shakercoola Good story idea, but a ridiculous story realised, uniformly incompetent in dialogue and plot. Burt Lancaster, who could make convincing drama out of anything he's given, struggles in boredom with a completely incomprehensible role. If his colonel and Ingrid Thulin's W.H.O. white lab coat did reflect real-life critical faculty at the highest levels, we'd all be doomed. And how does an Army Intelligence colonel manage to reroute a train without getting national railroad officials to help? But, this is high camp, and there is a hefty load of distancing effect because a band of youths are singing the soundtrack while a virus rages among them. Surely this subverts disaster movies well before Airplane! ever did. Sophia Loren and Richard Harris are miscast. Lee Strasberg was given a smudge of a role, and Ava Gardner seemed to be playing diva just for laughs. No one appears to perform with any belief in the script. But, it chugs along with reasonably good flow to keep us wondering. In its favour is director George P. Cosmatos's trademark aerial photography which succeeds in capturing a marvellous sense of setting - a tidy opening sequence and a tidy epilogue adds some finesse. The cinematography is also very good. Jerry Goldsmith's score soars and prompts us about the impending danger even if suspense is small in accompaniement. The Cassandra Crossing is a good example of the "The Box Rule", a useful rule-of-thumb about movie advertisements. If it has a row of little boxes across the bottom, each one showing the face of a different international star and the name of a character, invariably a stock character, then....avoid like the plague.

ma-cortes Suspenseful and intriguing disaster movie with all-star-cast and well-directed . Exciting and interesting catastrophe movie with some clichés and stereotypes , containing enjoyable performances from Burt Lancaster , Richard Harris and Sofia Loren . This disaster movie blends action , intrigue , breathtaking spectacle , suspense and emotional byplay . ¨Cassandra crossing¨ was a successful film that grossed at box office . The film's storyline features the potential outbreak of a deadly pneumonic plague virus on a train from an germ infected passenger and the legend of the Cassandra Crossing add to the suspense . As passengers on a European train have been exposed to a deadly disease . As a motley group of passengers are quarantined on a train destined to prevent the spread of the disease at the cost of their lives . One of them is Doctor Chamberlain (Richard Harris , though Peter O'Toole turned down the role) along with his ex-wife (Sofia Loren) . Furthermore , a suspicious priest called Haley (James Coburn turned down the role of Haley which was in the end played by 'O J Simpson') , a millionaire spouse (Ava Gardner) , her lover (Martin Sheen) , among others . The Fear Is Spreading but nobody will let them off the train . As when the train carrying plague approaches a weakened bridge the events go wrong .This is and amusing and entertaining disaster movie though has some sloppy executions . This formula intrigue movie belongs to catastrophe genre of the 70s , being the undisputed king , ¨The towering inferno¨ along with ¨Earthquake¨ , ¨Two minutes warning¨ , ¨Rollercoaster¨ , among others . Filmed at the height of the disaster genre from the 7os , this entry in the spectacular series profits of a decent acting by protagonists and overwhelming action scenes . It blends thrills , chills , shootouts , noisy action-packed , government intrigue, international smuggling , and many other things . It is a crossover in which "Outbreak" meets ¨Under siege 2¨ , "The Runaway Train" and ¨Death Train¨ , taking parts here and there . The "Cassandra Crossing" of the film's title refers to a bridge in the movie called the Kaslindrliv Bridge, being shot in France and Italy . The architectural structure used to play this was the Viaduct of Garabit which is located in the South of France , it was built between 1881 & 1884, and was manufactured by Gustave Alexandre Eiffel of Eiffel Tower fame . This moving picture which is short in realism instead we have far-fetched but moving blow up , crossfire , fighting , it should please most adventure-action buffs . The main and support cast is frankly good , it is plenty with known faces such as Ingrid Thulin , Ava Gardner , Lee Strasberg , Lionel Stander , Lou Castel , Ann Turkel, John Phillip Law , Ray Lovelock , Alida Valli and several others . Producer Carlo Ponti saw the movie as a showcase for his wife Sophia Loren . The movie also co-starred the then husband and wife actors Richard Harris and Ann Turkel, with Turkel being pregnant during principal photography . Luminous and shimmer cinematography by Ennio Guarneri . Fitted to action and stirring misical score by the great Jerry Goldsmith . This improbable motion picture was professionally directed by George Pan Cosmatos . He's a good director who got a great success with ¨Tombstone¨ and flops as ¨Shadow conspiracy¨, ¨Leviathan¨, ¨Escape to Athena¨ , ¨Massacre in Rome¨ and this ¨Cassandra crossing¨ was a hit at European box office . This typical epic disaster grade story will appeal to Lancaster/Harris/Loren fans . Although the movie has some aspects a little tough to take , this catastrophe film still has its moments .This large-scale and lavishly produced pic attempts a spectacular atmosphere with acceptable results.

