Under Seige II with Steven Seagal is pretty good. It mostly takes place on a train taken over by a terriorist group. Seagal plays a Navy Seal who takes them out one by one. In fact I am watching it now on FX.
I also remember a scene in Footlose filmed in a yard.
These flicks are primarily set in the coal mining industry but have some railroad scenes:
“Matewan” is about the struggle to unionize the miners in a far corner of West Virginia. Directed by John Sayles (has he ever made a bad film?) who also appears as a preacher. Moving story and music, nice acting with good country-accented speech. There are a few train shots of N+W steam and coaches. According to an earlier post, the film was shot on C+O and the dominating piece of scenery is a massive concrete coaling tower. One of my favorite films.[tup]
“The Molly Maguires” is set in the 1870’s Pennsylvania coalfields and is named after the secret and violent Irish miner society that terrorized the area. The Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Police send Pinkerton agent Richard Harris to infiltrate the group which is headed by Sean Connery. There is a miners train running between town and mine pulled by (boooo) an overly gaudy small engine, but the depot is nicely painted in
(yaaaay) Reading chocolate and cream. They back-dated the real village of Eckley by covering the streets with dirt, taking down pole lines, etc. and spent 11 million making the movie, but recovered only 15% of their cost. In my Reading childhood there were still people who thought of the Mollies as the Robin Hoods of their day. [tdn]
“Pittsburgh” has John Wayne rising from exploited miner to exploiting coke magnate. Randolph Scott is his best friend and Marlene Dietrich plays with both of them. Humdrum plot with mandatory minehead fight between the male leads and minimal train action. [tdn]
hasta la bye-bye
Captain Video aka Rixflix
Blessed be Jean Shepard in all HIs works
I also think “runaway train”
with jon voight was a good film. many views of a f7 and some jeeps.
Micha
Does anyone have any idea of what the most recent movie is that was made involving any decent amount of trains? I was just wondering. [:)]
Can I get a witness?
“la Bete Humaine” is great!!!
Captain Video aka Rixflix
THE SILVER STREAK I LIKE WHEN IT CRASHES IN TO UNION STATION
El Ultimo Tren -or- The Last Train
Saw a really good train movie this weekend on DVD, it was a film from South America, Uraguay to be precise, called “El Ultimo Tren” or “The Last Train” about a group of retired railraod workers trying to prevent the sale of the last steam locomotive in Uraguay, which is to be sent to the US. So they Steal it in protest, right before its to be shipped and take off across the country with a banner reading “Our National Heritage Is Not For Sale” drapped to the tender with the police trying to stop them. The TV coverage eventually brings out people to help them on their way. its a really good film about aging, facing one’s past, and dealing with the ulitmate futility of their flight. The loco looks like a 19th century German built 2-6-0 and the movie is presented as if it was a real event that took place, whether this is true or nor I cant say, but its a good film to watch. Look for it if you can find it, i rented it at Blockbuster. In spanish with subtitles.
vsmith, I can sense you’re a man of discernment.
Call me at area code 202 with info from my bio and I’ll send you a copy of “La Bete Humaine”
Raves for"Silver Streak" and “Runaway Train”?
Now Really!!!
Let’s grow old together!!!
Captaim Video aka Rixflix
Hey Vic! That’s one my wife (thirty five year Spani***eacher) might actually watch with me.
Does anyone remember an old Mickey Rooney movie…I think it was called or about Young Thomas Edison. At the end of the movie, he chases down a passenger train (steamers) using the steam whistle and morse code to warn the passenger train that a bridge is out?
It was “Young Tom Edison” (1940) and it was followed by “Edison the Man” (1940) starring Spencer Tracy.
Captain Video aka Rixflix
Reading about all these great movies on here has lead me to start trying to track down copies of some of the ones that I haven’t seen yet. I just recently bought copies of The Train, Von Ryan’s Express and Silver Streak from ebay. I’m very glad I did!!! All are now new favorites mine! After having seen Silver Streak, I’d like to try and make a custom HO model of the train from the movie. I doubt I’d get to that project in the near future, but it’s something I would like to accomplish some day.
