In 2014, when we asked him what was his favorite scene from the cinema, actor Morgan Freeman evoked for us the end of the famous western “The Train will whistle three times”.
Oscar winner in 2005 for his performance in Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby, the American actor Morgan Freeman can boast of having participated in writing a few pages of cinema history.
Starring in multiple and often unforgettable roles, his long career brings together such illustrious characters as Red in The Escapees, Detective Somerset in Seven, Lucius Fox in The Dark Knight trilogy, Miss Daisy’s driver and Nelson Mandela in Invictus.
But when he crosses the screen and takes his place in the spectator’s seat, what are the actors and the scenes that inspire him?
In 2014, on the occasion of the release of The Incredible Story of Winter the Dauphin 2, we asked him what was for him the most striking sequence in cinema. He who had played Ned Logan in Clint Eastwood’s Ruthless, then told us about a completely different western:
“Have you ever seen The Train Will Whistle Three Times?”he asked us.
“At the end of the film, […] all the wicked have been defeated, and […] people come out of hiding in town. Because no one came to the sheriff’s aid… He was a marshal, and bad guys came to kill him, and he managed to fight them off. At the very end, there are plenty of people coming out of their hole. He turns around and sees them. He takes off his sheriff’s star. He throws her in the dust, turns on his heels, and leaves. This scene is always present in me.”
United Artists
(Find out what Liam Neeson’s favorite scene is…)
Directed in 1952 by Fred Zinnemann and worn by Gary Cooper, The Train Will Whistle Three Times, which has the particularity of taking place practically in real time, follows the adventure of sheriff Will Kane, who has just married and who is about to leave the town he was in charge of alongside his young wife.
But when one of his old enemies reappears, accompanied by three accomplices, he chooses to stay to confront them, inviting the other citizens to join him without obtaining any support from them.
United Artists
After fighting (and winning) with the help of his wife, he ends up leaving, throwing away his badge, annoyed by the cowardice of his fellow citizens. This last sequence of the film by Fred Zinnemann, considered one of the greatest westerns of its time, still resonates today in the history of cinema, and in the memories of a spectator of Morgan Freeman.
(Re)discover the trailer for the “Train will whistle three times”…