Coventry Hooray, another 70's disaster flick! I love them so much that I put up my own sort of five-point checklist for this genre. Five little traits to see whether a film is a cheesy and clichéd 'so-bad-it's-good' blockbuster guff … Or a surprisingly atypical and innovative hidden gem! The best thing about this checklist is that the audience always wins, regardless of the particular film passes or fails the test. If a film scores 3 points or more, you're guaranteed to have found an undemanding but fun popcorn film. If the film scores less, you might just have stumbled upon an original disaster film full of genuine shocks and effective surprise twists. "The Cassandra Crossing" scores pretty high on the scale, alas it's a prototypic 70's disaster movie with all the commonly known clichés and stereotypical characters. In all honesty I must admit I was hoping for a much better film in this case, however. The concept of a bacterial virus spreading itself amongst the unsuspecting passengers of an intercontinental express train offers so much potential greatness. There isn't any setting more appropriate for a disaster movie than an inescapable, claustrophobic high speed train! Unfortunately, the plot almost immediately reverts to all the dire clichés of traditional American disaster flicks. This is a European co- production and thus should have formed the unique occasion to handle things a little bit differently; like "Bullet Train" and "Virus" did for the Japanese disaster movies. We have a cast full of stereotypical characters muttering the most pitiably banal dialogs you can imagine (albeit they're all A-list stars and starlets), absurdly grotesque action sequences that might as well feature in any other disaster movie ever made, lousy attempts to evoke sentiments of empathy and plot twists you can see coming from multiple countries away. A Trio of Swedish terrorists break into the buildings of the International Health Organization in Geneva to plant a bomb, but their incentive fails thanks to some very alert security guards. Two of them die at the spot, but the third one escapes although exposed up close to bacteria containing a deadly and highly contagious pneumonic plague. The infected terrorist hops on the Intercontinental Express from Geneva to Stockholm, where he naturally comes into contact with many of the passengers, including children, a prominent neurologist and his ex-wife, a spoiled rich woman and her younger tomboy and an oddly behaving priest. Although local scientists are working hard to find a cure, the American Colonel McKenzie is very reluctant to call off the quarantine and even ordered for the train to alter its route towards a notorious former concentration camp in Poland via the ramshackle Cassandra Crossing. I'm not entirely sure if it were intentional (actually, I hope not) but George P. Cosmatos' script contains a few elements that leave a sour aftertaste. Basically the innocent plague carriers are being transported towards annihilation, like Jewish people were during WWII. I truly hope he's not comparing the victims of both situations.

Lee Eisenberg The current H1N1 epidemic (swine flu is a misnomer) makes "The Cassandra Crossing" a little more interesting. Mostly, this story of a terrorist spreading a disease on a Swiss train is a common disaster flick, what with the giant cast. I'd say that the upside is that it shows how the military officer (Burt Lancaster) tries to cover up the problem. The 1970s of course saw a lot of movies about suspicion of the government (like "The Parallax View" and "Three Days of the Condor"). A really fine scene is Sophia Loren in her slip.So, this isn't any masterpiece, but certainly a fun one. Also starring Richard Harris, O.J. Simpson, Ava Gardner, Martin Sheen, Lee Strasberg, Lionel Stander, Ingrid Thulin, Alida Valli, John Phillip Law, Ann Turkel, Ray Lovelock and Lou Castel.