Emperor of the North

This movie scared the hell out of me when I was little, mostly because I'd never seen an evil Ernest Borgnine. With his fierce eyes, maniacal laugh, and drop-forged fists, he commands every scene with a demonic self-assurance. You have to see this movie just to see Borgnine, he's perfect as the railway conductor. He's like a violent gorilla in a conductor suit. Lee Marvin as Number One mumbles his way through the movie with an impressive vocabulary and intelligence that belies his appearance. He wanders about waxing philosophical about the state of the world, the battle between good and evil, and his place in the grand scheme of things. Keith Carradine wouldn't have been my choice for the role of the young kid, he just wasn't very convincing and some of his lines come off a bit forced and awkward. One of the other reviewers mentioned the photography, and I'm left wondering how they got some of the shots, especially considering the movie was made thirty years ago with gigantic, bulky cameras. There are scenes where the train is way out in the middle of nowhere and the camera is actually pacing the train and the action that happens on it; great photography. This is a very good film and worthy of all the praise it gets from the other reviews.