I just finished watching
"Snowpiercer" on pay-per-view.
I had never heard of this thing until I saw it mentioned in the sidebar at AoSHQ. They noted that it had
extremely high reviews. Seriously, it gets a 94% That, in and of itself, is not enough for me to watch something, though. After all, "The Crying Game" was super well received, too, as was "Brokeback Mountain" but no way am I going to enjoy homo propaganda. But I was intrigued by this film and the buzz that it was getting. So, I did a bit of research into it by reading the comments and reviews of ordinary people at imdb.com What interested me the most is that there was no agreement on just what the meaning of the film was supposed to be. But sure enough, most people really liked it regardless of their interpretation.
On the one hand you had leftists bragging that it was something along the lines of OCW where the 1% kept the 99% down...that it was an indictment on capitalism (which was ridiculous since there was no business being conducted in this dystopian future) and "the rich." I believe the preferred leftist term used here is "income inequality" so big whoop.
But then there was also a sizable number of people who thought the opposite, that it represented a command and control economy gone all the way to its logical conclusion with the elites attempting to dominate everyone else via a socialistic totalitarian regime which practiced population control and other things.
So, I decided that I really needed to see it for myself and form my own opinion.
This film is actually in theaters right now (so they say) and I suppose it is...somewhere. But for the rest of us it is on pay-per-view. Which is good, in a way, because it allows viewing in hi-def with pause and rewind...very convenient for a film like this.
The thing is visually stunning. CGI is used in a very limited, very sparing fashion to great effect. Most of the beauty comes in the form of over-the-top attention to detail in set design. The acting is quite good. The direction is extremely competent and the script is just what it needs to be...nothing more or less. So, what is this thing about?
Well, first of all it is a science fiction based story but it is the type of science fiction that uses the genre only loosely. Do not expect very much of the premise to make sense, it doesn't. But that isn't a problem as long as you realize that a realistic (plausible) premise is beside the point, that the film isn't about the premise but rather about a society and the people in it and how they behave. The director is Korean and the source material is a many decades old French graphic novel...go figure.
The story takes place in the not too distant future, 2031 to be specific. In 2014 the Algores of the world developed some kind of chemical that, when released in the upper atmosphere, would counteract the supposed effects of global warming. I found it a nice touch that the film maker implied that the work was done with airliner "chemtrails." For me, that was as nice a reference as trutherism...that the promoters of this "solution" to AGW were nuts. Well, the chemical treatment of the atmosphere goes horribly wrong and within a very short period of time the earth freezes over to the point that all life is extinguished. The survivors now exist on a train that travels endlessly around the frozen globe making one complete circuit every year. It has been going around the earth now for seventeen years, long enough for the passengers to have largely forgotten all about what life was like before getting on the train.
The conflict is between the classes or castes that occupy different places on the train. The elites (paid ticket holders) are in the front of the train and live in relative luxury compared to the rabble who live in the last one or two cars. Comparisons that immediately come to mind are "The Time Machine" by Jules Verne and others such as "1984" or "Brave New World." As the action moved forward (literally as the rebellion starts and moves from back to front of the train) I was also reminded somewhat of "Logan's Run." And "The Wizard of Oz" to a very small degree.
It's a smart film that (despite any complaints about plot holes and irrational, non-scientific technical stuff) that keeps your attention all the way through to the end and does not insult your intelligence. Please note that the train is powered by a perpetual motion machine and the food never seems to run out. And speaking of food, another film reference that immediately popped up for me was "Soylent Green." Trust me when I say that I am not giving anything away with these comments. You will realize all of these things quickly near the beginning of the movie.
Please note that this is a spectacularly violent film with frequent doses of profanity. John Hurt (not, thankfully, William Hurt) is in it as well as Ed Harris. The other actors are lesser known (although Chris Evans is kind of a name now with the Captain America lead) and unknown. Not a bad thing at all, it takes the star power out of the way and puts the emphasis on storytelling.
I don't pretend to "know" the meaning of this film. At least not after a single viewing. But I will probably watch it at least one more time to look for details and plot points that I missed. Perhaps after that I will have a better understanding of what everything "means." But apart from any deep meaning it is an enjoyable (albeit insanely bleak and violent at times) film that I would recommend seeing on a 1080p big screen with good sound. It is one of those rare films that makes you think about what you just saw and ask yourself questions. And, I will say that I am leaning toward the anti-AGW/anti-socialist interpretation of the movie.
Further recommendation: Avoid reading anything about this movie that includes spoilers. Better to just see how it all turns out than to know what's coming, in my opinion.