Film Illiterate, wherein the proprietor records movies seen, and sporadic progress through assorted lists of the "best". Originally started after regretfully renting something forgettable for the third time. I've forgotten what, but never again! A tedious endeavour since 2005. Hello. 🙂
Lot of complaints these days that movie run-times are creeping up and up, but it looks like nothing ever changes: John Frankenheimer's lavish World War 2 action film is similarly overindulged at 134 minutes. This may be in part because its most interesting character, Colonel Franz Von Waldheim (Paul Scofield), a Nazi officer attempting to remove French paintings from Paris in the closing days of the war, is only given screentime when permitted by the point of view of leading man Paul Labiche (Burt Lancaster), a Frenchman trying to stop the train.
This is an impressive action movie, with action sequences involving the dynamiting of a real train yard to simulate an Allied bombing. Supposedly Arthur Penn had wanted to make a more intimate film before Lancaster fired him and hired Frankenheimer to turn it into an action spectacle. It's a shame.