I have seen Runaway Train about 30 times, and each time the ending just blows me away. For anyone who is a fan of action films and raves about Speed, or Indiana Jones, or that recent one by the guy who did Titanic. I honestly forget the name of the film, and I refused to see it on principle. Anyway, tell people who rave about mediocre action films to see this one. I don't know any film where the action is more exciting, and yet the characters are as compelling as any serious drama. Add to it a multi-layered existentialist meditation and some of the greatest acting (in parts) of any film, and I'm not certain why this film isn't on virtually everyone's top ten all time great list.
But, all great works of art are flawed in some way. Moby Dick is perhaps the greatest American novel. And yet, it is a mess. But, what book captures the essence of life quite the way Moby Dick does? Whenever I get overly depressed I recall Ishmael's famous caution, "stare not too long into the fire, oh man. There is a wisdom that is woe, but there is a woe that is madness."
For your blogs, you may want to write about whether the film argues that man has freedom of choice in life. Another theme in the film, is sh*t. Think of how many times something scatalogical is mentioned, or worse. In a film like this, there are no "gratuitous" elements. If the characters escape through a sewer, there's a reason. Think of every reference to "it." And then figure out why the writers piled it so high.
Another question: Why all the references to technology? And why is the assistant always eating, drinking, taking pills, etc. And Ruby. What is her role? Thematically, I mean.
Mr. Bennett, I totally agree with you on Runaway Train. I think many people do not realize how awesome it is, and I believe that in my rankings of my favorite movies of the year, I ranked it 2nd, to only The Asphalt Jungle. However, I was just looking through my old post about this movie and I had compiled my list of my favorite quotes from the movie, and it includes my favorite quote of the entire year. Did you mention it during class? And if not, I challenge one of your students to guess it!
ReplyDeleteI had the pleasure, James, of re-reading your post of 3/21/09, along with comments by Reema, Nick, Ilyas, Sandbag, and myself. I have a very fine class this semester, but for whatever reason, they are not moved to comment on one another's blog entries in teh way you people were. I'm still hoping it will catch on, but I knew we had something special that semester, and I cherished it.
ReplyDeleteThis semester, interestingly enough, the class broke out in sustained applause at the film's end. I was surprised since that weird silence is usually the response. But, I was pleased that it was received so well.
Oddly enough I did notice some of the shit references, especially in the beginning when the warden calls them "pieces of human waste," or something along those lines. makes me wonder why the director makes these references numerous times
ReplyDeletei think the director makes all those sh*t references to show how the men were treated in jail. They WERE human waste to ranken and the director showed us that in their escape via sewer. Even when ranken gives that poor guy a swirly, he is referencing to human waste. I really cant stand rankens character, he is so stereotypical of the people in this world that don't deserve to be in authority that are. ranken just loves to treat people like sh*t
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteEdit*
ReplyDeleteAnyone with a position of great power has to treat people like shit, its Machiavellian in a sense and needs to be done to make an example to the other people and maintain power. I'm pretty sure that if you or I were in a position of true power (not like these American politicians that step over each others feet, thus having no true individual power and not accomplishing much) we would completely waste a few people at first to get our points across.