Train Movies

Doug White, Albion College Biology Department Emeriti

Thursdays, 2 – 4 p.m. February 6, 13, 20, 27. Bohm Theatre. Class size unlimited. There is a $10 charge to help cover the cost of the theatre rental.

Human perceptions of time and space have been shaped by both the invention of railways and movies. Even before movies, railroads embodied the conflict between machine-age civilization and Nature including Hudson River School paintings and Thoreau’s “devilish Iron Horse” (Walden, 1854). Movie histories begin with the Méliès brothers A train arrives at La Ciotat station (1896) and the Edison Film company’s The Great Train Robbery (1903). Later, trains were key elements in all of director David Lean’s films from Brief Encounter (1945), to The bridge on the river Kwai (1957), Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and A passage to India (1984). In memorable movies gunslingers and con men arrive, spies and villains battle, convicts and witnesses flee, strangers plot and plotters act, crooners court and lovers couple—all on trains! Trains often serve as powerful metaphors for the human condition, touching on relentless inevitability and fate while visually embodying motion and life. To explore the role trains in cinema, I’ve selected four features in which trains are concretely depicted and central to the plot.

The General (1926)

A “silent” comedy by Buster Keaton inspired by an actual Civil War locomotive chase.

The Train (1964)

As allies advance on Paris, Nazis trying to steal away with art masterpieces are challenged by French railroad workers. Directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Burt Lancaster.

Emperor of the North (1973)

Set during the Depression, two hobos, one a hardened master (Lee Marvin) and one a greenhorn (Keith Carradine), are determined to hop a train ruled by a cruel obsessed conductor (Ernest Borgnine).

Runaway Train (1985)

Set in a bitter Alaska winter, two clashing convicts (Jon Voight and Eric Roberts) fleeing a sadistic prison warden find themselves trapped on a runaway train. The film is based on a screenplay by Akira Kurosawa.