I watched the movie Snowpiercer this weekend, streaming on NetFlix of course, and I’ve been consumed with the need to talk about it. It is a dystopian science fiction story (aren’t they all these days?) and I found it engaging, dark, and creative. It isn’t entirely without precedents in science fiction. Robert Heinlein’s novella, “Universe”, comes to mind but it’s a class conflict story and I suspect that as such it owes more to Metropolis or even Aelita (which influenced Metropolis) than to a 60 year old science fiction story its creators have never read. It also reminded me of The Air Trust but who other than me has read The Air Trust nowadays?
Imagine that some time in the near future the world becomes cold. Very cold. 100° below zero Fahrenheit or colder. Too cold for human life. All of humankind is riding on a gigantic never-stopping train that circles the globe once a year. The poor, starving proles are at the back of the train, the well-to-do effete rules at the front. The train is a huge, self-contained, self-sustaining ecosystem.
It’s apparently a Korean movie based on a French graphic novel and if that isn’t an intriguing enough pedigree for you its hero is played by Chris Evans in a very un-Captain America-like role and its villain is played by the British actress Tilda Swinton. I hadn’t realized what a chameleon the woman is. I suspect she was thinking of 1984 or Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Her characterization certainly brought those to mind for me.
I think that Chris Evans has the potential to portray a new type of American hero. He reminds me more of Henry Fonda or Jimmy Stewart than of John Wayne or Gary Cooper and he’s certainly very different from Clint Eastwood. His characters are definitely good, decent, strong, and brave but they have a past. They’re conflicted. They carry a burden. I think that the late Paul Walker had a similar quality. Brandon Routh is of something of the same mold but he’s a little too good-looking.
They actually give me some hope for the Millennials. We’ll just have to see what materializes.
At any rate if you’ve got a couple of hours to kill, watch Snowpiercer, and come back and give me your impressions.
I started watching it because it looked quirky, and I like quirky. The Tilda Swinton character is what drew me to it, but there was too much apocalypse for me. Usually, I do not like apocalypse type movies because they are too preachy. This one was not that bad, but it was still not for me.
You astonish me, Holmes.
I’ve wanted to watch this for awhile. You’re suggesting Evans has more talent than his superhero roles would indicate? I know one can’t be too choosy in their roles but I do not like this Marvel stuff.
I finally relented, and I got Netflix. I was hoping to find some older movies that I have on my Amazon list, but they are probably not popular enough for Netflix to carry.
Movies which Netflix does not have: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, My Own Private Idaho, and Neighbors (with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd).
They do have Dr. Who, but I do not watch too many television shows. I used to watched TLC, the Discovery Channel, and the History Channel before they became reality television.
I thought the film was single-handedly responsible for the great ham shortage of 2013. It took itself far too seriously and didn’t have enough oomph to warrant it.