Train Movies

Readers have been sending me suggestions for train movies to watch before (or during) my cross-continental train trip with Younger Son later this month.

Here's the list so far:

The Darjeeling Limited
This film was suggested by Anu. Here's what Netflix has to say about it:

Following the death of their father, three brothers (Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman) embark on a journey on the cross-India train the Darjeeling Limited and attempt to reconnect after years of physical and emotional distance. The trip also opens up some old wounds and proves that their sibling rivalry can never be completely erased. Natalie Portman and Anjelica Huston co-star in Wes Anderson's lyrical comic drama.

The Iron Horse
Amy suggested this 1924 film. She says:

John Ford's The Iron Horse was wildly entertaining, about building the Trans Continental Railroad. It was long, and a silent movie, but you should watch it!

Netflix has both the U.S. and the UK versions.

Brief Encounter
Helen, a reader who lives in England, suggested this 1946 film. She says:

It's an English romantic weepie of a film set in a railway station! It was written by Noel Coward and the theme is unfulfilled love/behaving honourably/repression. It was made during WW2 and is shot beautifully in B&W. It stars Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson, who speak with the frightfully brittle, clipped British accents that you just wouldn't hear today. It may not be to your taste, but it's a gem of an experience.
[I didn't know that these classic British accents were disappearing! Must be our fault.]

By contrast, there's always "Throw Momma From the Train" (Danny de Vito). Bad taste but funny.

I'm looking forward to reading about your train adventures--I adore train travel, and my dream is to cross North America by train. I have relatives in Vancouver, but I want to sail into New York, past the Statue of Liberty.

Yesterday I "escaped" from the Isle of Wight, and attended a conference in London with my boss, travelling by catamaran and train. We skipped the final speaker because she was disappointing and our brains felt full. On the Thames-side walk back to the railway station we had to pass the London Eye. (This would be our equivalent of the Space Needle, perhaps?) The temptation was simply too much on a sunny spring Friday afternoon, so we went for it - the views over London were awesome and I felt so happy to be alive and feeling well.

Back to me: I've read about the London Eye, but have never been to London (I know, incredible, yes? I've been to France, years ago, that's the only European country I've visited. I have standing invites from friends in Germany and England, so maybe soon ...)

Here's the one train movie I came up with all on my own:

North By Northwest
It's a classic, starring Cary Grant.

Read more:

Train Travel

Cancer Movie Reviews

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Comments

[Dee]

If you're looking for movies about journeys, or just classic tales, another suggestion might be "Atarnarjuat: The Fast Runner". It's based on an old Canadian Inuit story, with a screenplay written by an Inuit, using local Inuit actors, filmed on location in Nunavut, Canada, in the Inuit language, with English subtitles. I think the only non-Inuit was the director, whose name is escaping me at the moment. It's long - about 3 or more hours. But a classic tale that highlights Inuit values of community/generosity over individual/stinginess. There is a great scene when the protaganist runs, naked, for miles across a frozen inlet. He almost dies, but recovers. I don't want to give more about the plot. My mom enjoyed it, although Canadian Inuit is near enough to her dialect that she tried to listen to it, but when she didn't understand something, she started reading the English. Great scenery. They tried to be very faithful to traditional dress and housing and vehicles.

The London Eye is a bit like the Space Needle. It's like a big ferris wheel, in that there are cars that go slowly around, up and over. But the "cars" are like big, clear balls, that can hold 10-12 people. My son, my grad student, and I went up in it in May 2005. It is right on the Thames, so you can see Buckingham Palace and a lot of other sights (which I can't remember at the moment).

London was fun to visit, but growing up in the west, I always felt uncomfortable with the loss of personal space I always felt - both in the home and in the stores, on the street, on the tube. The one cool thing: the British Museum has on display in its Native American exhibit an ivory carving made by a fellow King Islander. I have never met him, but I know members of his immediate family - his name was Charles Kukuluk. Very cool - I think it was a carving of an owl. I had to run and find my students so that I could show them!! Another of my students got to hold a letter written by Thomas Jefferson, to someone in the French(?) government during the Revolutionary War! We wondered how the National British Archives (got to go look at my notes for this detail - amazing how three years can make you forget details like this) got hold of this letter - maybe during WWII? Another of my students got to sit next to Patrick Stewart (of Star Trek The Next Generation fame) during a play called Hedda Gabler (spelling?). A cool experience, but I doubt I'd live there again.

[Carver]

I saw Darjeeling Limited with my sisters when we were in NYC for my birthday. The plan was that we were going to see a matinee of Spamalot. We had brunch and my daughter and her Dad left to do a father/daughter outing and the 3 sisters headed straight into the picket lines. So much for my sister having gotten our tickets way in advance, can't plan on a strike. We ended up going to the movies. I loved it. Something about the 3 sisters seeing this offbeat movie about 3 brothers on the train struck the right note for me and it was my birthday so me being happy was the big thing, ha. I think my sisters enjoyed it too although having planned on the theatre tickets being part of my birthday gift was a disappointment to them. This is my long winded way of saying that I would recommend that movie too, although I may not be totally impartial as the whole time I was watching it I chuckled to myself translating the brother parts to sister parts and thinking, yep, that's sister 1's part and that's sister 2's part and of course I was the well adjusted one, yeah right. Cheers, Carver

[jeanne]

Carver--that's great! Now I really want to see it. I am one of three sisters also, so I'll probably find myself doing the same thing, although my sisters and I are not the good friends it sounds like you and yours are.

Great sisters story.

[jeanne]

Dee--that sounds like a fabulous movie. I will see if Netflix has it.

Must have been great to see something in a museum made by someone you know--or close enough, you know his family, right?

I would love the London Eye--I didn't know you lived in London, though! I imagine that it's a lot like Tokyo and New York--when I visited New York the first time, it reminded me of Tokyo, because I'd been to Tokyo first, and ended up living there for five years. The crowding can be hard to take, but when you turn an anthopologist's eye on it, it's fascinating. Remind me to tell you what I mean when I see you.

[Dee]

Yeah, I lived in London from March to June 2005. I taught students from public universities in the Northwest, who were there on a study abroad program. I lived about two or three blocks from Kings Cross train station. Part of my duties were to work excursions into local places that connected to my classes. I taught one on British folklore and another on British colonialism. Again, I'm glad I had the experience, but was never so happy to come home. I was home for a week, then headed to Alaska and after a few days in Nome, I was at camp, on land owned by King Islanders. We were in small cabins, so space was limited when the weather was bad, but the silence was golden! And, you could see out the window for miles without seeing anyone else!

It'll be fun to chat about turning an anthropologist's eye on the whole thing.

Carver, great story about Darjeeling Limited!

[Helen]

If you like comedy thrillers set aboard trains, you might try the following:
The Lady Vanishes (1938) directed by Hitchcock, or The Ghost Train, starring Arthur Askey (a hyperactive, diminutive English comedian. There's also Murder on the Orient Express, a version of the Agatha Christie whodunnit, starring Lauren Bacall and Albert Finney. (These are all available as Region 1 DVDs.) Helen

[jeanne]

Helen-those are great suggestions, thanks! I've see Murder on the Orient Express (but Younger Son hasn't), but not the others. I'm going to add them to my list.