In this age of remakes and plundering classics to create mega mall blockbusters, here is one film that not only deserves major adventure status all on it's exciting and superb own, it is ripe for a 're-imagining' as perhaps an Indiana Jones film. NORTHWEST FRONTIER is a train chase movie, something movie audiences love. Always a thrilling and spectacular way to offer a microcosm of a society and analyze it through the behavior of the characters as they weave their way through trouble. Read other comments for the story. With a stellar cast, a panavision location of the Indian desert and mountains, visually thrilling 'rattly old train in peril' stunts, some startling political dramas, ambush and shootouts, punch-ups on a speeding carriage and a truly terrifying upsetting 'walk' through the aftermath of a massacre...etc this is the one adventure film of the past 50 years that is both British to its bootstraps and a big screen audience pleaser. It is a crime that the DVD release is NOT in panavision (what is wrong with these DVD companies?) ...almost as much a social crime that NORTHWEST FRONTIER is not a famous classic of International cinema. If it is on TV anytime of the day or night, watch it and be as thrilled as anyone like me who champions it. Sometimes listed as FLAME OF India, it was directed by J Lee Thompson who later made the visually thrilling chase adventure BITE THE BULLET in 1975 (also with great train scenes) ...if NORTHWEST FRONTIER was made in 2006 exactly the same as it appears already, it would gross $100 million and be a big fat hit. If you ever get to see the wonderful Republic film from 1953 called FAIR WIND TO JAVA it too is a unappreciated adventure spectacular, also a source of 'Indiana Jones" antics and a seagoing companion piece to this great train chase.
