Many of the roles that I’ve seen Burt Lancaster play have involved strong personalities, such as the corrupt preacher in Elmer Gantry, the prisoner in Bird Man in Alcatraz, and the gossip columnist in Sweet Smell of Success. All of these characters were powerful individuals due to Lancaster’s strong presence and acting, so it probably shouldn’t be much of a surprise to see Burt in a pure action role, although I can say that I haven’t seen any such action roles until I saw The Train, John Frankenheimer’s 1964 war film. (By the way, perhaps I ought to tell a particular woman with a Burt fetish all about this movie.......)

The movie takes place in Nazi-occupied France during the waning days of World War II. A Nazi general played by Paul Scofield is also a big art lover, and has protected a French art gallery during the entire occupation. But when it becomes clear that the Allied forces are closing in, the general gets his men to seize all of the works, which include those from Van Gogh, Renoir, and other famous men, in hopes that he will be able to transport them to Germany before the Allieds get a hold of them.

This general is really obsessive about his art. Naturally, those above him don’t give a crap about silly old paintings, and would rather transport weapons and other more important things on the trains to Germany. The general tries to make the case that the art would be worth a lot to the Allieds, and would be a good bargaining tool -- and that seems to work. But, a couple of days later, it seems unlikely that the art will be given any priority on those trains..... so the general gets sneaky, and is able to get those paintings aboard that train.........

..... but a few things stand in his way. Lancaster is one of a number of French men who secretly work for the Resistance (in other words, they are against the Nazis). These men work at the train stations, using that job as a cover for their activities. The art curator pleads with the men for help in getting those paintings back, but Lancaster won’t budge. He won’t risk numerous lives for a bunch of paintings. But, later on, Lancaster needs to get involved, when he sees the Nazis kill an old man, a veteran train conductor, for alleged sabotaging the art train.

The Train is a great example of a pure action film. There are no real subplots of any kind that deviate from the main plot (although Lancaster does flirt a little bit with a hotel manager played by Jeanne Moreau) -- it’s all about the train, and nothing else. What develops is a battle between Lancaster and Scofield. Scofield will do anything to get that train to Germany, and Lancaster will do anything to stop it. Some of actions of Lancaster and company are quite clever and risky. The biggest is a diabolical scheme to trick the Germans into believing that the train is indeed going to Germany, even though it is not -- after a while on the route, the conductor takes a diversion, and in fact, goes in the opposite direction, back to where they started, although the Germans do not realize this, because Resistance supporters in scattered towns have disguised their town signs with the names of towns that are on the Germans’ map.

The film makes no bones about the danger of all of these actions. At the start of the film, Lancaster points out that their huge group of men is now down to three at this point (not including those who are sympathetic to the cause), and it’s not a guarantee that all of these people will be alive at the end of the film. Frankenheimer directs everything in a cold, efficient manner -- even the deaths of supporting characters are treated as just things that happen here, because, of course, stuff like that would be quite common in these situations. And the ending is also quite cold and brutal -- I won’t reveal it, but the overall emotion seems to be one of resignation, rather than anything heroic. There’s nothing “thrilling” about it at all, but it does make us ponder into whether the results were all worth it...........

I’m not really into action films, so it took me a while to really get involved into this film. But once I understood that this was going to be all about the train, focused on the train, then I really got more intrigued with the storyline. I will admit that I did not enjoy this as much as other Frankenheimer films -- even though The Train is a fine action film, with a good plot, and a simple, uncomplicated, well-presented style, there is no comparison to films like The Manchurian Candidate or Bird man of Alcatraz, which are excellent dramas, classics in my mind. The Train is still a fun ride, though.

One thing that I thought was kind of funny was that everybody spoke in accents -- except Burt. Many of the actors seem to be French or German, except for Scofield, but at least he tries to speak with a German accent. Burt, however, is just Burt -- but I suppose that makes sense, since these Golden Age Hollywood stars (and, I suppose, too, even big stars of today) are stars due to their looks and their speaking style, and, if Burt were to change his way of speaking, even for authenticity’s sake, then it would feel odd. And that wouldn’t be appropriate for what is essentially a big action vehicle.

Overall, The Train is what it is..... an exciting, interesting action film made during the days where there was just as much focus on a real plot as there are big explosions and other intense elements. It’s a good film, and I’m sure that my Burt-loving friend would agree..........

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day