The Train is a 1964 war movie written by Franklin Coen and Frank Davis and directed by John Frankenheimer. It stars Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield and Jeanne Moreau.
Plot
Art masterpieces looted by the German Army from French museums are being shipped to Germany; the officer in charge of the operation, Colonel von Waldheim (Paul Scofield), is an art lover and is desperate to bring the art to Germany.
After the Germans remove the art chosen by von Waldheim from the Jeu de Paume Museum, curator Mademoiselle Villard seeks help from the French Resistance. Given the imminent liberation of Paris by the Allies, they need only delay the train for a few days — still, it is an extremely dangerous operation and it must be done in such a way that does not risk damaging the priceless cargo.
Although the Resistance initially rejects the plan ("We won’t waste lives on paintings"; "Don’t you have copies of them?"), the men have a change of heart after a cantankerous elderly engineer, Papa Boule (Michel Simon), is executed for trying to sabotage the train on his own. That sacrifice convinces reluctant French railway area inspector Paul Labiche (Burt Lancaster) to commit his small Resistance group.
They devise an elaborate ruse to reroute the train, temporarily renaming railroad stations to make it appear to the German escort as if they are heading to Germany when they are actually just circling around. When it is finally discovered, Labiche has to flee for his life, while other Resistance members involved in the plot are executed.
Now alone, he continues to delay the train, to the mounting rage of von Waldheim. Finally, Labiche manages to derail the engine. The Germans flag down an army convoy and learn that the Allies are not far behind. They abandon the train, after massacring the French hostages on von Waldheim's order. The colonel stays behind, unwilling to leave his treasures. When Labiche finds the bodies of the hostages, he kills von Waldheim after the German expresses contempt for Labiche and for human life versus art.
Cast
Production
The film includes a number of sequences involving long tracking shots and real locations, a style of filmmaking rarely seen today. Much of the film was photographed using wide-angle lenses, with both foreground and background action in focus.
Noteworthy tracking shots include:
- Labiche attempting to flag down a train, then sliding down a ladder, running along the tracks and jumping onto a moving locomotive, performed by Lancaster himself, not a stunt double
- A scene in which the camera wanders around Nazi offices that are hastily being cleared, eventually focusing on von Waldheim and following him back through the office;
- A long dolly shot of von Waldheim travelling through a railyard at high speed on a motorbike;
- Labiche rolling down a mountain, across a road and staggering down to the railroad track. Frankenheimer noted on his DVD commentary that Lancaster performed the entire roll down the mountain himself, filmed by cameras at points along the hillside.
During an interview with the History Channel, Frankenheimer revealed:
- The railyard attacked during the Allied bombing raid sequence was demolished by special arrangement with the French railway, which had been looking to do it but had lacked funding.
- The sequence in which Labiche is shot and wounded by German soldiers while fleeing across a pedestrian bridge was necessitated by a knee injury Lancaster suffered during filming. Lancaster stepped in a hole while playing golf, spraining his knee so severely that he could not walk without limping.
- When told that Michel Simon would be unable to complete scenes scripted for his character as a result of prior contractual obligations, Frankenheimer devised the sequence wherein Papa Boule is executed by the Germans. Jacques Marin's character was killed for similar reasons.
- Colonel Waldheim was originally to engage Labiche in a shootout at the film's climax, but after Paul Scofield was cast in the role, Frankenheimer re-wrote the scene to provide Scofield a more suitable end - taunting Labiche into killing him.
Frankenheimer remarked on the DVD commentary, "Incidentally, I think this is the last big action picture ever made in black and white, and personally I am so grateful that it is in black and white. I think the black and white adds tremendously to the movie."
Throughout the film, Frankenheimer often juxtaposed the value of art (or money) with the value of life. This may also be read as an allegorical commentary on patriotism and war in general.
Historical background
The Train is based on the factual 1961 book Le front de l'art by Rose Valland, the art historian at the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, who documented the works of art placed in storage there that had been looted by the Germans from museums and private art collections throughout France and were being sorted for shipment to Germany in World War II.
In contrast to the action and drama depicted in the film, the shipment of art that the Germans were attempting to take out of Paris on August 1, 1944 was held up by the French Resistance with an endless barrage of paperwork and red tape and made it no farther than a railyard a few miles outside Paris.[1]
Awards and nominations
- Nominated for the 1964 film award of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.[2]
- Nominated for the 1965 Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay (story and screenplay written directly for the screen).[3]
- Included in the second edition of The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made, published 2004.[4]
Protest
German veterans' organizations, including the SS veterans' group HIAG, objected to Wehrmacht soldiers being depicted casually executing hostages and Resistance members in the film. They said that SS or uniformed SIPO (the Sicherheitsdienst and Gestapo) personnel should have been used for those scenes.
See also
References
External links
