Snowpiercer (***)

Snowpiercer is the English-language debut by Korean filmmaker Joon-ho Bong (Mother, The Host), an action adventure set aboard a train that protects the remnants of humanity from a deep freeze that has, for 17 years, rendered Earth unfit for life. The cause of the calamity was some misguided attempt to battle global warning, but it doesn’t matter. Rather than an environmental theme, the story can be seen as a big parable of Marxism. (Or, it can just be seen as a violent action movie.)

At the back of the train are the least fortunate, forced into cramped quarters, and fed protein bars that look like slabs of blue gelatin, and made to listen to bizarre speeches about how each person has his place, or class. This last is delivered by Tilda Swinton, who gives an oddly entertaining performance as the representative of Wilbur, the trainmaster. She explains how each person’s lot depends on the type of ticket, with the first-class passengers in front. The language of trains — class, station — nicely reinforces the ideological themes of the film. it’s never quite explained how these passengers snagged the tickets —but metaphorically to the  Planning the latest rebellion against this rigid regime is Curtis (Chris Bell), who hopes to take over the engine at the front of the train and, at least, get better food. And find the children who have been taken away. Naturally, the resistance is met with violence.

Suggesting its origins in a French graphic novel, the movie cycles through a variety of topics, styles, and themes, frequently suggesting other films. One character is supposedly clairvoyant, but it’s only a minor (and unnecessary, I’d say) plot element. The idea of eugenics is implied, but not specifically mentioned. In one sequence, a perky teacher teacher indoctrinates pre-teens in the ideology of the train and its benevolent leader, Wilbur, cheerfully reciting poetry about how everyone will freeze and die were they to go outside. Recalling to my mind Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, It’s such an over-the-top scene that it seems intended to provide comic relief. I also thought of The Poseidon Adventure, except that instead of moving, deck by deck, upward in a ship, Curtis’s motley crew traverse the train lengthwise, compartment by compartment. (One shot in the movie seems to be Bong’s direct tribute to a scene where Gene Hackman tries to steer the Poseidon by hanging on the steerting wheel.)

Mostly this is entertaining, though I had a hard time believing that Curtis’s rebellion would have gotten as far as it did, or that Curtis himself would be such a skilled fighter. It’s probably no coincidence that Bong films the key hand-to-hand combat sequence with slow-motion and other techniques that seem to obscure the extreme unlikelihood that the rebels could succeed. And the easily anticipated (but not altogether convincing) ending sidesteps the most pointed question implied by the story. That is, despite the cruelty of the train’s class system, would overturning it result in a worse situation, as with many a real-world revolution, that would imperil the survival of everyone on board? In other words, in a world of scarcity, what happens when no one will eat protein bars and everyone demands steak? Perhaps the film is an environmental parable after all.

IMDB link

viewed 7/6/14 1:20 pm at Roxy and posted 7/7