The John Frankenheimer Collection DVD Review

Filmmaking over five decades is certain to change a great deal, and John Frankenheimer was there to adapt and improve over this amount of time with an array of impressive films to show for it. Able to capture on-screen action and violence with remarkable efficiency, Frankenheimer’s sequences are recognizable immediately. From the violent death of a blind 15-year-old Puerto Rican boy in the opening sequences of The Young Savages to the breathtaking car chases of Ronin, this collection shows the best of the director’s ability with violence and suspense.

The Young Savages (1960) Based on a best-seller by Evan Hunter, The Young Savages is an intelligently well-paced crime drama which moves from the streets to the courtroom. After a fifteen-year-old blind Puerto Rican boy is killed by a gang of rival Italian boys, Assistant D.A. Hank Bell (Burt Lancaster) begins to investigate. Hank is put under pressure to convict the killers of the boy, but as he investigates he finds that there might have been more to the story. The investigation is upsetting to the family of the slain boy, but even angrier are the Italian families from Hank’s neighborhood. The gangs from each side play their part in hiding the truth from Hank, and only his determination finally uncovers it.

The Train (1964) When a German commander collects all of the great works of art from the museums in France during occupation in 1944, he has very little time to get them out of the country before the end of the war. Knowing that he must get them out he tries to put them on a train and ship them to Berlin where they will be lost from French hands and eyes forever. A group of patriotic French civilians decide that it is their patriotic duty to try and stop the train from making it to Berlin. This takes all sorts of hijinks in order to prevent stall the train long enough for reinforcements to arrive. While still in control the Germans have no problem killing anyone they think might attempt to sabotage their plans, so the methods are clever and make up most of the films enjoyment. Burt Lancaster stars yet again in this Frankenheimer action thriller based on true events.

The Manchurian Candidate (1962) Undoubtably considered Frankenheimer’s masterpiece, and still shocking to this day, The Manchurian Candidate was remade with the best of intentions and not nearly the capacity for chills as this incredible thriller has. Singer turned actor Frank Sinatra stars as Major Bennett Marco, a man who was in the same platoon as the son of an important political figure in the Korean War. Since the war Marco has been dreaming that they were kidnapped and attended a ladies’ garden club party, which is the soldiers actually being brainwashed for a plan to be used later on. Attempting to discover the entire plan, Marco delves deep into a conspiracy having to do with a Senator and Presidential race.

Ronin (1998) Ronin was among the last wave of true action films. It was released during a time when action films could be rated R, and the stunts are real. Shortly after Ronin came computer generated graphics and suddenly action films became far less believable. Audiences still flocked to see the gun play and the car chases, but we have become numb to the ridiculousness of it all with stunts that we know are generated in a computer. All of the magic is gone and is instead replaced with technology. Ronin was specifically known for the car chases, which use low camera mounts on the hood of the cars to increase the intensity. In historic Japan, “ronin” were samurai who had lost or been betrayed by their masters. When this happened they became renegade swords-for-hire. All of this is learned in the opening title cards, and then we jump into an espionage thriller set in Europe. Robert DeNiro is Sam, an ex-CIA operative who takes a job to steal a briefcase with a band of thieves. They are hired by Irish terrorists who want to retrieve the case before it is sold to Russians. When the job goes wrong Sam realizes that they were tricked, and together they band together to set things right.