"THE STATION AGENT"

[eolafan]

Watched a DVD movie last night called "The Station Agent" that was recommended by a coworker who knows I am into railroads...the story is all about this guy who dies and leaves this old passenger depot he owns in New Jersey to his employee (a crumudgeon dwarf...really!). The depot is in a town called Newfoundland, NJ, and is supposedly along the NYS&W (they show a shot of two guys pacing one of their trains at speed with two big GE units on the head end). Well, aside from the train references (the side story seems to be all about odd people railfanning....I am not sure if I should have been insulted by this) but the main story line seems to have been about three really wierd people coming together to try and solve one anothers problems in life...a really wierd movie that will likely win all kinds of awards from the film critics or something like that. Has anybody else seen this movie and can you shed any light on what it was supposed to be about?

[Anonymous]

I have the movie on order at my local library, I'm too cheap to rent or buy it.

I'll let you know when I get it what I thought about it.

[MP57313]

I saw most of this on one of the cable channels, a couple of weeks before Christmas. I enjoyed most of it but honestly cannot tell you what the main point was; I was never a good movie critic. Evidently it is geographically accurate.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by MP57313

I saw most of this on one of the cable channels, a couple of weeks before Christmas. I enjoyed most of it but honestly cannot tell you what the main point was; I was never a good movie critic. Evidently it is geographically accurate.

That sounds like a lot of the reviews that I've heard about it....

Everything from it was a great movie, to I didn't like it.

Most people say you just have to watch it for yourself to figure it out.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by eolafan

Has anybody else seen this movie and can you shed any light on what it was supposed to be about?

I saw this movie when it first came out on DVD last summer. I knew nothing about the movie, but was of course intrigued by the title. It was a very slow movie, but I really enjoyed it. Very indie, Sundance-ish. Not exactly the movie for those people who want car chases and gun fire. I was a little disappointed by the way that they portrayed all railfans (except the main character) as these real weirdoes, but if you can get past that, then those here would probably like it. I was just glad to see anything at all about all of us "weirdoes"[;)]

I think all the movie was saying was that no matter how different people are, they can still be friends and maybe even start to do some of the same things.

And as a side note, I think it would be really cool to live in an old depot!

[Anonymous]

I had seen the promo / article in People mag a while back and finally found it at a video store. I could nit-pick a fair number of things from a rail accuracy standpoint, but overall they did a pretty fair job.

My take on the situation is that you had this dwarf (hopefully that's an appropriate term) who worked in the back-room at a RR hobby shop and who kept a low profile, presumably due to years of people treating him differently or giving him a hard time about his dwarfism. He had a boss that accepted him as well as a group of friends in the local railfan community (the guys that did the slide shows in the beginning of the film). Then with the death of his boss, this sort of sanctuary (a' la hunchback of Notre Dame) gets taken away. However, by virtue of this old depot being left to him in the will, he can establish his own, new sanctuary ( - hence the name of the town "Newfoundland.") He goes there with the intent of just wanting to be alone - so that people don't pick on him or ask a lot of dumb questions, but the people start to show up... and none of them care about that aspect of him... and they all have assorted problems of their own.

It is a fairly slow, sorta dark movie... but as someone above said, it avoids the car crashes, gunfire and violence of so many movies out today... that's a nice respite.

[espeefoamer]

I saw this movie when it came out in the theatre.It was a really strange movie.The railfan show near the beginning is like some I have been to.My main objection was that quite often the main charicter is shown walking down the middle of the track.Very unsafe!

[jjlamkin]

How ironic, I have had this DVD for about a month and finally watched it on New Years Day. I kind of liked it, it was a little weird. The movie received many awards at the film festivals, sundance... etc. I think the above reviews are "right on", the movie kind of shows you how every day life can be!! Have a Safe New Year and of course don't walk the "right of way" down the middle of the tracks! Look, Listen and Live!
Jim

[ironhorseman]

I saw it, too, just last week. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good. It was just OK. I had seen it on the shelf at the library all last year but never got around to checking it until now. I'm not sure what the main point was but like someone else already said it's about people coming together and dealing with life's problems. If any movie is ever close to realistic to life it's probably this, from the dialouge to the action, etc. Almost like a documentary fiction; docu-fiction, or fict-u-mentary.

