The Cassandra Crossing

The Cassandra Crossing, This is not one of those soulless, uninteresting all-star packages of the ’70s, like “The Towering Inferno” or one of those pseudo-artsy “entertainments” like “The French Connection”; it’s a vigorously directed, tightly edited thriller that grabs you by the throat right from the opening sequence and keeps its grip throughout. Sure, it contains most of the expected disaster-movie cliches (peculiar love-hate relationships between characters played by big stars of the era, useless supporting roles – especially Ava Gardner’s -, etc…), but the directing is so efficient, and Burt Lancaster is so convincingly hateful, that you find yourself completely absorbed. In my opinion, a first-rate movie, with a spectacular finish.

A trainload of European and American travelers becomes doomed when a medical terrorist infected with bubonic plague stows away and brings the deadly disease on board. As a way of taking care of the mess, the military solution, which wins out over the medical one, in your typical heated and ongoing debate between a colonel and a doctor, is to seal the train shut, occupy it with well-armed soldiers dressed in white jumpsuits and gas masks, and then send them all to the “Cassandra Crossing”, a high metal bridge spanning a river far below, that’s just waiting for a reason to collapse. However, a passenger rebellion is organized that’s quite exciting, as OJ Simpson (a cop) teams with Richard Harris (a doctor) and Martin Sheen (a heroin addict and the companion of Ava Gardner), to free the train, and somehow disconnect the cars. Given a little more drama and attention, the rebellion could have really made this film great, but the film fits into a suitable conclusion that doesn’t do much justice to the issues it deals with.