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Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield, Jeanne Moreau, Michel Simon, Suzanne Flon ... see more see more... , Charles Millot , Wolfgang Preiss , Jean-Claude Bercq , Paul Bonifas , Arthur Brauss , Gerard Buhr , Helmo Kinderman , Bernard Lajarrige , Jean-Jacques Lecomte , Daniel Lecourtois , Jacques Marin , Richard Münch , Albert Remy , Howard Vernon , Jean-Pierre Zola , Richard Bailey , Donal O'Brien , Roger Lumont , Victor Beaumont , Louis Falavigna , Michael A. Simon

John Frankenheimer directs Burt Lancaster in the tense spy thriller The Train. Lancaster plays Labiche, a French railway inspector. Allied forces are threatening to liberate Paris, so Col. Franz von W... read more read more...aldheim (Paul Scofield) is ordered to move the priceless works of art from the Jeu de Paume Museum to the fatherland. The head of the museum (Suzanne Flon) attempts to convince Labiche that he should sabotage the train on which they are transporting the art. Labiche is more focused on destroying a trainload of German weapons. After his friend is killed trying to stop the train with the art, and after a consciousness-raising conversation with a hotel owner (Jeanne Moreau), Labiche resolves to save the antiquities. Lancaster and Frankenheimer had worked together previously on both Birdman of Alcatraz and Seven Days in May. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

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84% liked it

3,753 ratings

Critics

100% liked it

6 critics

Unrated, 2 hr. 13 min.

Directed by: John Frankenheimer, Arthur Penn

Release Date: March 7, 1965

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DVD Release Date: May 15, 2001

 

Stats: 192 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (192)

  • kenstachnik
    November 29, 2010
    kenstachnik
    A screaming pile of awesomeness. Gritty, action packed and full of machismo.
    Possibly the best train movie ever.

    Suggested double feature: Von Ryan's Express.
  • flixsterman
    September 11, 2009
    flixsterman
    Don't you just love the way Burt Lancaster always plays Burt Lancaster, no matter the circumstance, the setting or even the nationality of the character? What would be a detriment to most other actors seems to only strengthen his popularity.

    Here, in this classic WWII drama, ... read moreLancaster is a "FRENCH" engineer in charge of the railroad traffic in and out of Paris. He is also covertly intent on sabotaging the occupational German army every chance he gets. While those around him, be they French or German, speak with fluid accents, Burt never waivers from his trademark American dialect. The best part is that we, his legions of adoring fans, don't seem to mind one bit. It's not the words that fuel his performance, it's the emotion behind them. In The Train there is no actor less French than Burt Lancaster, and yet I can't imagine anyone better suited for the part.
  • DrBenway
    March 16, 2009
    DrBenway
    The Train is a really good action film and one of the most underrated war pictures. It's engaging, well-paced, with great special effects and strong performances. Add in the theme about the relative worth of artistic treasures to human lives and you've got a quality movie.