I saw a comment about the walking on the tracks scenes and figured someone would mention it here on the forums. In the past people have had cows over this issue. At least it was mentioned tactfully this time and no calls for boycotts. I think people should realize it's just illegal and dangerous like alcohol abuse and drug abuse.

I saw in www.imdb.com that it was filmed in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York City. www.mapquest.com says Newfoundland, NJ exists but I couldn't bring the map up. Incidently, it was a filming location.

[twhite]

I've only seen the film once, but I like it a lot.  It's a little slow and pretty carefully paced in spots, but it's got some neat, off-beat characters, and a really satisfying denouement. 

I think its about 'railroads' only peripherally.  The main character could be 'hung up' on anything.  In his case, it's trains.  It's all he knows.  He's probably been repairing model trains all of his life and that's what he relates to.  When the owner of the hobby shop dies and leaves the station to him, he's suddenly thrust out into the 'real world' and has to take stock of himself.  He learns to cope.  Dwarf or not, he's been more or less 'protected' most of his life.  Now he has to deal with people, in addition to his beloved trains.  Granted, the people he meets (the snack-bar stud and the lost woman) are not 'normal' in any sense of the word, but the three of them make their own way in life and actually 'find' each other as a sort of family.  Okay, my take on the film. 

Frankly, I liked the scene where he and the 'snack-bar' stud are waiting for the train to come over the bridge, while the dwarf sits on the bench and says, "You don't need to be here, you know," and the snack-bar stud shrugs and says something like "I just want to see what makes you tick."  The scene cracked me up.  It funny and really touching. 

The film is about people reaching out to each other, and I like that.  But the trains, IMO are just peripheral.  Well handled, though.  I'd like to know where it was filmed--that East Coast scenery is just gorgeous!

Tom  

[ajmiller]

Newfoundland New Jersey is indeed along the NYSW though I have never been there. It is not an incorporated town though.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newfoundland%2C_New_Jersey.

The trains did seem to be peripheral to the story. There were a couple scenes where the main character was observing a railroad bridge, and in one of them a short train hauled by a Morristown & Erie locomotive crossed over. The M&E is a shortline that runs near Dover and Morristown NJ. Dover is probably 12 or 15 miles southwest from Newfoundland. I'm not sure where the bridge actually was. The movie was low budget, so they probably just shot actual footage of working trains.

I had a hard time believing that a coffee/hot dog/ice cream (or whatever) truck would park itself in some Podunk town and expect to earn a profit. It might surprise you, but a lot of places in northwestern NJ are really quite rural and a bit under populated. I grew up in the Lehigh Valley area in PA just to the west of NJ and the Leigh Valley is way more built up than northwestern New Jersey.

Another oddity was the right hand drive in the coffee truck. When they were chasing and filming the Susquehanna train, the main character had to film from the passenger seat (on the left side of the truck) across the inside of the truck. The train was to the right side of the road and truck. It seems to me that a real railfan would have come up with a better arrangement.

[ajmiller]

See also
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=140984

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=162879

[Victrola1]

Check out "Closely Watched Trains." It is a Czech film from the mid 1960's dealing with the nazi occupation during WWII.

Great acting, story etc. I believe it won a foreign film academy award. Be ready for sub-titles.

[spbed]

I've seen this movie about 15 months ago.

 

 

Watched a DVD movie last night called "The Station Agent" that was recommended by a coworker who knows I am into railroads...the story is all about this guy who dies and leaves this old passenger depot he owns in New Jersey to his employee (a crumudgeon dwarf...really!). The depot is in a town called Newfoundland, NJ, and is supposedly along the NYS&W (they show a shot of two guys pacing one of their trains at speed with two big GE units on the head end). Well, aside from the train references (the side story seems to be all about odd people railfanning....I am not sure if I should have been insulted by this) but the main story line seems to have been about three really wierd people coming together to try and solve one anothers problems in life...a really wierd movie that will likely win all kinds of awards from the film critics or something like that. Has anybody else seen this movie and can you shed any light on what it was supposed to be about?

[tcwright973]

I have watched this movie on cable a couple of times. I seldom watch a movie more than once, but this is one where every time I see it, I catch something new. There is a lot of subtle humor in little one liners. True, everyone in the movie is a character, but that's life I think. I just enjoy it.

Tom