Troop Train was a 1943 short propaganda film produced by the Office of War Information.
While the film's assumed purpose would be to educate the American public about the role of railroad transportation of military divisions, Troop Train takes a more stylistic approach, with absolutely no narration and little dialogue. The director uses images to tell the story. Footage of rows of war material, troops marching and locomotives are cleverly edited to create a montage propaganda film, something of a rarity in the United States.
The film is also notable for its depiction of service men's life on the long trips across the country to unknown ports, and to unknown fronts in the war.
Famous quotes containing the words troop and/or train:
“Is a man too strong and fierce for society, and by temper and position a bad citizen,—a morose ruffian, with a dash of the pirate in him;Mnature sends him a troop of pretty sons and daughters, who are getting along in the dame’s classes at the village school, and love and fear for them smooths his grim scowl to courtesy. Thus she contrives to intenerate the granite and the feldspar, takes the boar out and puts the lamb in, and keeps her balance true.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The train was crammed, the heat stifling. We feel out of sorts, but do not quite know if we are hungry or drowsy. But when we have fed and slept, life will regain its looks, and the American instruments will make music in the merry cafe described by our friend Lange. And then, sometime later, we die.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)