The First Great Train Robbery 1978

Never have so few taken so much from so many.

6.668 / 10   336 vote(s)
PG
Thriller Adventure Drama Crime

In Victorian England, a master criminal makes elaborate plans to steal a shipment of gold from a moving train.

Release Date 1978-12-14
Runtime 1h 50m
Directors Michael Crichton, Geoffrey Unsworth, Anthony Waye, Dick Ziker
Producers John Foreman, Dino De Laurentiis
Writers Michael Crichton, Michael Crichton

Robbing a train of a shipment of gold in Victorian England

Written/directed by Michael Crichton and released in 1978/79, “The Great Train Robbery” was loosely based on the real-life Great Gold Robbery of 1855 that took place in England. Sean Connery plays the mastermind, Lesley-Anne Down his girlfriend and Donald Sutherland a safecracker with whom they team-up.

I generally don’t like caper films because the protagonists are criminals, but Crichton wisely makes the characters played by Connery and Sutherland likable rapscallions; meanwhile Down is babelicious, in particular in her jaw-dropping first scene. Crichton intentionally made the movie more farcical compared to his novel and I appreciated the wit and low-key humor. I didn’t expect to like this movie, but it won me over.

The film runs 1 hour, 51 minutes, and was shot primarily in Ireland (Dublin, Bray, Cork & Moate), but also Pinewood Studios, England.

GRADE: B-/B

Wuchak

Seen this once before many years ago but decided to check out the new Blu-ray from Kino Lorber. A solid heist-thriller though what struck me was these thieves were stealing gold meant for British soldiers, so not exactly stealing from some corporation, and our lead played by Sean Connery had no issue murdering a guy. Even so, still found it entertaining and some suspense-filled scenes, among them a great sequence with Connery on top of a moving train. 3.75/5

JPV852