MovieChat Forums > The Train (1965) Discussion > Colonel Von Waldheim's last speech

Colonel Von Waldheim's last speech

posted 12 years ago by bobo-29
7 replies | jump to latest

I love this last piece of writing in the film, delivered by Paul Scofield. Walter Bernstein is one of the uncredited screenwriters on this film. I wonder if he wrote this piece, it sounds so much like something Bernstein could write. Also, the 3+ minute clip of the train racing towards the tunnel while pursued by the Spitfire still gives me goose bumps after 45 years and probably 100 viewings.It is just awesome filmmaking..direction,editing,sound,image.

"Labiche! Here's your prize, Labiche. Some of the greatest paintings in the world. Does it please you, Labiche? Give you a sense of excitement in just being near them? A painting means as much to you as a string of pearls to an ape. You won by sheer luck: you stopped me without knowing what you were doing, or why. You are nothing, Labiche -- a lump of flesh. The paintings are mine; they always will be; beauty belongs to the man who can appreciate it. They will always belong to me or to a man like me. Now, this minute, you couldn't tell me why you did what you did."

[–] SeanJoyce 12 years ago

Very good scene, probably Scofield's best in the entire movie.

I love Lancaster's response. He doesn't even verbally retort...just quietly absorbs the words and mows him down with a machine gun.

Fantastic film.

"...if that was off, I'd be whoopin' your ass up and down this street." ~ an irate Tarantino

[–] intexor 12 years ago

That was indeed a great speech to end a movie. Excellent delivery on all accounts, of course especially the delivery by Scofield. I was kind of waiting until Lancaster would reply, but it's probably better they didn't went that route.

[–] chuckaluck1402 12 years ago

Also, the fact that Von Waldheim knew that he was going to be gunned down, makes this scene so great.

[–] DarthBill 9 years ago

It's quite possibly the greatest moment of the entire film. Interestingly, in the original script Von Waldheim was supposed to engage Labiche in a shoot out, but when Paul Scofield was cast the filmmakers felt that a shoot out wouldn't work, believing audiences would not buy Scofield engaging in any kind of physical conflict with Burt Lancaster, larger than life alpha male that he was, so they changed it to have Scofield give Lancaster what TV Tropes & Idioms would call "The Reason You Suck" speech, telling Lancaster/Labiche that he cannot appreciate his own victory because of his inability to appreciate the great art he just risked his life to save before quietly being gunned down.

[–] batigoal9-1 8 years ago

The whole film is brilliant but ending a film is always complicated and they nailed it in this one.

The previous scene was also great. The german troops falling back and their commander not giving a damn about anything else than his suffering men.

So many contrasts. German fighting officer vs german officer obsessed with art. Allied troops parading vs french resistance fighters sacrificing everything despite safety being days away.

[–] ttboy99 8 years ago

Yes I often queue up this movie just to watch the ending. Brilliant, and if you include the entire sequence from when Lancaster is running around trying to sabotage the final train, it may be one of the best denouements in film. I can only think of the endings of Bridge on the River Kwai in comparison.

[–] greenbudgie 8 years ago

That was a great speech in which he makes the resistance man to be the swine, after the Nazis were spat at and called swine by the French. I love the delay in Lancaster's response, as he turns round to take another look at the mound of French bodies by the railway track before deciding what to do.