BREAKHEART PASS (1975)

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Tom Gries

SCREENWRITER: Alistair MacLean

FILM STARS: Charles Bronson, Ben Johnson, Richard Crenna, Jill Ireland, Charles Durning, Ed Lauter, Bill McKinney, David Huddleston, Sally Kirkland, John Mitchum

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Alistair Maclean

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Fontana

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1976

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1974

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Western

WORDS: A fun read, a great film, though not a majority position in either case. Scotsman and contemporary (or relatively contemporary) thriller writer Alistair MacLean goes west (to the Sierra Nevada of the American West in the late 1800s) but the story is a familiar Maclean thriller with secret agents, big action sequences, murder and mystery to keep you guessing. MacLean doesn’t really evoke the west or capture the authentic tone of the western frontier so the book could be set at any time, on any train, over any terrain. The west is a backdrop, just as Yugoslavia was in “Force 10 from Navarone” (1968) or Provence, France was in “Caravan to Vaccarès”. But you don’t read MacLean to soak up the local flavour and understand the customs and society of a time and place (you read, perhaps, fellow Scotsman George MacDonald Fraser for that). You read MacLean to be taken on a ride. Here, one that is always fun, even if it may be a little familiar (perhaps too familiar as the book didn’t sell as well as some of his previous).

Thriller and adventure films set on trains hold a fascination for me (and many others) … not sure why. Perhaps because a train, like a ship or a plane confines the action and forces the characters to make decisions within the limitations of their space. Everyone becomes part of the action because no one can leave (well, technically you can but … in this case if you jumped off the train, you would be stranded in hostile Indian territory, in the snow, in the middle of nowhere. It’s not really an option). There are many films with train settings including (my) favourites (off the top of my head) Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Runaway Train (1985), The Narrow Margin (1952), North West Frontier (1959), Avalanche Express (1979), The Cassandra Crossing (1976), Emperor of the North Pole (1973), Unstoppable (2010) and the great comedy adventure The General (1926). This film (with a script written by MacLean which follows the book fairly closely) turns out to be better than the novel. Why? Charlie Bronson.

Bronson was a childhood favourite of mine and my Uncle Ivo who I used to watch movies with. Those memories are hard to shake. Having said that, I watch Bronson films today and I think, still, despite a lot of rubbish, he is much underrated. Put him in a film with good production values, with a director like Tom Gries (another very undervalued director – Will Penny (1968), 100 Rifles (1969), Breakout (1975), Number One (1969), Lady Ice (1973), The Hawaiians (1970), Breakout (1975)(also with Bronson) and much good television work), and with a cast that includes Ben Johnson, Richard Crenna, Jill Ireland (not surprisingly), Charles Durning, Ed Lauter, Bill McKinney, David Huddleston, the great Robert Tessier (as well as familiar western movie faces Roy Jenson, Rayford Barnes, Eddie Little Sky, John Mitchum, Read Morgan, Casey Tibbs) and you have a winner.

Well, I would have though so. The film didn’t do that well in the US at the time. Bronson had become a big (big) star in the US finally (after many years of superstardom in Europe) with Death Wish in 1974 so I’m not sure why, then, this (well made) film didn’t do better. Perhaps, in a year that had Jaws, The Towering Inferno, Three Days of the Condor, Dog Day Afternoon and the The Godfather Part II (still playing over from 1974) it was, perhaps, one thriller too many. You also had One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Shampoo, The Return of the Pink Panther and Funny Lady. It was a crowded market. And Breakheart Pass was a western which were decreasing in popularity. The film did do good business in Europe though where everything with Bronson sold tickets.

A western, set on a train, with Charles Bronson … nice.

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