The Cassandra Crossing
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| The Cassandra Crossing | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Directed by | George Pan Cosmatos |
| Produced by | Lew Grade |
| Written by | George Pan Cosmatos, Robert Katz |
| Starring | Ava Gardner Richard Harris Burt Lancaster Sophia Loren Martin Sheen Lee Strasberg |
| Music by | Jerry Goldsmith |
| Cinematography | Ennio Guarnieri |
| Editing by | Roberto Silvi, Françoise Bonnot |
| Distributed by | AVCO Embassy Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 1976 |
| Running time | 129 Minutes |
| IMDb profile | |
The Cassandra Crossing is a 1976 British motion picture starring Richard Harris, Ava Gardner, Sophia Loren, Martin Sheen, Burt Lancaster, Lee Strasberg and O. J. Simpson.
[edit] Plot synopsis
This suspense film concerns a group of hapless passengers aboard a European transcontinental train bound from Geneva to Stockholm. They are infected with a viral plague from a Swedish terrorist, who is fleeing a botched attack on the U.S. mission at the fictional International Health Organization.
Burt Lancaster plays U.S. Colonel Stephen Mackenzie, who wants to send the train across an abandoned ex-Nazi railroad line to a quarantine camp in Yanov, Poland. The twist, however, is that the line crosses a dangerously unsound steel arch bridge known as the Cassandra Crossing. Mackenzie understands that the bridge might collapse as the train passes over it. He reasons that, if the train does not make it across the bridge, he can lay the blame for the situation on the terrorists.
The main passengers include Dr. Jonathan Chamberlain (Harris) and his ex-wife Jennifer Rispoli Chamberlain (Loren), who are in charge of building up antibodies. Nicole Dressler (Gardner), who is the wife of a German arms dealer, is embroiled in an affair with a young narcotics trafficker named Robby Navarro (Sheen). Dr. Elena Stradner (Ingrid Thulin), is a WHO physician who wants to save the passengers and desperately tries to convince Mackenzie to stop the train.
The passengers remain unaware of their predicament until, while approaching Paris, they’re re-directed to Nuremberg where the train is sealed with an enclosed oxygen system and a U.S. Army medical team is placed aboard for health and security concerns. While the train is being locked down, a passenger and Holocaust survivor, Marvin Kaplan (Strasberg), discovers the Polish quarantine center is located at the site of an ex-concentration camp in Yanov where he was interned. Determined not to relive such horrific memories, he panics and attempts to escape from the train, but is shot in the process.
While being treated by Dr. Chamberlain, he informs him about the Cassandra Crossing. Chamberlain is very concerned about the risk of crossing such a bridge and soon, infected passengers begin to recover from their sickness owing to the pure oxygen being distributed throughout the length of the train. Chamberlain informs Mackenzie and Dr. Stradner of this development so that the train doesn’t need to continue into Poland. The latter agrees with doctor but the former, of course, refuses to allow the train to stop en route.
Chamberlain begins to realize Mackenzie has something evil up his sleeve and starts a race against the clock with other passengers to take control of the train from the Army security detail as they race towards an uncertain fate at the Cassandra Crossing. Failing to get anywhere close to the locomotive, they resolve to somehow separate at least some of the cars from the train.
[edit] Trivia
The bridge depicted in the movie is actually the Garabit viaduct in southern France, built from 1880 to 1884 by Gustave Eiffel, who later constructed the famous Eiffel tower.
For a movie that revolves around a train, there are a lot of inaccuracies. The artwork shows a typical US diesel locomotive that doesn't resemble anything seen in the movie. It even features a pantograph for overhead electric wires.
Also during the movie there are a lot of continuity errors with the train. Engines inexplicably change back and forth, and often are of the wrong country. In the scene where the windows of the train are plated over, an Italian electric locomotive appears but with Swiss markings.
