Robbie (1979) User Reviews

Sends a Good Message to Target Audience

[Sabre_Wolf · 8/10 · 4 January 2014]

I watched this in my Primary School days and it did have quite an impact I remember and I watched it again recently and its amazing the things that impact you as a kid but then you're older and wiser.

I thought this was great for sending to the message to its target audience: Children.

It illustrates a lot of dangers on the railways and of how dangerous it is to cross train tracks also of the stupidity of those who cut holes in railway fences which are there for safety.

Robbie would be one such victim he lost his judgement on a virtual 'chicken dare' to cross the train tracks but he wound up paying a heavy price and the incident left his siblings and I doubt the narrators description of a 'nasty fright' covers it fully.

We see a scarred Robbie in the end in a wheelchair though I was surprised there was no prosthetics or anything even with prosthetics Robbie would not have been able to play football again either way but the whole film was designed simply to send a message in what the makers considered the most effective way for its target audience.

So this is a pretty decent Public Information Film

Choo choo! Hilariously funny!

[CuriosityKilledShawn · 10/10 · 27 June 2006]

Only if you are really sick like me. We watched this movie in Primary School. I distinctly remember being in Primary 6 and it was the day before we all went off on our Easter holidays. They herded us into the gym hall where a representative from British Rail gave us a speech on why we shouldn't trespass on railways. It fell on deaf ears. Or at least it did in my case.

After the speech he put on this movie. And let me tell you, the movie is brilliant because you get see a little boy get mown over by a train. When you're a sick-humored 10-year-old, it's the funniest thing. And don't single me out, the whole bunch of us found it hilarious and burst into laughter. I think the Brit Rail rep got a little p*ssed off.

The bit where Robbie gets his feet sawn off was the best and then his big sister loses her voice through shock after witnessing such horror. Robbie was still alive though...but he WON'T be playing football again. Well that'll teach you not to play on the railroad then you silly boy! Of course I thought I was above it all and immortal, as any kid does and a few years later I almost met the same fate myself as I was moronically playing on the railroad tracks. But through some sort of act-of-God miracle I survived intact. So kids...pay some bloody attention!

There were different versions of the film that had Robbie meet various grisly ends, such as being fried with electricity and stuff, the director must have had loads of fun killing him off so many times. But it's all for a good cause eh? A cause I was too arrogant to pay attention to.

The film is practically IMPOSSIBLE to find these days. They still tour schools with it, as far as I know. But there's no DVD. A lot of stuff that British Transport Films produced now belongs to the British Film Institute, so you should try contacting them. It would be a unique film to own, I must admit.