“In the Heat of the Night” is really promiscuous (check your dictionary. Doggy) era-wise, but a great film anyway. After basic training in Fort Jackson NC I haven’t had an inclination to go too far south lately, but I would like to ride that GM&O semi-streamliner depictedi in the movie. Gosh it was beautiful in crimsom and orange behind an E.
They put it together for the flick but does anyone know from what equipment?
g’day
Captain Video aka Rixflix
The most recent movie with a lot of train action was “The Station Agent”.It is about a railfan who inherits a station in New Jersey. Well worth Watching.{tup}
My favorite railroad movie is “Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day”. It is about a young dude who tries to save the Yosemite Valley Railroad from abandonment. Although much of it was filmed on the Sierra Railroad, there is a movie clip of the YVRR! Also shown is an SP Daylight 4-8-4. The plot may be slow for some people’s tastes, but I appreciate that there are no spectcular train wrecks. Instead,a derailment shuts down the line for a day. After seeing the movie, I logged onto a Yosemite Valley RR website and concluded that the filmakers obviously researched this line’s history. How many movies can you say that about!? The main character takes a woman for a date on a private railroad car!!! By the way, the movie, made in 1996 or 1997 is filmed entirely in black and white.
Another pleasant suprise is the “Metroland”, in which the main character is writing a book for railway enthusiasts about a metroplitan rail system in England.
“Mobilus Strip” is about a subway train which disappears from the Buenos Aires subway system. The disappearing subway is a metaphor for the disappearance fo political prisoners in Argentina. There are many subway scenes. Apparently the budget for this film was so low that the director had to have his students film studies studies shake a subway car to simulate motion! After seeing this movie at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, I had the pleasure of hearing the director discuss the making of the movie.
“Switchback” could have been a very nice movie if it wasnt so violent. It alluded to the camraderie among railroad workers and the Rio Grande is always a wonderfully scenic railroad, but it violence detracted from this movie.
The best movie I’ve seen about railway labor is “The Navigators” which is about a group of track workers attempting to cope with privatization of the British Railway system.
“Matewan” has a brief shot of Nickel Plate 765.
The “Ice Storm” has a couple of views of a New Haven elect
“Fester, Pugsly to the train room!”
Every week on T. V. Gomez was wrecking trains on “The Addams Family”
Paul the Painter
“the fumes are gettin to me”
It’s pretty clear to me that the producers of the US Marshal flicks (The Fugitive, US Marshals) have a train thing going on there. US Marshals has the best movie stunt ever, in my humble opinion, where the bad guy (except he’s a good guy, really) jumps off the top of a building, zips across what must be about three city blocks and ends up on top of a moving (I’m sure it’s not AMTRAK) train where he sullenly stares up at his pursuer. (Tommy Lee Jones is remarkably restrained- if it had been me, there would have been a lot of stomping around and some really colorful language, plus a real quick call into my dispatcher.)
PBJWilson also brings to mind the scene in “The Addams Family” (the movie) where Gomez is doing his anger management exercises using a really neat Lionel train set- what looks like an old Trainmaster playing chicken with a Hudson (I think). Wish I had a train set with THOSE sound effects…
Rixflix, cant find any # on the profile, would like a copy of the movie though, send me an e-mail and we can exchange information, maybe a movie swap, I have a spare vhs copy of the funniest Jerry Lewis movie ever made “The Bellboy” but you probably already have it.
Almost forgot what must be the all time favorite of any MOW worker… Bridge over the River Kwai. They just don’t crash em like that anymore.
…and AMTRAK hasn’t even come close to sinking to the standards of passenger service Peter O’Toole exhibited in “Lawrence of Arabia”. Come to think of it, AMC also ran “The Man Who Would Be King”… a glowing tribute to first class accomodations on the 4:20PM Mawha Junction express… haven’t heard of any first class passengers being expelled from AMTRAK via the windows lately.
Time to go catch the bad guys.
Erik