Snowpiercer
Directed By: Bong Joon-Ho
So I had one thought for my June Blindspot- I wanted to watch something that screamed summer.
Naturally I ended up watching the first rate Snowpiercer a movie where the cure for global warming has unhelpfully froze the planet to the point of extinction and Captain America cops to doing something that would make Bucky and Tony equally go, “What? You did what?”
Chris Evans, Octavia Spencer, and Jamie Bell are all the tail end inhabitants of a special train that circles the icy globe and keeps humanity alive. They are the crapped upon for the rest of the train. They live in squalor and eat food cubes while the other passengers enjoy sushi and entire cars for clubbing and getting your hair done.
Kang- Ho Song plays a character somewhere in between the two he’s working with the tallies but mainly because they are holding a crippling drug addiction over his head.
Tilda Swinton is suitably creepy as the representative that must enact justice in the tail section. Alison Pill has some nice moments as a teacher shoveling propaganda down kids throats and the always awesome Ed Harris plays the Oz like figure- the man behind the engine.
So the cast is uniformly first rate. I really liked all of them- even some I wasn’t supposed to like. Chris Evans is better for me with facial hair. What can I say?
We follow the tail section revolution through the entire train which in plays out like a dream and nightmare world combined. We get some interesting action sequences and violence- it is despite its bleakness and strangeness a somehow attractive film with some lovely shots.
I didn’t love the ending but I still appreciated it. It’s also a movie where I sat going, “Oh not him. Oh I really liked them,” for a great deal of the film.
This was also an interesting movie to watch because I thought I knew the ending but turns out I was a little bit off. Not entirely but surprised nonetheless.
The reason I decided to watch this now was actually a Youtube video:
There are obviously spoilers in the Youtube video but if you’ve seen Snowpiercer it talks about a lot of interesting themes including class and fate that connect both films.
Recommend: Yes. Even though I don’t think this is a film everyone will love or even like I think its worth a watch and I’m definitely going to check out more of the directors work.
YES! When I saw this post I Immediately thought about the Snowpiercer/ WIlly Wonka video from Rhino Stew, and lo and behold it was already in your post. It was one of the most well thought out WHOA! conspiracy videos that really made sense! Also I thought their 2 Kawaii 4 Comfort miniseries was really well done.
Snowpiercer really confronts us with a microcosm of the world where we get to watch films on laptops and tablets whose parts are usually made in sweatshops under horrific conditions. The unsustainable reality of consumer culture and capitalism is a machine that cannot go on forever in its current capacity.
I’ll look up that mini-series!
It’s funny when I first saw the video I thought it’s going to be a joke or pushing it but no it actually made a lot of sense. And yeah, at this rate the machine will likely only end in a spectacular crash.
Cool review. I saw it recently, too, and loved it. Totally agree with the cast, too, especially Chris Evans. Also, that video seems really interesting, I’m definitely going to watch it later, thanks!
Well damnnnnnnnnnnn. I watched the video you put in the post and my mind is blown. Also, how strange and violent does it look as compared to the original Willy Wonka? Once it’s taken into a different context, with more violence, dark lighting, we view the film through an adult lens as opposed to the rose tinted glasses of a child. Context and colour matter. Fascinating!