Breakheart Pass (1975)

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

If bestselling Scottish author Alistair MacLean and American superstar Charles Bronson appear like a difficult match to imagine, even more so is the "Where Eagles Dare" writer penning a murder & mystery set in the Old West on an Army transport train with lots of suspicious characters. Indeed, like "Where Eagles Dare," MacLean wrote the screenplay and the novel. Occasionally, "Breakheart Pass" resembles "Murder on the Orient Express" set as it is in snow-swept high country. Veteran stunt coordinator Yakima Canutt ended his long career with this western. Canutt staged the fight atop a snow-encrusted coach between Bronson and Archie Moore as the train is trundling through the terrain. Canutt had served as a stunt man for John Wayne in the Duke's early Hollywood B-oaters, and he performed the impeccable stunt for Wayne in John Ford's classic western "Stagecoach" (1939) where he leaped onto a team of horses, lowered himself beneath them and slid under the galloping steeds and the coach itself, seized the rear of the coach, and crawled back atop it. This was the same stunt that Terry Leonard recreated for Harrison Ford in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in 1981. The film opens with scenic shots of a steam locomotive pulling a string of cars through the towering mountains set to Jerry Goldsmith's terrific orchestral score. Presumably, the grainy look of the credits must have been done to imitate the use of wood carvings in the old West. This effect looked better on the big-screen than it does for the small screen. The mustached Bronson heads an all-star cast of seasoned actors: Richard Crenna, Ed Lauter, Jill Ireland, Ben Johnson, Charles Durning, David Huddleston, Bill McKinney, Rayford Barnes, and Robert Tessier. The craggy-faced star makes his entrance about seven minutes into this yarn wearing an impressive looking black coat and matching black hat with a sloping brim. Literally, he seems like the odd man out in this epic. A diphtheria epidemic has broken out at the frontier Army outpost of Fort Humboldt in the 1870s, and a train hauling medical supplies is in route to the garrison. This relief train has to thread its way through inhospitable mountainous country to deliver the supplies. Although the train consists largely of Army personnel only, a luxurious private car carries Nevada Governor Richard Fairchild (Richard Crenna of "Catlow"), and his fiancée Marica (Jill Ireland of "Death Wish 2") who turns out to be the daughter of the camp commandant. At the small whistle stop settlement of Myrtle City, Deputy U.S. Marshal United Nathan Pearce (Ben Johnson of "Hang'em High") explains that he wants to catch a ride with them because he must pick up a prisoner, Levi Calhoun (Robert Tessier of "Hard Times"), being held at Fort Humboldt. Major Claremont refuses to take him until a stranger, John Deakin (Charles Bronson of "The Magnificent Seven"), is accused by another player of cheating at cards. The Reverent Peabody (Bill McKinney of "Deliverance") shows Pearce a wanted poster for Deakin. Aside from a two-thousand-dollar bounty on his head, Deakin is also wanted for arson, murder, and blowing up a consignment of weapons bound for the Presidio. Now, Pearce argues that he has Army business. Reluctantly, Claremont allows Pearce and his prisoner to board the train. Before the train is scheduled to leave after tanking up on water in Myrtle City, two Army officers, Captain Oakland (Read Morgan of "Fatal Beauty") and Lieutenant Newell (Robert Rothwell of "El Dorado") vanish without a trace. Earlier, Major Claremont (Ed Lauter of "The Longest Yard") had given Oakland a message meant for the governor that the major wanted deciphered. Murderous things begin to happen once the train resumes it journey; the first passenger to die on board is Dr. Molyneux (David Huddleston of "McQ"), and Deakin asks to examine the body. He discovers that Molyneux was murdered. Later, something even worse happens when the two coaches housing the troops and the caboose come uncoupled from the train. Before he dies with his men, Sergeant Bellew blasts his way out of the locked car with his revolver and is shocked to see the brakeman in the caboose dead with a knife in his back. The cars and caboose plummet into a gorge and disintegrate! Of course, we don't see any bodies tumble out. Eventually, we learn that not only John Deakin is no outlaw, but an undercover government agent, but also the epidemic is a conspiracy between a homicidal maniac Levi Calhoun and a renegade tribe of Native Americans lead by Paiute Chief White Hand (Eddie Little Sky of "The Professionals"). As it turns out, Deakin discovers that the medical supplies are in fact repeating rifles stolen from the factory along with crates of dynamite. "Will Penny" director Tom Gries, who had collaborated earlier with Bronson on modern-day escape opus "Breakout,' which Bronson played for laughs, where he flew a helicopter into a Mexican prison and rescue an American citizen, maintains a firm hand throughout this rugged horse opera that takes place primarily on the train. Predictably, the characters that you think are villainous in fact are not villains. Bill McKinney is an example. The train wreck is spectacular despite absence of dead bodies. Presumably, the filmmakers didn't resort to a score or more of dummies because it would have been either too gruesome or too phony. Incidentally, those railroad cars that plunge down the mountain side are real, not fake toy models. What is really strange is the decision to dub Robert Tessier. Presumably, the producers didn't like the twangy sound of Tessier's voice, so they hired perennial narrator Paul Frees with his deep voice to voice him. Not exactly one of Charles Bronson's most memorable westerns, but this sturdy, above-average, outdoor adventure boasts plenty of action.

Breakheart Pass is a wicked tough, badass Charles Bronson action vehicle steeped in the macho charm on the 1970's, and filled with ever changing photography as a train hurtles across the Nevada and Idaho mountains during a snowy winter. Onboard is John Deakins (Bronson), a dangerous outlaw being transported as prisoner to a remote, well guarded fort somewhere deep in the wilderness. Deakins isn't who he seems though, and neither is anyone else onboard for that matter. When a murder occurs, he takes it upon himself to wage a bloody crusade on everyone else in order to find the truth about what's going on, and the truth about their frozen voyage. Bronson is nails tough, doing some deliriously sketchy stunts and engaging in blessedly R rated, pretty intense violence for 70's standards. The cast is stacked, other passengers include Ed Lauren, David Huddleston, Richard Crenna, Charles Durning and Ben Johnson as the ruthless federal marshal in charge of Deakin's transport. A rock solid genre picture, thrilling, decked out in western production design and filled with savage, bullet ridden, bone breaking set pieces.

Story ludicrous, scenery great. The plot is so riddled with total impossibilities I just had to dock several stars. I once heard Alistair MacLean describe himself on TV as a businessman, not a novelist, which explains much. Here, he packs the product with salesmanship, and believability exits the window, in the way that numerous players exit the train. The dialogue is excruciating, but the pictures are nice. The actors, all except Bronson, struggle with the script, but are finally defeated by it. Somehow Bronson gets away with it; he always seems natural, unfazed by the barmy goings-on, taking everything in his stride. All the others are competent performers, and I've seen them in some reasonable films, but they can't really cope here. A ride to pass the time.

95 minutes of action packed excitement. A train traveling through the Pacific northwest heading to a diphtheria ridden military outpost is full of characters who are never what they first appear to be. Wanted man Charles Bronson is being escorted by ornery lawman Ben Johnson. Governor Richard Crenna is bringing gal-pal Jill Ireland to see her father and soldier Ed Lauter is suspicious of everyone. None of these people turn out to be what you think they are and that's the fun of this tightly wound Alistair MacLean thriller. Bronson, steely eyed and ever intense turns out to the hero while most of the remaining cast turn out to be ruthless criminals. Directed by the ever efficient Tom Gries and featuring an appropriately rousing Jerry Goldsmith score. The supporting cast also includes Charles Durning, Archie Moore and David Huddleston.