MovieChat Forums > The Train (1965) Discussion > Air Raid Siren

Air Raid Siren

posted 13 years ago by Homestead2
2 replies | jump to latest

The air raid siren heard during the film sounds EXACTLY like an air raid siren that was atop a firehouse in my area during the Cold War, and once a week (at 11 a.m. on a Monday or Friday, I forget) they'd sound it for 10 minutes, and having a child's hearing at the time it sounded incredibly LOUD and threatening, so to hear it in the film brings back some stark memories, since an air-raid siren (similar to a torando siren for those who live in that part of the U.S.) usually is not the bearer of good news, unless in the case of WWII France it was because of incoming allied aircraft, but even then, as they found out when attempting to move the locomotive from one location to another, that can also spell trouble...

The siren also brings additional starkness to this already stark film, because for those who every doubted the war and how the Nazi's treated everyone they encountered, this film should be a bleak reminder of how bad it really was for those who suffered under their occupation - suffer being the key word since many innocents were killed for nothing more than being were they were at the moment, as in the case of the engine hostages...

As a train person myself, yes, the train footage is something to see (even moreso that "Von Ryan's Express"), however in the case of "The Train" it is based on a true story (I don't think VRE was, though I'm sure many POW's wished it had been)...

That siren - ugh - I'm sure those here old enough to unfortunately remember the war directly also feel the same when they hear it...

Glades2

[–] out-of-towner 13 years ago

Like you, I was also a child in the 1960's and remember the air raid sirens well. Every Monday at 12 noon in San Diego you could hear them. Very loud and frightening for a small child. As I got older I thought they were kink of cool. Everyone thought that if someone was going to attack us they would do it on a Monday at noon and we would all think it was just a drill. By the early 1970's the sirens had all been dismantled.

The Train is a favorite film of mine. I went to a Saturday matinee in 1965 and liked the film so much that when it was over I stayed for the second show and watched it again.

[–] out-of-towner 13 years ago