Breakheart Pass 1975

     This film is based on a novel by Alistair McLean.  He is also the author of When Eagles Dare and the Guns of Navarone.  A special express train is traveling through the Rocky Mountains to Fort Humboldt.  The train is carrying medical supplies and a small U.S. Army unit.   It’s urgent that the train arrive as soon as possible at the Fort.  Many of the men there are suffering through a diphtheria epidemic.  On the train are the territory governor, a priest, a doctor and a U.S. Marshall with his prisoner.  John Deakin is the prisoner and he’s a notorious outlaw with a reward on his head of $2000.

     I thought this was a good western.  It has everything you need, a mystery about who are the good guys and the bad guys, stolen rifles, boxes of dynamite, people on the train randomly killed and an Indian attack.  Bronson is tough and he has the wrinkles to prove it!!  He’s not letting anything happen to Jill Ireland either!!  She has the role of Marica is she's Bronson’s wife in real life.  The $2000 reward money would be about $45,000 today.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)    

  

95 min, Western directed by Tom Gries with Charles Bronson, Ben Johnson, Richard Crenna, Jill Ireland, Charles Durning, Ed Lauter, Bill McKinney, David Huddleston, Roy Jenson, Rayford Barnes, Scott Newman, Robert Tessier, Joe Kapp, Archie Moore, Sally Kirkland.

Note:  Imdb 6.8 out of 10, 73% critic 59% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon 4.1* out of 5* with 83 reviews, The Action Elite 3* out of 5*, Leterboxd average rating 3.33* out of 5*,

Special Note:  Filmed in Lewiston, Idaho, Williams and Kaibab National Forest, Arizona but the setting is Nevada.  Archie Moore and Charles Bronson have a fight scene on the top of the moving train.  They did not use stunt doubles.  Moore is a former light heavyweight prizefighting boxing champ turned actor.  Bronson is known as a movie tough guy and he was 53 years old when he made this film.  The railway scenes were shot on the Camas Prairie Railroad around Lewiston, Idaho and there is snow on the ground.  The train is the Great Western Railway 2-8-0 Consolidated Steam Locomotive #75.  Breakheart Pass is a location in Nevada’s Rocky Mountains.  Bronson made a string of westerns in the 1970’s.  Red Sun 1971, Chato’s Land 1972, Chino 1973, From Noon Till Three 1976 and White Buffalo 1977.  Bronson was paid $1 million plus 10% of the gross for his role.  A limited edition CD soundtrack was released featuring the music of Jerry Goldsmith.