My whimsical purpose in renting this film from Movie Madness was two-fold: take in more classic actors, Burt Lancaster in particular, and followup on that Oregon Rail Heritage Museum tip: that one of their star locomotives had been in this Hollywood film.
Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster play old men, seniors, in this light comedy. Neither has to act the being older part, as both are in fact seniors by this time (1985 or so). The film is set in the then present (i.e. 1985) as these two were jailed for thirty years in 1955. The math is easy. Now they’re back on the outside.
There’s some gunplay, a tiny hint of nudity, but no blood spatter or other graphic carnage.
The theme is that of coming out of a figurative time capsule, into the future. Prison is the time capsule. I know it’s actually like that in some ways; people in that long come out into an alien world. One of my high school friends came out to a world of smartphones and USB ports.
This movie world, being comic and cartoon-like, is not overly much like the real world. There’s a lot of parody in the form of stereotypes.
The characters are meant to be shallow, almost props, as the focus is on these two male personalities and their respective coping abilities, which we’re to find admirable.
Seniors in the audience should be rooting for these characters as the movie is touting a brand of maleness we’re supposed to feel nostalgic for. They dress like 1940s gangsters from some Bogart era noir, whereas in the world around them people look and act more like Richard Simmons and Jane Fonda.
Burt’s character (age 72) gravitates to good old days pastimes and stands up for inmate rights in his nursing home, the one he’s assigned to by the parole officer. The slightly younger Kirk Douglas character (age 67) wants to relive his youth and enjoy life in the fast lane if that’s possible, although when it comes to sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll, he seems to skip the drugs, plus it’s more punk rock that they’re into in this time period.
Realism is not the point here. People get away with crazy stuff, almost to the point of slapstick, but not quite. Waiting for these two to emerge from their “time capsule” is a nutcase intent on destroying them, and the police guy eager to catch them again, as if they’d be dumb enough to try robbing the same train he caught them trying to rob the first time. Besides, no one robs trains anymore right?
What might seem anachronistic in 2026 is this “Mexican border” idea. A lot of noirs use that same trope: if you make it across the border, even by just a few feet, you’re magically in another jurisdiction, and the law of the land no longer applies (somewhat by definition). The magic is bidirectional. To escape prison, flee to another country.
Today’s prisoners emerge into a global surveillance system and parole checkins by Zoom call. Escaping the Borg (McLuhan: Global Village) is not so easy.
The big orange engine I saw in a museum just yesterday, stars in the climactic closing scenes. I’m likely to go back with the director’s commentary turned on for those train parts, hoping for more train lore. I might work some of what I learn into another journal entry.
