The Train
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- For the Hindi film, see The Train: Some Lines Should Never Be Crossed.
| The Train | |
|---|---|
 Promotional movie poster |
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| Directed by | John Frankenheimer |
| Produced by | Jules Bricken |
| Written by | Franklin Coen Frank Davis |
| Starring | Burt Lancaster Paul Scofield Jeanne Moreau |
| Music by | Maurice Jarre |
| Cinematography | Jean Tournier Walter Wottitz |
| Editing by | David Bretherton |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) |  1964 March 7, 1965 |
| Running time | 140 min. 133 min. |
| Country | United States France Italy |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $6,700,000 |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Train is a 1964 war movie written by Franklin Coen and Frank Davis and directed by John Frankenheimer. It starred Burt Lancaster and Paul Scofield. It is based on the factual 1961 book Le front de l'art by Rose Valland, the art historian at the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, who documented the works of art placed in storage there that had been looted by the Germans from museums and private art collections throughout France and were being sorted for shipment to Germany. In contrast to the action and drama depicted in the film, the shipment of art that the Germans were attempting to send out of Paris on August 1, 1944 was held up by the Resistance with an endless barrage of paperwork and red tape and made it no farther than a railyard a few miles outside Paris. [1]
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[edit] Synopsis
Set towards the end of World War II, the film details the efforts of railwaymen in the French Resistance to prevent a trainload of French art reaching Germany. The art, having been looted by the German Army from French museums, is supposedly being shipped to Germany for its monetary value; however, the officer in charge of the operation, Colonel von Waldheim (Paul Scofield), is clearly captivated by the art and wants it for his own enjoyment.
After the Germans remove the art chosen by von Waldheim from the Jeu de Paume museum where it was stored, the museum keeper Mlle. Villard seeks help from the French Resistance. Given the imminent liberation of Paris by the Allies, they need only delay the train for a few days and prevent it reaching German soil — still an extremely dangerous operation in German-occupied France. However, this must be done without any risk to the cargo.
Although the Resistance initially reject the plan ("We won’t waste lives on paintings"; "Don’t you have copies of them?"), the men have a change of heart after an elderly engineer, Papa Boule (Michel Simon), is executed for trying to sabotage the train. It falls to French railway area inspector Paul Labiche (Burt Lancaster) and his small band of well-connected men who gradually devise increasingly elaborate ruses to divert, reroute, interrupt and incapacitate the train, all the while hoping against hope each day will bring the Allies and liberation. Every attempt results in varying numbers of executions as von Waldheim becomes increasingly frustrated and maddened by Labiche’s efforts.
[edit] Production
The film is a blend of drama and action and includes a number of sequences involving long tracking shots and real locations, a style of filmmaking rarely seen today. Much of the film is photographed using wide-angle lenses, with both foreground and background action in focus.
Standout scenes include the Vaires railyard bombing sequence; Labiche’s poignant confrontation with Jeanne Moreau’s pragmatic hotelier; the daytime run delivering the engine; and the exhilarating night run where the Resistance divert the train while duping the Germans into believing that they are progressing east into Germany, climaxing in a spectacular crash of actual locomotives.
Noteworthy tracking shots include:
- Lancaster attempting to flag down a train, then sliding down a ladder, running along the tracks and jumping onto a moving locomotive;
- Lancaster in the railroad workshops casting main connecting rod bearings from molten babbitt metal through to installing the finished product on the engine;
- A scene in which the camera wanders around Nazi offices that are hastily being cleared, eventually focusing on von Waldheim and following him back through the office;
- A long dolly shot of von Waldheim travelling through a railyard at high speed on a motorbike;
- Lancaster rolling down a mountain, across a road and staggering down to the railroad track. Frankenheimer notes on his DVD commentary that Lancaster performed the entire roll down the mountain himself, filmed by cameras at points along the hillside.
- German veterans' organizations including the SS veterans' group HIAG objected Wehrmacht members casually executing hostages and Resistance members in the film. They said that SS or uniformed SIPO (the Sicherheitsdienst and Gestapo) personnel should have been used for those scenes. The Wehrmacht is the villain, executing Papa Boule and the hostages after Labiche derails the train. They then join retreating German troops who are passing at the time.
Throughout the film Frankenheimer often juxtaposes the value of art (or money) with the value of life. During an interview with History Channel, Frankenheimer revealed:
- The railyard attacked during the Allied bombing raid sequence was demolished by special arrangement with the French railways, which had been looking to do it but had lacked funding.
- The sequence in which Labiche is shot and wounded by German soldiers while fleeing across a pedestrian bridge was necessitated by a knee injury Lancaster suffered during filming. Lancaster stepped in a hole while playing golf, spraining his knee so severely that he could not walk without limping.
- When told that Michel Simon would be unable to complete scenes scripted for his character as a result of prior contractual obligations, Frankenheimer devised the sequence wherein Papa Boule is executed by German soldiers.
- "Incidentally, I think this is the last big action picture ever made in black and white, and personally I am so grateful that it is in black and white. I think the black and white adds tremendously to the movie." -- John Frankenheimer on the DVD commentary track.
- "the last great action movie filmed in black-and-white"[2]
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Burt Lancaster | Paul Labiche |
| Paul Scofield | Colonel von Waldheim |
| Jeanne Moreau | Christine |
| Suzanne Flon | Mademoiselle Villard |
| Michel Simon | Papa Boule, Engineer |
| Wolfgang Preiss | Major Herren |
| Albert Rémy | Didont, Fireman |
| Charles Millot | Pesquet, Engineer |
| Jacques Marin | Jacques the Stationmaster at Rive-Reine |
| Richard Münch | General Von Libitz |
[edit] Reception
- Nominated for the 1964 film award of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.[3]
- Nominated for the 1965 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Award for Writing (story and screenplay written directly for the screen).[4]
- Included in the second edition of The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made, published 2004.[5]
- Rated 4-stars by Leonard Maltin's 1997 Movie and Video Guide, Signet Books, ISBN 0451188888.
[edit] See also
- The Train, a video game themed on the movie and released in 1988 on several 8-bit computer platforms
[edit] References
- ^ DVD enclosure booklet. MGM Home Entertainment.
- ^ Los Angeles Times. www.latimes.com.
- ^ Winners and Nominees 1960-69. www.bafta.org.
- ^ The Train. www.awardsdatabase.oscars.org.
- ^ The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made. www.nytimes.com.
[edit] External links
- The Train at the Internet Movie Database
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