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What would you expect if you took a movie released by Cannon Films, produced by Golan-Globus productions, and directed by the same guy who directed Homer & Eddie and 2010's The Nutcracker in 3D? Clearly, you would expect one of the greatest films of the 1980s.  Runaway Train has a bit of history around it. It was an abandoned film idea by Akira Kurosawa, which was supposed to be his first Hollywood film back in the mid-60s. The idea was resurrected in the 80s, and the film ended up being helmed by Soviet director Andrei Konchalovsky. For the first 30 minutes or so, Runaway Train is that goofy 80s action film that you would expect. Jon Voigt plays Manny, a hardened prisoner who recently won a lawsuit against Warden Rankin after the warden locked him inside a vault, essentially. Rankin obviously has it out for Manny, and is looking for an excuse to kill him. After an attempt on his life at a boxing match, Manny decides to escape from prison. Eric Roberts plays Buck, a man in prison for statutory rape. He's not very bright, and easily excitable. Manny's old friend Jonah has Buck watch out for Manny, and when Manny plans his escape, Buck helps him get out. However, on the night when Manny breaks through, Buck insists on coming along. And so the two escape out into the Alaskan wilderness. When they reach a rail yard, they hop a train, and it's here where the film finds its footing and starts to become something more than just a bunch of cheap thrills. The driver of the train has a fatal heart attack, and ends up burning the brakes off the train. Meaning that Manny and Buck are on a... RUNAWAY TRAIN!!! Once the railway company becomes aware of that they have a runaway on their hands, we now get introduced to Barstow and the rest of the train company. Barstow developed the computer system that the train runs on, and he desperately tries to find a way to keep the track clear and to save the train if at all possible. At one point, the train crashes into the caboose of another train. Eventually, his boss orders that they derail the train due to the danger that this train poses, since there's a bridge upcoming that cannot handle the speed the train is travelling at. However, right before they derail the train, someone blows the whistle, which means someone is on the train. Sara, played by Rebecca De Mornay was sleeping on the train, and was woken up when the train ripped through the caboose. She ends up in the car with Manny and Buck, and now the three of them hatch a plan to try and stop the train. There are four cars on the train, but the only way to completely stop the train is to get to the first car, but the door between the second and first car was broken in the crash, and there's no outside path. I won't go too much further into the specifics of the plot. For the rest of the film, you have the people on the train trying desperately to survive. You have the people at the rail company trying to find a way to stop the train or at the very least minimize the damage and causalities to those on the train. And finally, you have a warden who wants to recapture his escape convicts. So what is it about Runaway Train that makes it so powerful? After all, it sounds like so many disaster and action films. It has its fair share of 80s ridiculousness. Sure, it has a fantastic cast who act the hell out of the whole thing, but good acting can only do so much. The film works because explores the characters and the situations that they find themselves in. What starts off as an adventure film instead becomes a hopeless dirge, as most of the characters find themselves in a situation that they cannot control or change. The film spends the most time exploring Manny, and we are forced to try and understand this man. We see someone who at one point helps someone he doesn't know escape from prison, only then to turn around a start beating Buck when he fails to get into the first car. He's ruthless. He only helps Buck out when it serves his own purposes. The moment where this film becomes great comes about 45 minutes in. Buck starts talking to Manny about what he would do when he gets out prison. Just watch this scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUyoC_MRaAQ Manny knows who he is. He knows his fate. Manny knows that his escape is ultimately doomed for failure. He's under no illusions that he is some innocent man who deserves a second shot or someone who can be reformed. He's a desperate man longing for any bit of freedom he can get. All Manny wants, in the end, is to be seen as a human being. And for Manny, that means being in control of his destiny. Manny is an embodiment of the train - dangerously out of control. But what separates Manny from the train is that Manny doesn't have wheels. And also, Manny can choose to take control and prove to those who would underestimate him that he is a man. The film pulls off a neat trick. As the events carry on, the film grows more bleak and hopeless. And by the end of the film, I end up feeling emotionally drained. It's something beautiful. It's something that speaks to my soul. Kino put out the film on Blu Ray a couple years back, and if you haven't gotten it, I can't recommend it enough. There's very few films out there that pulls off such a trick.
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Mar 3, 2023 06:32
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| # ? Apr 28, 2024 01:50 |
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This looks like it'll be plenty of fun!
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Mar 3, 2023 19:40
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Choo choo! Excellent choice. This is a great film that delivers far beyond than its premise.
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Mar 3, 2023 19:57
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This one and Star 80 are the two to show someone if you want to prove that once upon a time, Eric Roberts was a legit amazing actor.
