When Leo remembered how he had accidentally run over his frog with his bicycle, he was heartbroken.The lesson of the tale was that he had found that Roger and Riggs had become a family for him: "You""re not better friends than Froggy.As expected, one of the many SS officers, Julian Scherner (Andrzej Seweryn), signs and stamps his approval of a materials contract with D.The storyline of tribalism and deadly internecine conflict was based on the classic westernThe Big Country (1958)crossed with the Irish drama in David Lean""sRyan""s Daughter (1970).Antonioni""s story was inspired by the 1959 short story "Las Babas Del Diablo" ("The Devil""s Drool") by Julio Cortazar.It is memorable for its strong story-line of a single, brave, but foolish Southern Confederate rain engineer doggedly in pursuit of his passionately-loved locomotive ("The General") AND the woman he loves.