The Train

Is The Train the Saving Private Ryan of the 1960s? Consider the premises of both films: during World War II, a small group of battle-weary men are tasked with a near-impossible mission behind enemy lines to retrieve something that holds more propagandist than strategic value. 

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.

Seven Days in May

The United States and the Soviet Union have signed a peace treaty that calls for both nations to eliminate their stocks of nuclear weapons. President Jordan Lyman (Frederic March), who pushed for the treaty, sees his approval rating reach an all-time low, the deal unpopular among many Americans. His most prominent opponent is U.S. Air Force General James Mattoon Scott, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Burt Lancaster), who believes Lyman has weakened the country. 

Marine Colonel "Jiggs" Casey (Kirk Douglas) is chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, serving directly under Scott, whom he greatly admires. Jiggs stumbles upon evidence that Scott and other generals are planning a coup d'etat, removing Lyman and installing Scott in his place as the head of a military junta. The plan is set to take place in seven days, under the cover of a training exercise.