Great production values and great performances almost bring off Michael Crichton's thin plot in this 1978 film about an 1855 robbery caper. Sean Connery and Lesley Anne Down are both solid in their parts as the mastermind and his accomplice/mistress, but both are outshone by Donald Sutherland, who has the best part by far and he was never better. The film has the look and feel of mid 19th century England down pat, and if the story had leaned less on tired devices such as "the routine never varies", which is used over and over, the film would have benefited. Screenwriter/novelist Michael Crichton clearly needed a co-writer, but his stock was so high in Hollywood at the time he even persuaded United Artists to let him direct. The acrobatic moving train heist sequence is pretty spectacular, but would have been utterly impossible on a train in 1855. One other highlight is Jerry Goldsmith's score, which has to rate as one of this veteran composer's best.
Review of The Great Train Robbery
