rixrex Always wondered what happened to the 'boy-wonder' of They Shoot Horses Don't They. I'd see him here and there occasionally in parts that he could do blindfolded. However, here he has a part worthy of his talents and he makes good use of it. No longer a befuddled young man or some other sort of idealistic type, here he gets to be a villain, but not an ordinary cardboard stereotypical villain, nor an over-the-top role that an actor can ham, but a real person with all sorts of convolutions and character flaws and good points as well.In this film, a rather well-done portrayal of the true-life Train Killer who caused terror on the tracks in 1931 Europe, all participants seem to be giving their best effort, including the bit-part players. While there is no typical build of tension and melodrama, the study of a man who desires to wreak havoc due to some sort of warning from God that he must deliver is quite absorbing. The possibilities of political unrest are all explored in the pre-WW2 Europe, and the fact that he might have been duped by the fascists who want things to appear as if the destruction was caused by communists is also explored.But his warning was that he was directed to present to Europe a vision of the future, and that certainly was true enough. You will be intrigued if you do not expect the deafening slam-bang action of Hollywood presentations. There is good action here, but all within the size and scope of the drama, not overboard. A thoughtful rendering of a bizarre man, and you will be amazed at his life story beyond the train wrecks he caused.

FieCrier I watched this on videotape, but it is out on DVD both by itself and in one or two cheap DVD sets from Platinum and/or Brentwood.I didn't find it very involving. It would have helped a little bit if it were in Hungarian with English subtitles, but unfortunately it was dubbed. It was also full-screen, and I suspect it looked a lot better in widescreen given that it deals with wide things like trains, and bridges and so on; the color was nice.I think a documentary about the real-life subject of this film would have been more interesting. Oh well.As the English title The Train Killer suggests, the subject is a man who compulsively derails trains by various methods. Why he does so is not clear. There are a couple brief sex scenes which do feature some nudity.

cojosh I've just wasted a few hours of my life watching this film. I expected more since it was based on actual events. Some of the acting is horrific and I'm almost positive I saw a guy reading a Q-card. The two twin sisters that own the hardware store are scary. They're more frightening than the "train killer". He didn't seem like such a bad guy! Every now and then he would get a little angry. Most of the characters didn't even speak with an accent. They sounded like Americans. I hated to see that steam engine go to waste on this movie. I can't encourage any one to take the time to view this film. Overall, it stank!!!!

roskalnikov ***SLIGHT SPOILERS*** What an odd little film. It's lovingly photographed in places, but the direction is slipshod, the screenplay laughable, the acting almost ineffably terrible, and the dubbing among the worst I've heard. Despite these flaws, I was somehow drawn to the very end of the picture, which is more than I can say for many recent thrillers I've regretted seeing (Memento leaps to mind). I suspect my patience would have thinned had it not been based on a true story. But the film's connection to reality, though probably tenuous, was enough to hold my interest to some small degree. Some psychological depth would have been nice in a movie about a man who reveled in the destruction of trains in pre-war Hungary, but the closest we get is when the protagonist leans over a stretch of track, toiling to bring about one of his catastrophes, and mutters to himself, "Damn trains!" Oh, I get it! He doesn't like trains. That's why he kills all those people and destroys all those trains. Oh well, whether I recommend it or not (I do, kind of), you may be hard pressed to find a copy of it, and I don't foresee a DVD release anytime soon.