The Train - Great Movie

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I know that this topic has been brought up before but I have to sing its praises again for the benefit of those “younger” folk out there that might not be aware. I am watching this movie from 1965, starring Burt Lancaster for probably the sixth time or more. It is available free on youtube. For steam loco lovers like me it is a feast for the eyes and ears. The sounds of the locos starting up and running and the screams of the steam whistles are music to me. Even the squeal of the wheels on the rails when they hit the brakes and the clank of two cars being connected. I love that it is in black and white because I think that color would distract from the visual impact of the locomotives. I love that they take the time to show things like the levers being thrown in the control tower and the points moving to line up the route for the oncoming loco. They also show maintenance work being done and even scenes from the loco repair facility. The sweat and grit on the faces of the engineer and other workers and the general dark and gritty scenes are great. IMHO the acting and the script are very good for the most part. This is a movie that completely captures my 100% attention every time I watch it. I just can’t look away. And on a personal note, at 1:16:05 they pull into Zweibruecken, which is one of several towns in Germany that I lived in while working as a U.S. Army civilian. It did not look like that when I was there in the late 70"s! If anyone reading this has not seen this movie I highly recommend you give it a shot.

wdcrvr

2

I remember seeing it in the theater. When wide-screen truly meant WIDE screen.

Cheers, Ed

3

I remember that too. Cinemascope.

4

I had started a somewhat lengthy thread about 5 months ago on the topic of classic trains and classic films. There was some great info in that. I see Steve Otte just moved it to the classic trains forum - where someone promptly said it didn’t belong there either haha. I figured it would be fine on the MR forum, especially since I started it in the General Discussion area. Oh well.

Here is the link:

http://cs.trains.com/ctr/f/3/t/284127.aspx?page=2#3293343

5

I too saw it in the theater when it was a new movie. It didn’t need color, in fact the black and white cinematography gave it more of a newsreel or documentary feel. And what a cast of actors, including character actors such as Michel Simon (Papa Boule). I appreciate the writing and acting more now then when I was a teen.