I'm always on the lookout for good railroad movies - or at least good movies in
which
railroads play some important part. It isn't just for the action footage or
scenery (of course
that never hurts!); I'm also interested in what these movies have to say about
what
railroads mean to people.
Anyway, I just found a pretty good one through Netflix. It's an indie film
released in 2002
- from Uruguay, of all places, called "El Ultimo Tren" (The Last Train). The
premise is that a
group from the local "Friends of Rail" society conspire to steal Uruguay's last
operating
steam locomotive in order to stop it from being sold out-of-the-country for a
movie.
Needless to say, as they flee, running light toward the Brazilian border, they
are pursued
by the police and the engine's owner, providing both comic and dramatic
episodes. But the
true heart of the movie is the trio of old men who (along with an 11-year-old
boy)
physically steal the engine. It is really their story, how their actions relate
to who they are,
or were, or wish they were, and especially to how they each face the realities
of old age.
The scenes of the engine running through the Uruguayan countryside are nicely
photographed, and the landscape has a quiet pastoral beauty. It could easily
have been a
branch line somewhere in the Midwest, were it not for the engine's obviously
British
appearance, and accent.
Not exactly an action/adventure pic like "Emperor of the North Pole," but a
good story and
character study.
Jonathan
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