    Joh... read moren Frankenheimer got his training in live TV where there were no second takes so he made sure that everything was rehearsed and the shot setup and lighting was perfect. This carries over to his films which have a documentary look and feel, even though they are fictional. The stunts and train wrecks were all real and it took a massive amount of dynamite carefully placed and blown off at precisely the right time to stage the massive special effects that characterize this film. Dynamite is so much more satisfying than the gasoline explosions so typically seen in action movies.
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  • tsigur
    December 20, 2008
    tsigur
    Burt Lancaster would put most of the modern day "action stars" to shame. This guy is a badass all the way around. When he is not sliding down ladders or jumping off moving trains (and it's really him), he's giving great speeches that made me want to preserve some art from my home... read moreland. I was enthralled the entire way and loved every second of the cat and mouse game that Lancaster plays with Scofield (also brilliant). I kept thinking that Lancaster probably really shot himself in the leg during the last half of the movie just so he could know what it was lto do all these stunts with a bullet in his leg. John Frankenheimer does an excellent job with the action sequences (the train wrecks were awesome) that stand the test of time. Overall the way he shoots this film really impressed me (I didn't realize it was going to be in black and white either). A classic action film that I could watch again and again.
  • garyX
    July 14, 2007
    garyX
    WWII adventure that sees Burt Lancaster in typically rough and tumble style attempting to stop a nazi colonel from stealing the art treasures of Paris. The film would've worked better if Frankenheimer had shown as much interest in the characters (and the war for that matter) as h... read moree did in the locomotives, but there are a couple of impressive set pieces involving a 3 train wreck and railyard aerial bombardment. On the whole, more one for steam enthusiasts than the rest of us, but it is worth persevering with for the powerful final scenes in which the obsessive colonel must admit defeat.
  • kpn666
    July 25, 2006
    kpn666
    Also not given enuff credit! one of Frankenheimer's best - a war espionage flick.
  • staindslaved
    March 4, 2012
    staindslaved
    John Frankenheimer's tense thriller The Train deals with an under discussed real-life wide-scale act of vandalism perpetrated by the Nazi's during WWII. Many historic works of art were taken and even to this day are trying to be retrieved. The film focuses on a train loaded wit... read moreh French artwork that a high ranking German officer (Paul Scofield) is trying to smuggle out of France before the allied forces are able to liberate the country. Burt Lancaster and a crew of allied soldiers are ordered to delay the train and preserve the art work at all costs until the allied forces can reach them. Some German officials don't regard the artwork as important as Scofield does. The same can be said of the Americans who feel they are risking their lives for something not worth any mans life. The moral debate over the significance and importance of the artwork is explored but never answered throughout the film. The film is an excellent action piece with many war scene spectacles and incredible explosions and real-life train crashes. The film also showcases a powerhouse performance at the conclusion where Scofield and Lancaster face off in a showdown of words and morality, not guns and bullets. Scofield declares that no matter what the artwork is rightfully his, it is his birthright and anyone's birthright who can look at and truly admire a work of art. Lancaster cannot do this and so his endeavors are a wasted and futile attempt by a soldier blindly following orders not understanding the reason for his actions. Lancaster is left to look around the carnage, dead bodies, derailed trains and spilled artwork and wonder what was it all for? and was any of it worth even one mans life?

    P.S. This film is hands down one of the most undervalued and under-appreciated films in history. It is just as good as Billy Wilder's Stalag 17 and The Great Escape yet it is not present on any notable list of great films I've ever seen. In fact if you search on RT for The Train you'll have to scroll past 25 other films before you'll come across it. This is an unjust treatment to a basically lost classic!
  • Tecnoandre
    June 15, 2010
    Tecnoandre
    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.

    Set in August 1944, the film sets Resistance-member Labiche (Burt Lancaster) against Col. von Waldheim (Paul Sco... read morefield), as the former attempts to prevent the latter shipping art masterpieces from a French museum to Germany.Whit fantastic black and white cinematography, this war movie pearl is very tense and realistic.A must see.
  • TecmoSmokaBowl
    September 22, 2009
    TecmoSmokaBowl
    One of my favorite movies set around WWII. Lancaster is all badass in this one!
  • keith222
    March 6, 2008
    keith222
    A Great Early 60s Frankenheimer film. He makes the whole movie feel like you are there. Has a strong documentary feel. A Very Quite performance by Burt, but still excellent as always. It makes me laugh because he is spose to be French, and is just being Burt. Paul Scofield is gre... read moreat as the Nazi Art Snob, a very complex villian

View All The Train Reviews

Critic Reviews

Christopher Lloyd
October 3, 2011
Christopher Lloyd, Sarasota Herald-Tribune

For a film with such an illogical premise, The Train manages to be a top-rate WWII thriller that's held up well. Full Review

Walter Chaw
March 24, 2009
Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central

A landmark picture in terms of its breakneck, antic, physical ambition--the marriage of that hell to the heaven of its gravitas something that marks Frankenheimer's best films. Full Review

Dennis Schwartz
January 19, 2007
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Plays as a homage to the French Resistance. Full Review

Steve Crum
November 30, 2006
Steve Crum, Dispatch-Tribune Newspapers

Classic Frankenheimer WWII actioner with unique plot.

Steven D. Greydanus
November 22, 2004
Steven D. Greydanus, Decent Films Guide

How do you weigh the cultural heritage of a nation against the value of human life? A wholly persuasive, intelligent thiller crisply directed by Frankenheimer. Full Review

October 18, 2008
Variety

Click to read the article Full Review

Bosley Crowther
May 20, 2003
Bosley Crowther, New York Times

Click to read the article Full Review

Chuck O'Leary
September 21, 2005
Chuck O'Leary, Fantastica Daily

No review available.

Geoff Andrew
June 24, 2006
Geoff Andrew, Time Out

Click to read the article Full Review

May 24, 2003
Film4

Click to read the article Full Review

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