The Great Train Robbery

The Great Train Robbery (1978)

Runtime: 110 minutes

Directed by: Michael Crichton

Starring: Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland, Lesley-Anne Down, Alan Webb, Malcolm Terris

From: Dino De Laurentiis Company/Starling Films

This is also known as The First Great Train Robbery in the UK:

A movie I am not counting in my March Around the World list, for a specific reason I'll address at the end. That is no slight against this heist movie, seen early last night on Turner Classic Movies and was a first time watch. All the talent involved did inspire the viewing... after all, a Michael Crichton movie that he adapted to screen from his own novel, starring Sean Connery & Donald Sutherland, one of the last movies that Geoffrey Unsworth did cinematography on, a score from the legend Jerry Goldsmith (which was a delight) and it had an interesting premise loosely based on a real life event? Why the heck not?

The story of several thieves scheming to do an “impossible” heist of gold bars from a train in 1855 Victorian England and the movie itself does not rise about being “fine” yet that is no insult. Sometimes I am disappointed that something isn't better but otherwise I can't carp too loudly about a movie that is still good. After all, it was interesting to see all the steps that were taken to put the plan in motion. This requires such tasks as creating molds for all the safe keys... which means that both Connery and Lesley-Anne Down have to go undercover for this purpose. All those machinations were interesting, even if at times the movie did lag a bit.

It was all in good fun, especially at the sight of Old Sean doing most of his stunts, including on top (and side) of a moving train. I was entertained by that romp even if it wasn't a must-see in the genre. Originally it was going to be my UK movie for the month of March; that changed as after this movie I finally listened to that Empire podcast w/ Edgar Wright and Tarantino. I haven't loved everything Wright has done and the same goes for QT-that does not even take into account the allegations of on-set behavior. However, it was still a fascinating listen which I'll discuss more tomorrow. I'll make the excuse that this has an American director and was produced by an Italian to have a UK movie on the March Around the World list come tomorrow that I had no knowledge of until I heard the aforementioned podcast episode.