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Mar 3, 2023 20:15
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$16 on Amazon This will be the first time I participate in motm
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Mar 3, 2023 20:39
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Steve Yun posted:$16 on Amazon Free on tubi and freevee
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Mar 3, 2023 22:50
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Cemetry Gator posted:The film pulls off a neat trick. As the events carry on, the film grows more bleak and hopeless. And by the end of the film, I end up feeling emotionally drained. It's something beautiful. It's something that speaks to my soul. I agree 100%. I'd put this one in the top twenty or so films I've seen in the last decade. Some thoughts I had when I watched it years ago: A pleasant surprise of a film. Jon Voight channels the rough and hardscrabble criminal very well. A guy so crazy that he's welded into a jail cell. So many films of today really miss this. Criminals in a lot of 1990s-2010s films look like serene GQ models living glamorous lives rather than grotesque and violent people that no one wants to encounter. Films of the 1970s and 1980s portrayed them with ease. 1973s Scarecrow comes to mind. The kind of people that'd stab you in the back for looking at them the wrong way. I also admired the simple and realistic prison escape scene. Rather than being some elaborate and convoluted mess it was straightforward and ordinary i.e. hide in a laundry basket and distract the guard with a new Playboy magazine. By the end when Manny (Jon Voight) climbs on top of the train and stares death in the face we're given Richard III quotations. An all-time great movie ending IMO. PS Look for very early appearances of Tiny Lister and Danny Trejo. Uncle Boogeyman posted:This one and Star 80 are the two to show someone if you want to prove that once upon a time, Eric Roberts was a legit amazing actor. I recently watched The Pope of Greenwich Village and he had me laughing.
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Mar 3, 2023 23:19
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Zogo posted:I also admired the simple and realistic prison escape scene. Rather than being some elaborate and convoluted mess it was straightforward and ordinary i.e. hide in a laundry basket and distract the guard with a new Playboy magazine. A core theme of the film is control, and how little control people ultimately can have. Look at Warden Rankin. As the warden, he holds so little control over his prisoners. He has to weld Manny behind bars, we see numerous prison riots, and he has two prisoners who are able to escape. Look at Barstow. He builds a computer system to run the rails for this company, and when there's a crisis, his computer system can ultimately do nothing. Then we have the prisoners. Inside of prison, they're in a system where they are under complete control. Where they go, what they eat, who they talk to. All of this is controlled by the warden. And then when Buck and Manny escape, they are stuck on a train. They can't control it. And in Manny, we have someone who recognizes the lack of control he has, and tries to find the things that he can control. And what we see in the film is that each time he tries to take control, he loses that control. He escapes from prison, but even outside of prison, he has to hide away to avoid being caught by the police that are looking for him. He ends up on a train, but he's ultimately a passenger. When it's clear the train is out of control, he tries to stop the train, but ultimately, he can't shut the train down. He tries to force Buck to get into the first car, but Buck starts pushing back against him. The end of the film shows Manny finally taking control by embracing his fate and the one thing that he can control. He can control what happens to him, Rankin, Buck and Sara. He knows that either he dies or goes back to prison. That much we know from that speech he gives earlier in the film. And so he chooses death, and accepts that he can't change that outcome. He saves Buck and Sara. He ultimately dooms Rankin, ironically chaining him up in the front engine. He could stop the train, but he knows where that leads. In that sense, you can definitely see an aspect of a character that appears in a lot of Kurosawa's films. If this was a film set in Japan, it would have been easy to see Manny being played by Toshiro Mifune. Manny requires an actor who can reveal a manic energy that is totally wild but yet keep it completely under control. It's a character we've seen Mifune play many times before in Kurosawa's films, whether it's in Rashoman, Seven Samurai, or even to an extent in Yojimbo. You need an actor who can chew up the scenery while still being completely believable, and Voigt pulls it off as well as Mifune did. I think at the end of the film, Manny realizes that what he can control is not his place in the world, but how he responds. And that by taking control of the things he can, he is able to find the freedom he was searching for. And so, in the end, he defiantly looks death in the eye, and celebrates his victory.
