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Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Absolutely Fantastic

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

An investigation into the death of an old train driver that reveals things about him and Poland. Thre are wonderful shots of steam trains- especially at night- which will delight gricers of the world, but there's also a portrait of an old-fashioned community and industry in the early days of communism. One of the interesting things about Munk's films is his essential fairness and it's especially noticeable in this film; all of the characters have both good features and bad and the tragedy comes partly because they cannot accept or trust one another. Tuszka, the Station-master may be a Party member, promoted quickly, but he's also genuinely concerned about most of his men- he rescues Orzechowski's assistant Marek from arrest for fare-dodging and gives him a job, for example. However, he merely regards Orzechowski as an obstacle to be got rid of at the first opportunity. Marek is grateful to the SM but admires Orzechowski and recognises that some of his arrogance is a cover for illness. Orzechowski's dismissal comes because Marek wants to be on good terms with both. Even the signalman who doesn't double-check his work as Orzechowski would have and causes his death is shown as left bewildered and helpless by his wife's illness and "working on routine", which the SM had identified as one of the faults he had to deal with. Only one man- both an old railwayman and the chairman of the investigating committee- looks closely and finds out exactly what happens. His words close the film- "It's stuffy in here." and he opens the window.It's worth remembering that Munk himself joined the Polish CP and was thrown out for "unsuitable behaviour"; whatever his motives for joining he knew something of the CP's inner workings and the psychology of its members. How far the film is an oblique look at the behaviour of the CP- both internally and as rulers of the country- in the period after it first came to power, I don't know, but I think that that is one aspect of it. Munk's view of heroism is interesting too. His war films debunk it and look ironically at it; only in this film and The Blue Cross does he show unequivocal admiration for bravery and in both films heroism is concerned with saving life, not taking it. When the only way Orzechowski can stop a train crash is by dying himself he does so; a definite statement that the Poland he represented had qualities worth keeping. One possible technical flaw: I don't know about Polish railways, but the procedure on railways is- or should be- that if there is a fault with signalling equipment it will signal stop; thus the "one light, line open; two lights, stop." procedure depicted here is almost certainly not the real one used by the Polish railways but used for dramatic reasons.

While Andrzej Wajda was shooting `Kanal,' a film that beats the viewer over the head with its obvious point but gives us no reason to care for any of the characters as they trudge through the sewers of Warsaw, the less famous Andrzej Munk was making more subtle, individualistic and intelligently-engrossing films such as `Man on the Tracks' and `Eroica.' In `Man on the Tracks,' an older train engineer from the pre-war generation is mysteriously run over by a train and is subsequently remembered by several other characters through flashbacks. While the engineer represents a Poland that has vanished under Communist rule, the film also works as a wonderful character study, and Kazimierz Opalinski is excellent in the role of the engineer who stubbornly refuses to give in to a new Poland that he detests.

This film opens with a gorgeous black and white shot of a train at night journeying to some destination until it is forced to stop because it has hit a man on the tracks. From this point, our story proceeds to unravel the mystery with an ingenious method of telling the story backwards. Different characters who had a relationship with the dead man during his life take part in the investigation of his death and they relate their involvement with the dead man.A fascinating character study and mystery all at the same time. The cinematography is excellent, as good as it gets in black and white. The script is ingenious and the acting is uniformly superb. I am sorry that some enterprising movie company has not seen fit to offer this wonderful film on video. Munk was clearly a great story teller and it is a shame he did not live long enough to create many more great films. This is a masterpiece.

Action takes place in 1950. Machinists driving a steam train locomotive notice a man standing on the rail track next to an open semaphore but cannot stop the train before crushing him. They discover he is their former, old chief in the locomotive driving team, and also that one light of the semaphore is out, which means "run through normally", while there should be two which means "slow down and drive carefully". Railroad investigators mostly suspicion sabotage, because the man was actually recently forcibly retired, but do not understand why he found himself on the track. They question people having worked with him, or involved in the fatal situation. All seem to hate him, and for some good reasons, as the man was harsh for young coworkers, not very obedient to new management and some witnesses might share responsibility for the accident. The investigation is mostly an examination of the old man's life and personality, because technical details which allow to finally know what happened are revealed near the end only.During the examination, motives for the old man's behavior are progressively revealed. The harshness is probably related to his dislike of too ambitious colleagues, who want fast promotion to full driver positions. His servant-like treatment of aides might come from his back problems that he tries to hide to keep the job. His lack of obedience is also a refusal for the new and presumably unreasonable corner-cutting policies, motivated by the not-so-well working Stalinist model. The movie has therefore a political dimension. The old "engineer" opposed not only new young ambitions and new policies in the railways, but also by extension in the entire country. The investigators behave somewhat like an inquisition. It is by consequence important for political correctness that the final flashback which reconstructs the most plausible story is told by a party mogul in a positive way.The long flashbacks which compose the movie and tell the actual story from different and partially contradicting points of view will remind you of Rashomon; the action date even matches its release year. The concept of examining a mystery surrounding the death of a controversial hero was present in Citizen Kane. The beginning scenes in the train strangely reminisce me of The Lady Vanishes. The ending is worth a Capra movie.The intrigue is rooted in workplace reality, which makes the movie somewhat more viewer-stressing than Rashomon and good candidate for illustrating a conflict solving managerial training. The location shooting makes it realistic and thus a good testimony of the past. There is a bit of action and a few moving train stunts. The scenes in the locomotive's cabin seem shot while the train was really in movement and without special effects. Some shots are from a camera attached to the train laterally. Various funny railroad devices are prominently featured, like machines for rotating locomotives or cranes for water refills.The movie received the Best Director award in 1957 Karlove Vary film festival, Czechoslovakia, and the "Warsaw Siren" Polish Film Critics' Award in 1957. It is available on VHS.Rating: 10