While watching “TGLC” with my mother, she informed me that her father was a brakeman for the railroad. “A brakeman is a trainboard rail transport worker in the U.S. Historically, the brakeman was the person who would walk the length of a train atop the cars while the train is in motion and turn the brake wheel on each car to apply the train's brakes” from Wikipedia.
A movie like this conjors up several different thoughts of wonder. What was it like to despise your fellow countrymen? What was it like to live in a country where you had no instant means of communication and travel? The movie paints an interesting historical picture that highlights the animosity between the North and the South during the civil war. It also presents us with the first recepiants of the Congressianl Medal of Honor. Did I get that right?
TGLC does have some impresive chase sequences that ended rather disapointly for the Northerns. I guess I really thought they were going to get away with stealing a train. They woul have gotten away with it too, if it hadn’t been for that rotten train conductor William Campbell (Jeffrey Hunter) and his mangy dog. It’s also fun to see Jeff York (Mike Fink) and Fess Parker (Davy Crockett) on hand to lend personality to this Civil War light family drama.
My mother enjoyed it more than I did. This is one of those movies I can appreciate but don’t necessarily like. It just didn’t draw me in to the train ride. It didn’t roll me down the tracks. I was busy writing another movie review at the time, so maybe the distraction derailed me a tad bit. I would perhaps watch it again sometime and give it more of a fair chance. I did like at the end how the Fess Parker Character (James Andrews) even though he was going to hang for stealing a confederate train, wanted to make peace with the man whose train he stole, William A Fuller. (Jeffrey Hunter). He knew the war would end and that both sides would have to shake hands in peace and that he wanted to do it now because he wouldn’t be alive to do it later. He didn’t beg for his life, didn’t insult his enemy, wasn’t hoping to not be hanged, but just wanted to make peace with his enemy thus making peace with his God. This powerful scene of redemption and forgiveness makes up for any boring element I may have found in the picture.
A good film that deserves a rental for those interested in learning about history in a fun way.
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