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Mar 4, 2023 19:06
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Cemetry Gator posted:The end of the film shows Manny finally taking control by embracing his fate and the one thing that he can control. He can control what happens to him, Rankin, Buck and Sara. He knows that either he dies or goes back to prison. That much we know from that speech he gives earlier in the film. And so he chooses death, and accepts that he can't change that outcome. He saves Buck and Sara. He ultimately dooms Rankin, ironically chaining him up in the front engine. He could stop the train, but he knows where that leads. One of the more indelible endings I've ever seen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyPDdhTTh5k
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Mar 4, 2023 23:52
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I watched this a few years ago and one of my lasting thoughts was “hey Jon Voight is really good in this.” I haven’t seen many of his notable roles. I’ve seen Deliverance but it was quite a while ago. His performance in Heat is… well, his character sure comes off as ultra sleazy but I’m not sure I buy him in the role. I think the only other thing I’ve seen him in is Anaconda (lol).
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Mar 5, 2023 17:59
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I’d forgotten how much the title sequence of this “rips!” 
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Mar 5, 2023 23:07
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david_a posted:I watched this a few years ago and one of my lasting thoughts was “hey Jon Voight is really good in this.” I haven’t seen many of his notable roles. I’ve seen Deliverance but it was quite a while ago. His performance in Heat is… well, his character sure comes off as ultra sleazy but I’m not sure I buy him in the role. I think the only other thing I’ve seen him in is Anaconda (lol). You should see Midnight Cowboy
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Mar 10, 2023 02:17
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Coincidentally, I just read the novel No Beast So Fierce by this movie's screenwriter Edward Bunker (who everyone here probably knows best as Mr. Blue from Reservoir Dogs ("I like her early stuff. You know, 'Lucky Star', 'Borderline' - but once she got into her 'Papa Don't Preach' phase, I don't know, I tuned out.")). It's great, a pretty uncompromising and loosely-autobiographical depiction of criminal life - Bunker was at one time the youngest person ever sent to San Quentin Penitentiary. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in crime fiction or fans of Runaway Train, Reservoir Dogs, or the films of Michael Mann (Thief is heavily based on Bunker's life as well, and I believe he did some uncredited punch-up work on the screenplay - after reading No Beast So Fierce, I wonder if he didn't do some similar consulting for Reservoir Dogs, the book does contain a very detail-oriented depiction of a diamond heist; Jon Voight's character in Heat also looks to be at least visually based on Eddie Bunker, which would make sense given both the Runaway Train and Michael Mann connections). Really great read. If your library has Hoopla, I read it on there (you can also stream Runaway Train on Hoopla I think).
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Mar 13, 2023 18:18
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Okay I did not read the op carefully because my Blu-ray came in the mail, I popped it in and then my eyebrows flew up into my hairline Edit: 2/3 of the way through and I feel like I’m watching Kurosawa’s Vanishing Point Edit: nevermind! Manny is beating up Buck I thought this movie was corny and cheeseball at first but holy poo poo going into the last third is wild Edit: HAHAHA HOLY poo poo Edit: HHHHAAAAAAA IMMLOSING MY MIND Edit: Vanishing Point lives! Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 11:41 on Mar 21, 2023 |
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Mar 21, 2023 09:25
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I dunno what you guys were seeing but I thought the acting was terrible at the beginning The dialogue was especially bad And the cheesy electric guitar licks But then the acting gets better The dialogue too Even the music switched to haunting choir vocals What a turn (Maybe the acting was fine at first and the dialogue was just impossible to deliver)
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Mar 21, 2023 12:07
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Steve Yun posted:I dunno what you guys were seeing but I thought the acting was terrible at the beginning The score is such a tonal shift from Trevor Jones's guitar and electronic synth work to Vivaldi's Gloria in D Major - Et in Terra Pax.
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Mar 21, 2023 19:53
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Watched it though my library's Hoopla service. I liked it, but it's definitely carried by its leads. The scenes in the railroad office just remind me how much better their equivalents are in The Taking of Pelham 123. I looked through the photos on IMDB afterwards and the French movie poster kicks rear end.
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Mar 24, 2023 22:32
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Oh yeah it totally flew over my head this was written in the mid 60’s, so really Vanishing Point was Guillermo Cabrera Infante’s Runaway Train
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Mar 24, 2023 23:57
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Is there an April movie picked out yet
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Apr 2, 2023 12:58
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Narrowly avoided watching this while it was the active movie of the month. It absolutely ruled though, loved it.
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Apr 2, 2023 13:29
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Steve Yun posted:Is there an April movie picked out yet Nope
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Apr 2, 2023 16:09
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Also I watched this a week or two back and it was cool. I loved how dirty it all was. Voights teeth were so grotesque lol
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Apr 2, 2023 16:10
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| # ? Apr 28, 2024 01:50 |
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Oh yeah he's a proper 80's grotesque, love the shot where they turn the lights out on him and all you can see are the eyes and the silver tooth.
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Apr 2, 2023 16:34
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