End of the Line

I am a huge fan of The Band, so I watched this for Levon Helm.

The movie gets off to a strong start. It's one of those movies from the pre-digital era of filmmaking that you just don't see anymore, where the locations look like real places you could see if you walk down the street in any small town in America, and the actors are so convincing that it's hard to believe they're not real people. Movies are so airbrushed and polished and over produced now, and it makes me miss the grit and authenticity that films like this used to have.

If it had stayed grounded and allowed the comedy and drama to arise naturally from the characters and their predicament this could have been a very good and very different movie, but unfortunately it turns cartoonish and silly in the third act.

It has a surprisingly great cast, including two actors, Holly Hunter and Kevin Bacon, who would go on to become stars. I've noticed that some of the promotional material gives Bacon top billing, but this is misleading. This is Wilford Brimley and Levon Helm's movie. Wilford Brimley does a great job being Wilford Brimley, and Levon as always has a convincing, endearing, and charismatic screen presence as a naive but loveable railroad man. Bob Balaban and Clint Howard also make appearances as the chairman of the board of the railroad company and his assistant. They're great character actors and it's always good to see them. Balaban's character has a strange accent that I can't quite place.

It's worth watching not for the quality of the writing but for the performances, and for the way that it highlights a specific, bygone time and place and way of life in America.

This film is really a roadmovie. In this case, the road is a cargo train track from the fictional town Clifford, Arkansas, to Chicago, a trip of what would be roughly 1000 kilometers or 650 miles. Roadmovies are often interesting. You get to see a lot from what would be seen from the train. This put together with a feelgood story, slapstick humor and drama, makes it really worthwhile to see. It's hardly ever boring. It's not even a predictable story. I'd recommend it. The model track in the owner's office must make people who like toy trains drool. As the user ratings show, some rate it high, some rate it low. I belong to the first category. As far as I am concerned, it's in the top 5 of train movies.

This is a story about two old codgers who steal a freight train to make a point. In fact, they intend to drive it to Chicago from their homes in Arkansas to tell the president of their railroad to re-open their shop and save their jobs.

If you hate America, don't watch this movie. If you despise the working man, don't watch this movie. If your father or his father never sweated the loss of a crucial job that could not possibly be replaced, don't watch this movie.

Otherwise, you're going to love this outstanding cast as they portray a very corny but heartwarming story about the struggles of Middle-America. Throw in a few laughs, a couple of shotguns, some lunchmeat and booze, and you've got yourself one helluva good time.

Watch. Enjoy. Be thankful for what you have.

There are simply too many flaws once the train departs to Chicago and they arrive in the windy city.

The plot gets lost 15 or so minutes in and gets worse as it continues.

Complete with lack of knowledge about time and distance and continuity and overall logic.

What could have been very good with a plausible storyline turned into more science fiction than the entire Star Wars / Star Trek franchise.

Obviously the writers didn't do enough research and thinking in any capacity. Using any real knowledge would have stopped this story dead in it's tracks.

If the theme of "sticking it to the man" was supposed to shine through...it sorely didn't.

This failed miserably - and the good actors had small roles (which is a good thing).

Had Kevin Bacon and a small handful of actors taken on any larger scope of this film, it would have truely killed their careers.

Wilford Brimley didn't have to worry - as he was looking at going to the other side anyway, so this was just something for him to pass time with.

Whatever potential this movie had, disappeared and never came back to reality.

End of the Line is really end of the line...there's nowhere for it to go and once you get there - you wonder why you decided to even take the chance.

As much as I love trains, I couldn't stomach this movie. The premise that one could steal a locomotive and "drive" from Arkansas to Chicago without hitting another train along the way has to be right up there on the Impossible Plot lines hit board. Imagine two disgruntled NASA employees stealing the "crawler" that totes the shuttles to and fro and driving it to New York and you get the idea.

Having said all that, it's a nice try. Wilford Brimely is at his Quaker Oats best, and Levon Helm turns a good performance as his dimwitted but well-meaning sidekick. Bob Balaban is suitably wormy as the Corporate Guy, and the "little guy takes on Goliath" story gets another airing.