Back during the Great Depression, a character known as the hobo wandered from destination to destination, usually to find work or escape mean climes. His preferred method of transport was open train cars via the rails. Usually, the practice was ignored as harmless hitchhiking. Sometimes it met with violent ends, as there are countless tales of derelicts crushed under the wheels of the iron horses. Sometimes they froze to death, passing thru wintery territory.
Sometimes they met Shack.
One of Robert Aldrich's last great action movies, he was looking for a piece to reunite Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine, who had appeared together in The Dirty Dozen. Sam Peckinpah wrote the first draft of this film and was scheduled to direct it. Ken Hyman had started it (he was head of production at Warners from 1966-1969 and brought Peckinpah back in the ballgame, allowing him to do The Wild Bunch). But Hyman had worked with Aldrich too, on the highly successful Dozen, so he went for him over the unwieldly Sam. Aldrich was a straight-up director who really wasn't looking to make the next great art film. Sometimes it just worked out that way(Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?).
Borgnine excels in one of his meanest parts ever, as the villainous conductor Shack, who collects travel fare with a sledge hammer(sound familiar, and this was made prior to TCM). Marvin plays A#1, the toughest ‘bo on the rails, who vows to ride Shack’s train at all costs. Keith Carradine(the one casting flaw IMO) is a young upstart who wants Marvin’s rep, but has no sand. Together, they combine for some of the most violently played scenes ever, including a very prolonged finale with lumber, axes, hammer and chains, choreographed on, atop and beneath a rolling train.
Aldrich tended to work more within the studio system, and knew how to play ball. In the strictest terms, an action film is not really supposed to have artistic merit. That, of course is the biggest rule Peckinpah always tried to break. Aldrich achieved it here, maybe by accident. Another example of fairly similar directorial talents united by a common bond are Clint Eastwood's 2 favorites of the late 60s-early 70's, Ted Post and Don Siegel. Both worked in that studio system and produced adept action films, yet only one is remembered as an artist.
By the time this film came out Peckinpah was starting to bleed again. My personal opinion was that his ego was starting to get the better of him. He may have been taking his reviews too seriously when he made Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, and his films started lurching downward from there. Aldrich always seemed on an even keel. It would have been a different Emperor, but maybe not a better one under Sam’s helm.
This is a must see for fans of action films. 9.5/10
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