Terminus (1961)

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

"Terminus" is a black-and-white documentary short film from 55 years ago written and directed by the fairly young British filmmaker John Schlesinger. I saw that this one won a BAFTA and was nominated for an Oscar before being disqualified due to release date irregularities. And all this awards recognition is what truly baffles me. It is life at a station. everybody with a good camera could have filmed this back then and could film this today. I see no memorable qualities in here that set it apart from an amateur recording video of the station in here. Maybe this film is somewhat interesting if you live near the station and recognize the location, maybe even some of the people, but for everybody else it is absolutely not worth seeing. This film also shows how weak the 1960s were in terms of (non-animated) short films. At least, Schlesinger stepped things up afterward when he made a couple decent films and also won an Oscar as this documentary here even drags a lot at only slightly over 30 minutes. Thumbs down.

Often paired with the recently-viewed NIGHT MAIL (1936) – since both deal with trains – this one is clearly the superior film, however, for several reasons. To begin with is the fact that it keeps the commuters (each with their own more than literal baggage – more on this later), filling up Waterloo Station all day long, at its centre rather than concentrating extensively on the workings of the machinery (with flesh- and-blood individuals reduced to mere cyphers serving as the means to an end)! Also, being the award-winning debut of director Schlesinger – soon to be among the leading exponents of the British New Wave (itself a dated commodity, to be sure, but undeniably more appetizing) – events are filtered through with that distinctive sensibility (as opposed to emulating the Soviet style of montage)! Among the more memorable 'characters' on display are a young boy who goes missing in the terminus, an elderly lady complaining that a particular train she has been catching for years did not turn up on the day – while the station official attending her insists such a timetable never existed(!), and another woman way past her prime scrounging for food in the dust-bins littering (pardon the pun) the place.

This documentary, from the very first shot of the bee keeper on the roof of Waterloo station, gives a riveting, imaginative and very witty picture of a typical day in the life of a large railway station, but it's main value in the insight it gives into human nature - by simply looking at people going about their daily business the camera paints a many-layered picture of the human psyche. Always fascinating, often funny and sometimes frightening, this film must be one of the greats of documentary cinema. I hope the sad death of John Schlesinger will prompt a revival of his early - and definitely his greatest - films.

This fly on the wall-style documentary from 1961 won an Oscar for best documentary. It is about an average day in the life of a busy train station. By todays standards it looks dated but the camera work and pace of the film are quite ahead of their time. It doesn't go on and on like most boring docu's, but just shows us the facts, how they are (a family saying goodbye to a relative leaving on a train, a little boy who gets lost) and nothing more. We make up our own minds. It is easy to see where a lot of modern film-makers might have stolen their ideas from. Not a great film, but not a bad one either.