A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The movie is about a episode that happened in 1944. When France was still occupied by the Nazis, they decided to steal paintings from the Paris museums. This film is about a shipment that the French has to save before he ends to Germans, but they also don't want to be destroyed in the process.Burt Lancaster stars as a French train engineer that has to transport the shipment. At first is not a easy task, but he succeeds in the end. Meanwhile he becomes friend with a hotel owner played by French actress Jeanne Moreau (that passed away last year). And the other members of the cast are fine. Paul Scofield as a German general is great (and Scofield also starred in other great movies after this), and it was a treat seeing French comedian Michel Simon in a war movie (just like Bourvil in THE LONGEST DAY).This movie had great direction by John Frankenheimer, great performances by all the actors, and also great photography in Black and White. Although a bit dragged in some places, it was still great to watch! And as a fan of the history from 1850 until these days, I liked the movie for his accuracy and his action scenes.

I've been watching this movie from time to time for many years, but, the time I remember best and love most is when I watched it with my 'train-fanatic' little Son. He loves this movie as much as I do, and, I'm sure that anyone who likes train adventures, or, adventures of any kind, will like this, too. My Son never left the living room during the entire movie! :)This really is a classic movie with a great story, great actors, and, a lot of action...especially when Burt Lancaster is speeding away in the train and trying to take cover from the German fighter plane.I not only recommend this movie to war buffs, but, also to anyone who likes a great adventure movie that never gets dull for even a second.I give "The Train" a Solid NINE STARS! :)

John Frankenheimer's thrilling war drama 'The Train' concerns an elaborate railroad resistance plot to keep a train full of French art treasures from being shipped to Germany, in the waning days of the war.As Allied forces are about to liberate France on August 2, 1944 and are bearing down on Paris, a fanatical aesthete, Col. Waldheim (splendidly played by Paul Scofield) convinces his recalcitrant superiors to allocate a much-needed train to highball art treasures of the Jeu de Paume Museumt by arguing that they're worth a billion German marks. Soon the museum is emptied of France's national art heritage, as priceless and irreplaceable art works are cherry picked by Waldheim and placed in crates in the boxcars of a train heading for Germany. The curator of the museum informs the Resistance of the train shipment and tries to persuade Labiche (Burt Lancaster), the earthy inspector of French railways and secretly a member of the Resistance, to intercept the invaluable treasured cargo and not destroy it. He is initially reluctant to sacrifice men for paintings but finally gives in when an old engineer, almost his foster father, is killed by the Germans for trying to hold up the art train. Now committed to do anything to stop the art treasures from leaving France, he puts an elaborate plot into action which involves driving the train around in circles by having the stations en-route change their names and orchestrating a collision of two steam locomotives.Even at 133 minutes, there's scarcely a second of The Train that doesn't move it forward on the tracks. Though The Train is a marvel of old-fashioned action craft, from invisible dolly shots of breathtaking sophistication to the careful staging of massive railway catastrophes, it's not a thoughtless adventure by any means. In Frankenheimer's hands, the whole paraphernalia of trains, tracks and shunting yards acquires an almost hypnotic fascination as the screen becomes a giant chessboard on which huge metallic pawns are maneuvered, probing for some fatal weakness but seemingly engaged in some deadly primeval struggle. The action scenes hold up really well nearly five decades on largely because Frankenheimer crashes real steam locomotives on several occasions — including a three-way pileup that puts any modern CGI conflagration to shame. All the film's movement of railway equipment, chases and train collisions provide nail-biting suspense and are accomplished with great skill.It all adds up to a thrilling, ingenious World War II drama that still ranks as one of the best train movies of all time.

Of course this film wasn't very successful originally. It's a black and white European art film with an American budget. It's got long periods of silence, including toward the end. The black and white cinematography is consistently gorgeous, aided by the dramatic lighting. Steam at night? Are you kidding? No, the Nazis aren't clichés but believable. Jeanne Moreau is of course right there. Never a beauty really, and close to 40 here, but always perfect. Burt Lancaster never tries a Frenchy accent, although everyone else speaks English with a bit of German or French accent. At least he doesn't sound as old time New York City as his real accent probably was. It doesn't matter. He's great.The situation is that the war is about over and everyone knows it even if some of the Germans don't want to admit it. So the French heroism is even more heroic or maybe foolhardy than before, and the Germans are even more crazed than they might have been earlier. A perfect situation for existentialist drama.There are a few obvious melodramatic stating the obvious speeches, but given the period not many at all. The story is mostly made up, but the Nazi art theft and destruction is real. Nothing looks like a set. Everything seems real, if better lit than reality. The cinematography/lighting is as stunningly good as anywhere. Highly recommended.