Wednesday 9 September 2015

Thursday Movie Picks: Train Movies



There are quite a few trains in films but not that many where everthing or the bulk of the story take places on train. My go to would have been 'The Darjeeling Limited' but it was already picked for a another category. I've added a bonus film as there is great part of the film that takes place on a train. Don't forget to check out what Wandering Through the Shelves picked, the blog that started Thursday Movie Picks.



1. The Train
 Labiche. I remembered the name before I even saw the film the whole way through. It's one of my Dad's favourite films. I saw it a few times when I was younger, it's hazy but I remember the train of the title and that the French Resistance are trying to stop famous works of art from going to Germany. I remember the masacre near the end and I remember Labiche and family laughing when I got Labiche and Ishmael mixed up.

2. Strangers on a Train
This film needs no introduction, its a masterpiece filled with suspense made by the Master of Suspense. One of Hitchcock's best and a film that spawned many a new film idea too, especially a great comedy, Throw Mamma From The Train (which almost made this list). Two strangers meet on a train, tennis start Guy and Bruno, the crazier one. The latter decides that that they had an agreement to each kill someone for the other 'criss cross', so that the other would not be made a suspect for the others murder. It's brillaint with great angles, particularly the death of Guy's horrible wife.

3. Snowpiercer
The underrated film of this year or last year, it's not quite clear. It never got a release date in the UK and the USA only got a DVD release. The film was released in South Korea though. Based on the French graphic novel of the same name (roughly), it explores the idea of global warming gone wrong, class system and the future of human nature. It's an incredible concept and is of sci-fi genre, its a very dark look at how humanity have fared and how they have treated each other. After an environmental catastrophe, the world decends into an ice age, the remaining humans live aboard a trains that circles the Earth without ever stopping, the train has 1001 carriages. But when the end carriage revolts after the harsh and unbearable living conditions, they surge forward to take the train and the engine. Different from the source material as that was in two parts, and was more about disease and politics. I thought the film was deeply misunderstood and thrown aside, its such a shame it didn't get given the chance to find a wider audience.