Runtime: 133 minutes
Directed by: John Frankenheimer
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield, Jeanne Moreau, Suzanne Flon, Michel Simon
From: A few different companies from a few different countries
Not exactly what I envisioned going in, but that is OK.
One consequence of having an up & down last week was not viewing this sooner, back when I wanted to. Consequently I actually briefly had bad memories of this due to that but I put that past me and this was last night's entertainment. It wasn't quite what I expected once I heard the basic premise of “Burt Lancaster plays a Frenchman who tries to stop the titular train that is carrying priceless paintings from the likes of Van Gogh & Picasso from being taken by Nazi bastards to Germany as Paris is about to be liberated during World War II” but that is OK as what was presented: very good overall.
I'd wax poetic about the performances, the battle between Lancaster's character and Paul Scofield's Colonel von Waldheim, the action scenes, the heroic acts, the sacrifices, the stirring score from Maurice Jarre, why I am probably like a lot of viewers in being tickled pink by Papa Boule, the intensity, or the affecting ending... but to be frank, today was not only busy for me, it was also a pretty blah day which wasn't complete trash. To be frank, the movie deserves a better review; of course it's only loosely based on a real life incident—the Germans did try to steal all that art but what happened IRL was far different from all the action presented here.
It was nice to see something else from Frankenheimer; he came into this production after a few days due to Lancaster s***-canning original director Arthur Penn, but even so I'll say how good this was: entirely his doing. As others have noted, he had a few years stretch in the '60's where several pictures well worth seeing were created.
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