In the case of The Train, that something is a nation's art, a symbol cultural heritage and pride. In Saving Private Ryan, the mission is one man, the sole survivor of a group of brothers, whose return will spare his mother more heartbreak and give the American public a positive story in the midst of the costly D-Day landings.
Obviously, there are plenty of differences. Steven Spielberg is, at his heart, a sentimentalist, who sees saving Ryan as a decent act among all the horrors of war, a good deed performed at a great cost that reminds us to be grateful for all the veterans went through. John Frankenheimer, still a relative upstart when he directed The Train, is a pessimist, a cynic who questions the human cost of saving a few paintings.
August 1944, as the Germans prepare to evacuate Paris, Wehrmacht Colonel Franz von Waldheim (Paul Scofield) absconds with the entire collection of paintings from the Jeu de Paume Museum, loading them onto an armored train bound for Germany. Paul Labiche (Burt Lancaster), leader of a resistance cell made up of workers within the French Railways, reluctantly becomes tasked with delaying the train until the Allies arrive. It's a dangerous task, and Waldheim will do anything to get the train to its final destination.
I wouldn't call The Train a gritty war movie, especially not by today's standards (set by the likes of Saving Private Ryan with realistic gore and deep authenticity), but compared to its contemporaries, it is an unromantic picture. It has elements of action and adventure, but the French resistance fighters don't look like they're having fun. Their efforts to harass and defy the German are frequently met with heavy losses and increased frustration as promised support from Allied Forces either doesn't arrive or causes more trouble than it's worth.
The Resistance relies on deception, subterfuge, and small pieces of sabotages to frustrate the Germans. When plans fall apart or the French meet the Wehrmacht in open combat, it's a wonder any of the French manage to escape. Many are cut down or captured and executed. Labiche, already aware of the heavy cost the war has had on his dwindling number of men, began the mission cynical about risking their lives for some artwork, and what they go through only solidifies his bitterness.
The Train, at times, more resembles a heist movie or espionage thriller than a war movie. The Resistance uses anything at their disposable, and Frankenheimer revels in the details of their operations. There is a certain satisfaction watching their plans come together. In one sequence, Labiche communicates with operatives to replace the names of towns on signs, tricking the Germans into thinking they're heading one way when they're really going another way to spring a trap.
The movie contains a few moments of humor, mainly in how well coordinated the Resistance is. In one scene, Labiche sneaks into a train station office to use the phone. As he kills the German guard on duty, the French station master, without a word, begins tying himself up and putting a gag in his mouth.
Funny, but it doesn't stop the Germans from torturing the station master afterward. The station master is also one of a handful of Resistance members eventually strung up and executed on the spot. Exposure, capture, and death is the fate for most of them, even when an operation (or part of one) succeeds.
Frankenheimer captures both the large scope of the war (the bombing of a rail depot is an impressive, early set piece) and sustained, intense firefights that captures the desperation and intensity of the fighting. Today, we've grown so accustomed as audiences to watching shaky-cam, buried-in-the-chaos combat scenes in which we can't tell what's going on, but Frankenheimer gives us a clear view of the action, so we can follow it easily and be invested.
In the end, The Train comes down to a confrontation between two men - Waldheim and Labiche - that is laced with irony. The Germans have abandoned Waldheim with the art he so desperately covets, and Labiche has seen all his men die trying to recover something he didn't think was worth it. As in life, the Allies triumph, but here, the victory feels muted.
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