Von Ryan's Express (1965)

A NOVEL WAR MOVIE
Once the viewer has gotten past the fact that his movie is not based on fact, but fiction, then it's clear sailing for two hours of first rate entertainment. It's really a timeless picture, adaptable to all ages, with a simple plot, which may be responsible for multiple viewings 43 years after its release. Sinatra was a very underrated actor-"From Here to Eternity", 'The Manchurian Candidate", this film, et al. Perhaps his singing or his "friends" detracted from his filmwork, but most of it was first rate. Howard may be even better in this film, a realistic contrast of British "duty" to American expediency. In the end, Ryan must die for two reasons:too many gaffes have left too many dead, for which he must atone, and secondly, any other finale would have been trite,even absurd.Find out why this picture, beautifully photographed, continues to bring one back for more after all these years.

If only one gets out, it's a victory !
"Von Ryan's express" still stands out among the most exciting, explosive and moving epic war films ever, not only because its vibrant final in the middle of those arresting Swiss landscapes, besides it explores step by step a lesson of leadership since the Colonel Ryan must assume by range the entire command of this group of prisoners and face against all the obstacles all the way through.

In order to get the freedom, this bunch of brave men will have the best they can, from their particular trench.

Fine performances of Trevor Howard as the reluctant British officer accustomed to follow the military paradigms of his ages against this new way of approach represented by Ryan.

One of the most relevant war films ever made.

An enjoyable guilty pleasure but not a necessary upgrade if you already have the film
Von Ryan's Express belongs to the dying days of WW2-as-Boys-Own-adventure movies, where, for all the cynical window-dressing, the good guys can always outwit overwhelming numbers of Nazis and death is still heroic. It's also much more entertaining than it has any right to be as Frank Sinatra's unpopular new senior officer leads several hundred prisoners of war to freedom by hijacking a Nazi train and conning his way through Italy to Switzerland while Trevor Howard's old school British officer snipes at his bad form all the way and Edward Mulhare's loveable padre impersonates a German officer to get them past the checkpoints. Yep, it's The Great Escape meets The Train, with Great Escaper John Leyton along for the ride just in case anyone misses the connection. As big, not quite as dumb as it could be entertainment it certainly does the trick, throwing in an enjoyable if sparse Jerry Goldsmith score and a particularly memorable finale.

Sadly the new 2-DVD release really is hard to recommend for any but hardcore Jerry Goldsmith fans, the only notable extras being an isolated score track and a brief featurette on the composer. Aside from trailers and TV spots, the rest is made up with talking heads background featurettes with none of the films surviving participants contributing. Even worse is the fact that brief clips are used from a vintage behind the scenes short made during production, but the short itself is not included. It's fine for a first-time buy, but not really worth an upgrade if you already have the previous edition.