Tracks

Transporting the corpse of a fallen comrade by train, a Vietnam War sergeant is haunted by battlefield memories with his anguish exasperated by none of the other passengers being interested in the war and looking down upon him for serving. Made only two years after end of the Vietnam War, 'Tracks' is one of the earliest films to deal with the disillusionment of soldiers fighting an unpopular war. Dennis Hopper is effective and the lead role and the way his ride gradually turns from friendly and joyous (with a love interest no less) to nightmarish (blurring the lines between fantasy and reality) nicely captures this disillusionment. Clocking in at around 90 minutes, the film sometimes feels on the long side since 90% of it is set on the train with mostly dialogue-heavy scenes, but there is lots to like in the natural-sounding conversations that occur between the passengers on topics as diverse as eating chicken skin to chess tactics. The double meaning of the title is especially awesome, with it left open as to whether it refers to train tracks or the World War II music tracks that Hopper keeps playing on his portable cassette player in a futile attempt to convince himself that his war is as honorable as World War II. Some have been critical of the film's ending and the post-train scenes are certainly nowhere near as intense as the train ones, but this is a compelling tale overall of coming home.

Weird flick, a little Altman-esque in terms of rambling dialogue that starts and stops off-screen sometimes. Also a lot of PTSD scenes, can't always tell what's real and what's in the lead character's mind. My friend says he found it reminiscent of Cassavetes. I found Dennis Hopper's performance very compelling and even heartbreaking. Also helps me to understand my dad's generation (Boomers). Still relevant for war vets today. Worth a watch.

This movie started out so wonderfully intriguing....and then fell apart so awfully hard. It was downright painful for me to watch this movie die...I had such hopes for it. All these characters riding on a train...all their lives intertwined for the short journey...people with Secrets...simultaneous conversations recorded so spontaneously I felt like I was eavesdropping. Scenes of sexual intimacy that made me feel like a voyeur...Dennis Hopper running through the train completely naked, making me turn my head away like a startled passenger... The more I think about it, the angrier I get...surely someone could have rewritten the last half of the script and turned this film into something much, much better. As it is, I just watch my favorite scenes from the first half of the movie over & over again....the conversations with Dean Stockwell are priceless. (And hey, isn't he wearing the same pair of tennis shoes in Paris, Texas?).

I watched this film based on the jacket synopsis, the same one that is surprising repeated here on IMdb, about a train journey and flashbacks. There are no actual flashbacks in this film, although maybe some of the characters on the train are flashbacks in and of themselves.

That is the basic trouble with this film, it is impossible to work out what is real and what is not, Dennis Hopper's character is so tightly wound he is ultimately completely closed to the viewer. There is no intimacy here, no insight into the characters (any of them) or the point of the film as a whole.

And the ending makes absolutely no sense whatsoever and comes out of nowhere.

That said I was fascinated by the film and did watch till the end, hoping to finally make sense of it all. I then watched it a second time, as I am aware it is easy to misunderstand a complex film in one screening. But Alas even after my third viewing i was left as lost and unconnected to the film as I had been previously.

I think this film offers us a promise, one we are surprised not to have fulfilled. But ultimately it lets us down.

Viet-Nam! Yep, this is one weird, strange, bizarre, and haunting train ride. A train ride back from Nam......A train ride back home.....a train ride to doom! An outstanding performance by Dennis Hopper; his best. Playing a U.S. Army Sargent escorting a dead friend's coffin back home for burial, Hopper goes through a journey of self-reflection. With a haunting sound-track of popular World War II songs as a backdrop, it's a train ride to doom. It's a symbolic ride of happiness, humor, friendship, lust, love, hate, despair, guilt, betrayal, and death; America's journey through the Viet-Nam War years. It's not an easy movie to watch and to younger viewers it most likely will make little or no sense, but it's a truly outstanding motion picture. The ending is one of the most shocking and surprising in film history. Tracks is fantastic.