Horst_In_Translation Review of Daybreak Express

Daybreak Express (1953)

5 minutes of squeaking steel, iron and concrete

[4/10 · 11 August 2015]

This one here is a 5-minute short film by writer and director D.A. Pennebaker. He made this one over 60 years ago, back in 1953 and it was his first project in the world of film. Pennebaker is still alive today, turned 90 this year, an Oscar nominee and Honorary Oscar recipient. In "Daybreak Express" he shows us the break of dawn from a train's perspective. We constantly hear the train, also hear some music and just see some of the buildings from the city or people sitting in the train on a couple occasions. I am not too familiar with Pennebaker's other works, but this one here did not really impress me I must say. Still it's not entirely bad and certainly an okay difference to the uncountable number of cartoons made by Disney, Warner Bros. and other around the time when this came out.