• Despite being remembered as a novelist- this is Crichton’s third film as director- and he occasionally would direct films he did not write as well. This one though, The Great Train Robbery, is from his novel.
  • Sean Connery plays the affable Pierce- and his voiceover sets the scene.
  • This is a heist film as the title would indicate- and it is a procedural- step by step as Pierce and Agar (an able Donald Sutherland) put together the details (including getting the four keys for the safe, one by wax impression, etc). With a timer they plot out the 75 seconds needed to steal two Chubb keys from the safe- rich detail. Sutherland and Connery have a great rapport- “you don’t trust me?”- “I don’t trust you at all” with a devilish smile from Connery.
  • Jerry Goldsmith is one of cinema’s finest composers- and he provides the score here. Geoffrey Unsworth the director of photography shot 2001 and Cabaret.
  • Crichton’s writing excels in spots- “He must have a weakness- no respectable gentleman is that respectable.”
  • This is the 1850s set in England- so the language from that period is similar to Gangs of New York– calling cops “crushers” and great dialogue like “There’s a finny in your pocket” or “if you’ve turned nose on me- I’ll see you in lavender”- a deliciously obsolete vernacular- the Coen Brothers would love it.

The character of Clean Willy (part of the heist crew) is Wayne Sleep- one of the preeminent ballet dancers of the era. Sleep scaled the walls during the Newgate prison scene.

  • Crichton was no visual master- but in one scene he has a string of lights at the train station at night making for a nice composition—soon after Miriam (Lesley-Anne Down- sort of eye candy who plays a role in the caper) is shaving Connery in an inspired upside-down shot.
  • Ambitious (and this is overall too) to name it after the Edwin S. Porter famous 1903 short film.
  • This is not a gritty Michael Mann self-serious heist film—Sutherland’s Agar fakes his own death in a comedic scene, on the train a man propositions Miriam by asking her to “join the 50 mile an hour club” by having sex with him on the train- and Connery has a slew of strong one-liners. From Ebert- “Connery is one of the best light comedians in the movies, and has been ever since those long-ago days when he was James Bond”. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-great-train-robbery-1979
  • Some detractors may taken issue with motive—“I wanted the money”- from Connery’s Pierce. Not exactly heavy stuff in a year with The Deer Hunter.
  • Not substantial in Crichton’s arsenal- but a few camera zooms are used here- including on the train for the climactic set piece (and that is actually Connery on top of the train doing his own dangerous stunts- a few decades before Brian De Palma and Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible)- another zoom in on the judge at the trial.
  • With all the money involved in the movie industry it is just strange to see anyone (even a great novelist) stop making movies- but Crichton did after fix features (in 1989).
  • Recommend but not in the top 10 of 1978