Snowpiercer
Released: 2013 Running time: 126 mins. Director: Bong Joon Ho Rated: R
Stars: Chris Evans, Song Kang-ho, Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer, Go Ah-sung, Kang-ho Song, John Hurt, and Ed Harris
Snowpiercer is a film based on the 1982 french graphic novel originally titled "La Transperceneige (Snowpiercer)”" written by Jacques Lob and drawn by artist Jean-Marc Rochette. Directed by Bong Joon Ho (The Host), Snowpiercer takes place in 2031. Seventeen years before the planet was dealing with extreme global warming, and some genius thought that the best idea was to send an artificial cooling substance into the atmosphere to combat it, freezing the world and all it’s inhabitants that were not protected.
The last remaining survivors of the global disaster are aboard an ever-moving train that travels around the planet in year-long cycles. Like the original work, the sections of the train are separated into classes: the tail houses the lowest of classes, economy, and finally first class. The tail section is a dark, crowded, and destitute section where they are fed gelatinous rations the call protein blocks brought in by armed guards on huge carts several intervals during the day.
The tail section, or “Tailies” as they are called are looked upon as animals and examples are made of them to keep them in place. One being the use of a brutal contraption that freezes a limb which is shattered as the whole tail section is forced to watch. One of its occupants, Curtis (Chris Evans, MCU franchise) is plotting a revolt, one of many that have failed in the past. He is being assisted by a mysterious informant somewhere further up the train, sending messages by placing them in the protein blocks. The patriarch of the tail is Gilliam (the late John Hurt, Alien), who has a history with the founder and bank roller of Snowpiercer, Wilford (Ed Harris, Westworld).
We are shown the subhuman behavior in which they are treated, with their children being selected and taken away, never to be seen again. Mason (Tilda Swinton, Only Lovers Left Alive) is the unseen Wilfords’ spokesperson, and gives a critical speech during one of these scenes when a Snowpiercer worker is harmed with a shoe: “A shoe belongs on a foot, a hat belongs on a head”, a speech about the order of things in their society, knowing their place in the class system. The tail is referred to as “freeloaders”, indicating they should be grateful fro whatever the benevolent Wilford provides them. Her performance is worth the watch itself.
Part of their plan, by Gilliam, was to make their way to the prison train, where a former engineer named Namgoong Minsoo (Song Kang-Ho, The Host & Parasite) was being held and break him out, as he would have knowledge to get them through the gates that separate the sections. The bargaining chip that they have over Minsoo is a nice twist at the final third of this film. Curtis’ right hand is Edgar (Jamie Bell, Jumper) and plays well a tail-born loyalist to “earth-born” Curtis, who is humorous and tragic. In brutal fashion, the reluctant leader of the revolt, Curtis, engineers a plan and executes it. Many are sacrificed, many are lost. One Bong Joon Ho scene that resonated with me is slowed down and specific audio is amplified.
As the reluctant leader of this latest result, as he moves down the sections of the train we are invited into the world that the haves and have-not’s have been experiencing the last 17 years on the train. Some humorous and and extremely troubling. Both are found in the school train scene with a teacher, unnamed (Allison Pill, Devs)-and a little student. The imagery of scenes in this film are subtle, yet not subtle, and it prevails. A scene in which we are shown the remainder of Curtis’ active group moving up train and stop in the aquatic train which is an enveloping aquarium, trying sushi for some the very first time, as the train passes a frozen ocean with wreckage of overturned huge ships.
There are more revelations that come to light in the final portion of the film, but I would be negligent if I did not mention the performance of Ed Harris. If you have seen a certain character in one of his most recent television works, you will see some similarities. It made me want to have more of his presence in the film, but understood why he was not.
Bong Joon Ho, with a history of films of anti-class, was perfect for this film. He is not subtle in this venture and subtlety was not needed. This film is leaving Netflix on 4/30.
In Retrospect ★★★★☆
