The Cassandra Crossing

This disaster movie is both fun and thrilling at the same time, and does not rely at all on computer graphics unlike recent efforts like ARMAGEDDON. In fact, the visuals here, especially at the breath-taking climax, still look hot! The movie is all about a train ride into hell - not only is the Geneva to Stockholm express heading for a collapsing bridge, it has plague on board - no antidote - and nobody will allow the passengers off! Burt Lancaster is great as Colonel MacKenzie, the army intelligence officer in charge of operations, who has a decision to make - should he sacrifice the passengers to prevent a Europe-wide epidemic? Sounds familiar? This might even have inspired such recent movies like EXECUTIVE DECISION, OUTBREAK, PANDORA'S CLOCK(TV mini series) and in part UNDER SIEGE 2. Aside from the action, you get a distinguished cast featuring Sophia Loren, Martin Sheen, Richard Harris, Ava Gardner and more, plus great scenic train footage. Don't miss it!

An infected terrorist escapes from a Geneva chemical institute and carries a deadly plague to a European express train. Coolly devised, fashionable, rather silly, but undeniably entertaining and spectacular disaster thriller with an abundance of topical pulp elements, handsome production, superficial writing, a curious lack of cinematic invention, and nothing much for its star cast to do. Watching it now, one can observe many components clearly influencing today's filmmakers.

I happened to catch this film today on a cable channel. It was worth watching again. Unlike other disaster films, this film was an original set on a train with a plague ridden passenger. Aboard this Paris bound train, it's changed to a place in Poland which was a concentration camp to quarantine the passengers. What the passengers don't know is that they have to cross "The Cassandra Crossing" which is poorly constructed bridge in Poland that can't handle the train's weight. Even the former residents have left living there because of the bridge's danger. I thought this film has a lot of thrilling sequences even with the seventies music and score by Jerry Goldsmith. The cast is first rate with the late Richard Harris (who should have been knighted), Sophia Loren, Martin Sheen, Ava Gardner, Lee Strasberg, even O.J. Simpson is cast in an unusual role. I haven't watched anything with Simpson since 1994. I thought Lee Strasberg was brilliant as was Burt Lancaster and Ingrid Thulin as well.

This is not one of those soulless, uninteresting all-star packages of the '70s, like "The Towering Inferno" or one of those pseudo-artsy "entertainments" like "The French Connection"; it's a vigorously directed, tightly edited thriller that grabs you by the throat right from the opening sequence and keeps its grip throughout. Sure, it contains most of the expected disaster-movie cliches (peculiar love-hate relationships between characters played by big stars of the era, useless supporting roles - especially Ava Gardner's -, etc...), but the directing is so efficient, and Burt Lancaster is so convincingly hateful, that you find yourself completely absorbed. In my opinion, a first-rate movie, with a spectacular finish. (***)

Wow! Now here's a value for money film. You get an outbreak of plague on a train, heading for a rickety bridge, whose passengers include sundry thieves, arms dealers, terrorists, pretty girls and cute kids. We've got helicopters, shoot-outs, explosions, songs, heroic sacrifices, Martin Sheen as Ava Gardner's kept boyfriend, Lee Strasberg emoting nobly and Burt Lancaster as an Army General who is Not To Be Trusted. George Pan Cosmatos directs at a fair lick, the setpieces are staged with relish, there's some neat bits of dialogue (courtesy of Tom Manciewiez, one suspects) and a spectacular climax. By most definitions, this is a pretty bad, crass, melodramatic, ludicrous film, but it's more fun than many a Good Movie I can think of.