Overall Strangers on a train is a good movie, with amazing cinematography, suspense and a good plot. Obviously it is a classic, which might be the reason why reviews here are so overly positive. Brunos character is well thought and acted out. The rest of the characters are a little flat and react as you would expect them to for most of the film. Yes, the tennis scene might be a little long, but then again the film was made a long time ago. By then films had longer shots and scene, a slower pace, no cgi and in general less graphic detail. So for its time, I believe the tennis scene is brilliant at building suspense.
But what really is the big big flaw of strangers on a train, is that there continue to be scenes that don't seem to make any sense whatsoever and are quite disturbing to watch. Most people here didn't seem to notice that, though:
-It already starts off a bit shaky(but still relatively OK compared to what is still to come) when Bruno kills the wife. For some reason he chooses a carnival as the crime scene. Lots of people, light and not exactly great for an escape. He doesn't seem to mind following her the whole time, by which point her company must have noticed him and would be great witnesses. Although his escape by boat may seem a little inconvenient, he is lucky and nobody seems to mind that he just boats back from the island where people are yelling for help and he can just walk away from the crime scene.
-So then Bruno(being a crazy sob) nearly strangles another woman to death at a party. However, in a social group where just days a ago a woman was strangled to death, again nobody really seems to mind this coincidence and Bruno is not a suspect.
-Then Bruno pushes Guy to kill his father, so Guy breaks into the house. But then as sort of the twist, Guy is not there to actually kill him, but just to talk to him. At this point it really stops to make any sense. Why would he break into his house in the middle of the night and sneak around just to tell him that, instead of calling him first like a normal person? Why on earth would he bring a gun?!
-But... the father is not there and instead its one of Brunos traps. So, what is Guys first reaction? He puts the gun right next to the crazy person and actually tells him that he is crazy and will probably go to jail. Luckily Bruno is very concerned about mother, so Guy doesn't get shot.
-However, the showdown really takes the cake! The (trained) police men decide to open fire on the merry-go-round(you know, the fast moving thing with all the kids(!) on it) and kill the operator. So, naturally the merry-go-round turns into a killer machine and the little kids ride starts operating at highway speeds. Next a crazy old dude crawls under the merry-go-round as the only hope of stopping this monster machine, because there simply seems to be no other way to turn it off. By this point we are already in far too deep and returning to sanity would be a little confusing. So the next logical step is ... of course... an exploding merry-go-round!! The villain dies tragically and Guy is again the good straight-up guy. Not exactly much of an ending.
Overall, a good film with a lot of very big flaws. I was a little disappointed at times.
But what really is the big big flaw of strangers on a train, is that there continue to be scenes that don't seem to make any sense whatsoever and are quite disturbing to watch. Most people here didn't seem to notice that, though:
-It already starts off a bit shaky(but still relatively OK compared to what is still to come) when Bruno kills the wife. For some reason he chooses a carnival as the crime scene. Lots of people, light and not exactly great for an escape. He doesn't seem to mind following her the whole time, by which point her company must have noticed him and would be great witnesses. Although his escape by boat may seem a little inconvenient, he is lucky and nobody seems to mind that he just boats back from the island where people are yelling for help and he can just walk away from the crime scene.
-So then Bruno(being a crazy sob) nearly strangles another woman to death at a party. However, in a social group where just days a ago a woman was strangled to death, again nobody really seems to mind this coincidence and Bruno is not a suspect.
-Then Bruno pushes Guy to kill his father, so Guy breaks into the house. But then as sort of the twist, Guy is not there to actually kill him, but just to talk to him. At this point it really stops to make any sense. Why would he break into his house in the middle of the night and sneak around just to tell him that, instead of calling him first like a normal person? Why on earth would he bring a gun?!
-But... the father is not there and instead its one of Brunos traps. So, what is Guys first reaction? He puts the gun right next to the crazy person and actually tells him that he is crazy and will probably go to jail. Luckily Bruno is very concerned about mother, so Guy doesn't get shot.
-However, the showdown really takes the cake! The (trained) police men decide to open fire on the merry-go-round(you know, the fast moving thing with all the kids(!) on it) and kill the operator. So, naturally the merry-go-round turns into a killer machine and the little kids ride starts operating at highway speeds. Next a crazy old dude crawls under the merry-go-round as the only hope of stopping this monster machine, because there simply seems to be no other way to turn it off. By this point we are already in far too deep and returning to sanity would be a little confusing. So the next logical step is ... of course... an exploding merry-go-round!! The villain dies tragically and Guy is again the good straight-up guy. Not exactly much of an ending.
Overall, a good film with a lot of very big flaws. I was a little disappointed at times.