Robert Aldrich didn’t have much luck with the Depression in The Grisson Gang, but he went back to that period just two years later, this time armed with two of his favourite actors, Lee Marvin and Ernest Brognine. It has an intriguing idea, with hobo Marvin betting he can ride on Borgnine’s train. It’s a simple story which could stand as a metaphor for all sorts of stuff they liked in the early 70s – freedom, authority, bucking the system, slang (eg Vanishing Point, Easy Rider). No doubt that’s the film’s backers were hoping the youth audience would enjoy that aspect.
However the only real young character is Keith Carradine as a bratty young hobo forever creating trouble. Although he’s got potential he’s never shown to really have the right stuff, even at the end - perhaps this was why the youth audience didn’t go for the movie.
The film is way too long at two hours. You could say that about a lot of Robert Aldrich films but this seems really padded because really it should be about one train journey but it takes all these side detours. Some of the battles on the train are really clever – I especially loved Borgnine’s little chain device that he uses to get at hobos sleeping under the carriage.
Borgnine, Marvin and Carradine are all effective and the support cast demonstrate Aldrich had not lost any of his skill for casting great “faces” – the agony, sweat and hard work of the Depression are etched on all of them. (The men that is – there are hardly any women in the film)
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