Korsgaard's Commentary
Korsgaard's Commentary - From pop culture to popular opinion, and my life to the world at large
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times – at least that is the case at the multiplex this week, where a pair of recent releases provides an interesting case of cinematic contrast-and-compare. On one hand, you have the latest bog-standard Transformers movie, Michael Bay phoning it in as usual, with the most daring thing the movie does is sexualize a seventeen year old. On the other hand, you have Snowpiercer, a critically hailed sci-fi satire that has critics’ abuzz and international audiences swooning. The former was the first movie of 2014 to make over $100 million in its opening weekend, the latter barely got a studio release, and this review will hopefully showcase why this is such a crime.
Unfortunately, here in the America, it ran into a massive obstacle by the name of Harvey Weinstein, whose company bought the US distribution rights, and has since resulted in one of the most talked about instances of studio interference of the last several years. Beginning with his desire to cut 25 minutes from the movie and add voiceovers proving deeply controversial – mostly because his reasons for doing so was “Americans are too stupid for this movie” – resulting in a storm of negative press and director Bong Joon-ho refusing to allow the cuts, it finally culminated in Weinstein releasing the uncut movie as spitefully as he could: with next to no marketing, an extremely brief release period begun with a release date against Transformers 4, before being sent to video-on-demand later this month. With hype behind it, and that much opposition against it, how could I not buy a ticket for a ride on this railroaded spectacle?
So does the movie have the momentum to be a genuine thrill ride, or was this derailed crazy train already going off the rails? All aboard my dear readers, and join me as I see if this locomotion lives up to all the commotion – this is my review of Snowpiercer.
In the year 2031, the Earth is in the midst of an ongoing ice age triggered by an attempt to curb global warming goes horribly awry eighteen years prior, coming close to wiping out all known traces of civilization or life on the glaciated surface. The last remnants of humanity survive aboard the Snowpiercer, a massive perpetual motion-powered train traveling on a globe-spanning track.
An entire society has risen aboard the train, complete with a caste system sorted from the head of the train to the tail. Those near the front live in nearly-unending opulence, while those in the tail, largely refugees picked up as the world froze, are dirty, overcrowded and kept alive by strict rations and kept in check by armed guards.
At least that was the case before the latest rebellion, led by a man named Curtis, realizes the guards have run out of bullets, and begins a crusade to take the train, car by car, no matter the opposition. It will force Curtis, and all of the inhabitants of the Snowpiercer to confront far greater challenges, ranging from some of the ugly things humanity has done to survive, question everything about the existing order, and finally find out which is stronger: steel and steam, or the human spirit?
An enormous part of the success of Snowpiercer is that, from a storytelling standpoint, it manages to be both brilliantly simple and admirably complex at once, while packing plenty of punch both thematically and narratively. The story itself remains a fairly uncomplicated linear journey narrative – go from A to B, obstacles at these points, etc. – but thanks to the unique setting and immense effort paid to proper world-building, and taking the time to explore and detail given to both, it’s a journey you certainly want to see thorough to the end us much as our protagonists. Snowpiercer succeeds because it makes you care about Curtis’ quest for the same reasons he and his followers do – you see the awful situation they’re in, the oppression they face, and the full beauty and terror of the society that we learn more about as they do, and given a few twists toward the end, why things are that way to begin with.
The cast certainly ensures that journey has good company, with the cast all around giving very solid performances, and quite a few stand-outs among them. Chris Evans continues to impress, here playing our lead Curtis, whom thanks to solid writing and an emotive performance from Evans, we learn more about over the course of the film, from small bits like his grasp of tactics to just what has driven him to act as he does with a shockingly memorable monologue towards the end of the movie. As our early initial foil, we have Tilda Swinton as Mason, a middle manager for the cabal running the train, delightfully despicable as she gleefully chews the scenery with a literal overbite. Other standouts include Octavia Spencer and Jamie Bell, and even John Hurt, whose presence is always welcome in most any movie.
The cinematography of the film is excellent, and given the importance on set design and very little CGI, with even most of the action scenes being bare-knuckle brawls rather than more blockbuster standard choreographed money shots, the result is a film that looks and feels real from start to finish and looks better than nearly any Hollywood blockbuster with five times the budget. That attention to detail pays off again with Bong Joon-ho’s direction, with a few shots and scenes managing to get into your head and keep spinning there long after the credits roll – one particularly creepy scene involves a scene in a school room as we watch the utterly chilling level of indoctrination given to a group of elementary age children, and it was by the time they start singing hymns to leadership and cheerfully celebrating the death of billions as the world froze that I noticed I’d been squirming in my seat. Who needs GCI monstrosities to scare you when you can make monsters out of children?
That should go without saying though - it wouldn’t be a Bong Joon-ho movie without some unsettling themes and a relentless political undertone, and here again, Hollywood could take some notes given our ongoing ‘dystopia’ boom. For starters, it feels like a genuine dystopia – while social stratification is the foundation, it never descends into the bog standard ‘rich v. poor’ narrative Hollywood uses as a crutch time and time again, instead relying on something far simpler as the driver: the human desire to do better. We see the cramped poverty our protagonists live in, the oppression forced upon them, the better lot in life they yearn for – more importantly though, as the movie goes on, we see the motivation for our villains I doing so, and right from the outset, its spelled out that the survival of the human species is a major reason for such lengths, that the Snowpiercer is an ecosystem where maintaining balance is paramount. More importantly, by the ending, rather than resorting to saying one side’s bad, the other good – again, as Hollywood tends to do – it points out that there ISN’T a real solution, or even if there could even be one.
While not flawless, Snowpiercer is undeniably an impressive movie, and bar none the highlight of a summer blockbuster season that thus far hasn’t managed to escape the shadow of Captain America: The Winter Solider . It’s smart, it treats the audience like we’re smart, the sets are carefully crafted, the world it puts on display both horrifying and impressive at once, the cast of the film memorable – it’s the kind of big-budget blockbuster that used to be the rule rather than the exception, one that challenges you as it entertains you, and sticks with you even as you walk out of the theater, wanting to talk about it with someone. That’s makes the comparison with Transformers 4 such an important one – that Snowpiercer gets buried while a Michael Bay movie that sexualizes an underage girl and has a running gag based on the age of consent goes on to rule the box office without challenge, is everything wrong with modern Hollywood in a single still.
I do however, think that the last laugh will go to Snowpiercer, and to the people who want more movies like it. Hollywood and Harvey Weinstein may think the typical moviegoer is a dupe, but I’d argue part of the reason that Hollywood’s bleeding money is exactly because only the dupes would pay money to go see something like Transformers 4, or Battleship , or After Earth , or Twilight , and so on ad nauseam. The reason Snowpiercer could be such a game changer is that it’s a sign that Hollywood isn’t the only game in town anymore. I mentioned the ‘globalized blockbuster’ for a reason – Hollywood may have gotten lazy, put studios from South Korea to Bollywood have been trying for years to make Western-style blockbusters. If Snowpiercer is an indication that they may have finally cracked the code for doing so, and that despite Hollywood interference, Snowpiercer set records overseas and despite everything, is on its way to being a sleeper hit in the US. In the future, we may look back at Snowpiercer as a true trailblazer.
As a whole though, Snowpiercer is one hell of a wild ride, and I fully recommend seeing it in theaters while you have the chance.
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