The Last Train

The one star I gave this movie is not pertaining to the movie itself, but the poor video quality. It was as if I was watching someone's home video, old and yellowed, grainy and the sound was terrible.

In retrospect I see how it's merely 4.99, but sadly I bought it anyway, hoping for a refreshing new (rediscovered) european movie....

bottom line, probably a good movie but I couldn't get through it with such poor dvd transfer.... beware, or wait until it comes out restored later.


A strong film marred by a so-so VHS transfer   July 13, 2000
 18 out of 19 found this review helpful

A while back, I was searching for a Romy Schneider film as a birthday present for my mother, and I decided to purchase this film, The Last Train. I had read good reviews about this forgotten film, and felt that it was a worthwhile purchase. Indeed, the film is quite powerful and rather moving. It is set in WW2 and concerns the plight of a group of people as they attempt to flee from the advancing German troops. They board the last train leaving the town (hence the title). The film is not a suspense thriller, however, and concerns itself more with the relationships that develop between the various individuals on the train. Romy Schneider plays one such emigrant, a German girl with a secret. While the film contains brief periods of humour, it is for the most part a serious film with a somewhat melancholy conclusion. One sees in this film some of the themes that would later show up in more recent films such as Schindler's List, which equals the dramatic effect of The Last Train.

I would rate this film a strong 5 stars, however, there are some problems with the VHS version. First, although this is a French film, the tape is dubbed. Some people prefer dubbing to subtitles, but I prefer to hear foreign films as originally recorded. Besides, we always tend to lose some nuances of the vocal performances after dubbing. The second problem with the tape is that it has a rather poor video transfer, looking like it was recorded from film stock that had deteriorated from too many viewings. Same thing goes for the sound quality. It's pretty bad. It essentially looks like a budget VHS tape. Perhaps a better version exists somewhere in France, but not in the States. Bottom line - the VHS version looks like an excellent film that was recorded off a television set with so-so reception. If you're willing to overlook this problems, you will be rewarded with a strong cinematic experience. The choice is yours, but as I've said, the film is quite good.


love conquers all, even in the face of death   August 12, 1999
 18 out of 18 found this review helpful

this is a beautiful film. i saw this film in the summer of 1975 in a small theatre in the steamy,banana port of La Ceiba, Honduras. i've been looking for it for years, and been unable to find any reference to it. for years it almost seemed as if i had imagined the entire film, sitting in a hot, humid, crowded little theatre in that pulsing latin port so many years ago. i finally found reference to it on the internet. the version i saw was in spanish and was titled "the ultimo train" (the last train"). it is a french film set in the south of france at the advent of world war II. it is a beautiful and profound love story that deals with destiny and choices made along the road of love. a gorgeous, mature romy schneider is a jewish woman travelling aboard a train of french citizens fleeing to the south of france to avoid the nazi invasion. jean-luis trintagnant is a henpecked, bookish everyman travelling with his wife and children. they have a passionate, brief interlude on the train and fall in love. their escalating passion for each other is abruptly ended when they are separated in a mad, crowd of refugees during a bomb attack. they meet again several years later near the end of the war at the height of the nazi's desperate retreat from france. their meeting again is one of pure serendipity and under the most trying of circumstances. will the meek jean-luis choose the woman he loves or settle for a life of cautious regret? it portrays the classic decision we must all make in our lives-to live or to die. i would never be so cruel as to tell you how it all turns out, but it's surprising, beautiful, and deeply evocative. please see this film.