in 7 Days in May also with Lancaster, wish the same had been done with Birdman of Alcatraz. Even if you don't like the movie you might enjoy hearing the director talk about directing. 1 complaint...wish the poster had been reproduced bigger.
Rating: 
Summary: Great train-related film !
Review: Saw it on TV. This is a well done film concerning the fight of railway men against the nazi occupant in France in WWII. - It's a fight to stop a train with stolen paintings before it gets over the french border towards Berlin. - The film is in black & white, but a must for fans of train-related films!
Rating:
Summary: Perfect film on less- than- great DVD
Review: The audio on the MGM DVD was lacking the full spectrum of audio, in my opinion. If you don't care so much about audio, it would be a 5 star DVD, but for those feeling that audio is an important factor, a star must be deducted. Bass and treble just weren't tweaked in DVD production which made the audio seem really flat, and I know that MGM could have produced a better job. It seems that a good number of the MGM DVDs lack the care and attention of producing consistently superior products. The DVD gives the viewer options to listen to music only and has an option for director's comments during the film. I was at first dismayed because at the beginning of the movie, director John Frankenheimer just wouldn't open up. But he started sharing some interesting things as the movie progressed. There is also an 8- page booklet that gives some interesting production notes and history. The video quality from, I think, an original film print is pristine. Frankenheimer's locations and times of filming were very effective in evoking a very dismal feeling as the European conflict was drawing to a conclusion. I love Frankenheimer's use of deep focus -- which is using wide angle lenses to have both near and far- away characters and scenes in focus -- to give a vision that many other filmmakers fail to incorporate effectively. I'm glad that there was explanation in the film about why people were more concerned with paintings than people in a story that was loosely based on an actual event. Many westerners like Paul Labiche (Burt Lancaster) would not care about the value of crates of artwork in a time of war, but schooling by caretaker Miss Villard (Suzanne Flon) expressed the passion and pride that the French feel for such paintings. This helped explain why some would scarifice their lives to save the crates. (Ms. Flon, born in 1918 is apparently still alive and acting, too.) It's quite a story of saving "priceless" paintings at the expense of one's life. It seems like a WWII action film (which has its share of blowing stuff up), but its story actually weighs the value of art against the value of life. Labiche from the very beginning of his introduction battles Col. von Waldheim (Paul Scolfield), who wants him to deliver the art to Germany AND The Resistance, who want the art protected from the Nazis. Labiche is actually alone in his own beliefs as an American, being tugged by both sides while ultimately struggling with making sense of the conflict over the art. The movie is well- developed from Lancaster asking Frankenheimer to direct "The Train" after original director Arthur Penn abandoned the project a week after production. I only say that because everything that was directed by Frankenheimer was terrific. The choice of the players, scenery, editing, camera placement and post production yielded a perfect war film that wasn't simply about war. It was about the value of life and what people value in their lives. Watch for the one scene of a runaway train's derailment -- one of a dozen cameras mounted to film the scene -- came within inches of being wiped out by the locomotive's wheels and the scene has become a classic in filmmaking history.
Rating:
Summary: edge of your seat war movie!
Review: The year is 1944 and German Colonel Von Waldheim steals
a huge amount of well-known French paintings and loads them aboard a train that's heading for Germany. Labiche,a french patriot who works in the switchtower at Vaires is warned about these paintings but does not wish to waiste lives on art. But when Papa boule,an engineer, is killed for trying to stop the train,labiche gathers a group of men to try to stop it as well.
Switchmen, brakemen, even engineers are involved in this mission
by removing rails,blowing up track,and making trains collide to bring back the paintings or "The Glory of France."It's an action packed war movie that keeps you at the edge-of-your-seat!
Rating:
Summary: Great movie.
Review: There are an amazing amount of action films these days. Each one of them attempts to beat the last one's visual effects. And in this competition, hollywood has lost track of what makes a truly great action film... Skill. Most of the action films these days are entirely uncreative, and many of them are very, very boring. Who really want's to see a dozen tiles fall to the ground and break in slow motion, as films such as "the Matrix" use this technique constantly. But this film is different. It carries raw emotional power, and it's star, at age 50, did all of his own stunts, and even drove the locamotives that his character drives. This movie is awesome, and I highly recommend you buy this DvD. And by the way, this music track is a lot of fun to listen to when you're sick.
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