"Best Train Movie: Von Ryan's Express!" Topic

You were asked – TMP link

Best Film That Mixes Battles & Trains?

And in the final round of voting:

32% said "Von Ryan's Express"
23% said "Lawrence of Arabia"
14% said "Bridge on the River Kwai"

After seeing the results of numerous TMP movie polls, I've come to the conclusion that most of our members have never seen any movie made before 1955.

Casablancea?
Went the day well?
Life and death of Colonel Blimp?
A matter of life and Death
Dr Mabusa
M….Murderer amongst us
Metropolis
Way out West
Stagecoach
Tarzan
The Four Feathers
Angels with Dirty faces
….I could go on all day if you like

At least it is actually about a train…

Got to be Buster Keaton's The General. closely followed by North West Frontier.

I think that the movie "The Train" with Burt Lancaster was a pretty good film.

Emperor of the North. Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine

Runaway Train (1985).

Emperor of the north

I second ‘The Train'.

'The Train' gets my vote as well

Wasn't there a train film set during the ACW? I think it was a Disney film.

The Train
Flame over India/Northwest Frontier
Breakheart Pass
Emperor of the North Pole
Source Code (a bit OT, but wildly underrated)
Under Seige
Taking of Pelham 123 (original)

Dark of the Sun
Bhowani Junction

It's funny how so many of the outraged "Well, what about xxxxx" complaints were never nominated.
It's not as if an elite committee selected the choices.

The Train.

Black and white. Great photography of now long lost French country stations and steam engines. Paul Scofield as the nasty Nazi was good too. Many a real French actor, including Grouchy from Waterloo (1970). The bombing of the rail junction, shown from a low level bomber, fantastic.

Worst ever example of a train/ battle sequence?

Battle of the Bulge. A train races through "Belgium" (looks more like the Rocky Mountains) at speeds that should break the sound barrier. Only to meet a "Tiger" at the end of a tunnel. Truly ludicrous. The Bridge at Remagen train sequence was not as bad. But not great. The train crash in the early stages of The Longest Day is terrific. It was a real engine and you can tell.

What about all the movies that take place during the Mexican Revolution that have significant scenes with trains. The Professionals; 100 Rifles; Also Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (and all the other Pancho Villa movies) etc. And what about Dark of the Sun (the whole movie takes place on a train).

Flame Over India for sure.

"The General", "The Train" and "North West frontier" are the best 3 train war movies that I have seen. Although "Lawrence of Arabia" and "The Bridge over the River Kwai" are great movies, the train sequences are fairly minor.

My Little Chickadee

Fist full of dynamite. Rod Steiger,
James Coburn. Mexican revolution.That one is a must see.
The Great Locomotive Chase.Old Disney with Fess Parker.ACW.

Trains and Battles? Runaway Train, Breakheart Pass, Under Seige, Emperor of the North Pole, Taking of Pelham 123, Unstopable, Murder on the Orient Express, Polar Express , Silver Streak, Snowpiercer, Horror Express, are all good train movies, most of the action is on the train. Not Wars. In Pelhan the train is mostly stationary. 3:10 to Yuma Is good movie with some train action, The Great Train Robbery, Alien Express, Narrow Margin.

Anyway, in keeping with the original question, I vote for
The Dark of the Sun (I have done a game of that) the train is almost a character,
Flame Over India/North West Frontier is excellent (game here matakishi.net/north-west-frontier.html
The General.
The Good, the Bad and The Weird is a favorite too, want to do a game of that.
The Train is certainly a war film, but more of a skirmish between Burt and the Nazi.
I have been thinking about Von Ryan's Express as a game too.

"Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bridge on the River Kwai" are just war movies with trains in them that get blown up. Likewise Duck You Sucker but good film.

Don't forget Young Winston's Boer War train sequence.

How about the Horse Soldiers? The railroads were the object of the campaign.

Back to the Future III

Taking of Pelham 123

scene at the end of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

About Von Ryan's Express, it's a bit strange that they changed the ending, in the original novel Frank Sinatra's character survives, or so I read.

I like 'The Cassandra Crossing'

art imitating a prediction of life post 2019?

List of Films Set On Trains:
link

The 1964 film The Train is all about a train – the Nazi Germans are using it to take stolen art out of France and the Resistance want to stop it.

link

and

YouTube link

Meanwhile…
Kelly's Heroes!

Three Shermans shoot a German working party to bits at a railway station and the trundle off down the tracks playing "I've been working on the railroad" from loudspeakers.

YouTube link

B

The Train and Von Ryan's Express. Von Ryan's Express has special meaning for me for two reasons. When i was a kid back in 1964 we spent the summer in Italy and Sicily where my family comes from. We rode the trains along the same routes portrayed in the film. The second reason is I am a fan of Frank Sinatra.