The Train (1964)
Directed by John Frankenheimer, Arthur Penn

Film Review

Whilst lacking the unfaltering conviction and humanity of René Clement's 1946 masterpiece Bataille du Rail, which this film closely resembles, The Train is nonetheless one of the finest, most realistic of films about the Second World War.

With some first rate acting performances, stunning photography of railway sabotage and a poignant script, this is an impressive film which cannot leave its audience unmoved.  The final scene of the film is devastatingly effective, raising an important moral question: how valuable is a human life?

Burt Lancaster carries the film with a dogged determination spiked with cynicism, making him an unusual kind of hero for a war film.  His opposite, Paul Schofield, is equally forceful as the slightly deranged German officer who places painted canvas before human life.

Impressive appearances from French icons Michel Simon and Jeanne Moreau give the film a feeling of authenticity whilst reminding us that the film is taking place in a war-weary France that has lived too long under the terror of the Nazi jackboot.

Film Synopsis

May, 1944.  Just as the Allies are beginning their offensive to liberate France from the Germans, the Nazi general Colonel Franz von Waldheim receives orders to transport a large collection of priceless French paintings from a Paris museum to Germany.  To this end, the Colonel requisitions a train and orders this to begin its journey eastwards once it has been loaded with its valuable cargo.  Desperate to stop the theft of so many important works of art, the museum curator, Mademoiselle Villard, contacts the French Resistance and enlists their help in delaying the train's progress long enough for it to be taken by the Allies.  Labiche, a railway inspector and leader of a resistance cell, at first refuses to risk human lives just to save a few paintings, but he changes his mind when an aged engineer, Papa Boule, is executed after trying to stop the train.  Labiche determinedly assembles a team to reroute the train and prevent it from leaving the country...