A 30 secondi dalla fine

Runaway Train is about far more than a runaway train. It is about personal freedom and how hard we are willing to struggle to get it. It's about how willing we are to give up our personal freedom to be comfortable. It's about dehumanization inflicted by social institutions. It's also one gripping, suspenseful action-flick. The two main characters, played by Jon Voight as Manny and Eric Roberts as Buck, are escaped prisoners, but they are humanized. Not that we would really like to meet them, but we can see how they work, and we can identify with them. I found it fascinating that the character I really hated was John P. Ryan as Renkin, the warden. This official of society has turned his efforts to recapture the prisoners, particularly Manny, into a personal mission of hatred. The cinematography and imagery in the film are excellent. Whether exterior shots of the train hurtling across the desolate Canadian wilderness, or claustrophobic shots of the characters in the train, we are there and cannot help but be involved. There's not a bad performance in it. John Voight, Eric Roberts, Rebecca De Mornay and John P. Ryan are all tremendous, with an intensity that matches the demands of the film. This is one of those few films that really disturbed me, that really caused me to think about my life. It is unforgettable. It is a great work of art.

'Runaway Train' is a rare thing, an intelligent action movie, full of both exciting sequences and strong character development. This combination makes it all that much more suspenseful and powerful. For me it could well be the best action movie of all time. Interestingly enough it's based on a screenplay by Kurosawa, but criminal turned novelist Edward Bunker (who plays Jonah here but is best known to most people as Mr. Blue in 'Reservoir Dogs') gets the main writing credit. Jon Voight gives one of his very best performances as Manny, but Eric Roberts is also just great. Roberts is overlooked these days, making too many b-grade and straight-to-video movies to be taken seriously, but boy, back in the day this guy was GOOD! Check him out here, and in 'Star 80', and especially 'The Pope Of Greenwich Village' with Mickey Rourke. Roberts actually scored an Oscar nomination for 'Runaway Train'. Just why his career subsequently went in the direction it did is one of the great mysteries of Hollywood. Voight and Roberts are supported by Rebecca De Mornay, super tough guy John P. Ryan ('It's Alive') and well loved character actor Kenneth McMillan. Also keep an eye out for Danny Trejo in the boxing sequence towards the very beginning of the film. 'Runaway Train' is a movie I never tire of watching. The interplay between Voight and Roberts is wonderful to watch, the action sequences are breathtaking, and the ending is one of the all time greats!

Having seen "Unstoppable," I had to see this.

It is hard to know what influence Kurosawa had on this, but one can guess. He had been through his rejection in Japan, suicide attempt and film made and financed by the Soviets. He subsequently arranged scant funding for this, started and was foiled. What we have now is supposedly completely reworked. But what we see is Soviet iconography in the trains and snow, and Shakespearean motion toward tragedy. (Kurosawa would do the Shakespearean "Ran" instead of this, and we are lucky for that.)

So this comment will not be on the acting, though Voight is not only superb, but inhabits the character as we fear we would. It is about the icons and the camera. I think we have inherited this from Akira.

The trains have been painted to be big flat black hulks, reshaped with plywood to resemble Soviet machines. We have a Soviet director. Early in the film, we have that train (four locomotives) hit the end of another, demolishing it. In the process, the front of our beast is turned into a ragged tear of heavy metal, racing madly through heavy snow, angry at the weather.

"Unstoppable" takes a few scenes from this: the hitting of the end of another train; the bridge that has the fatal speed limit; the "soldier" lowered from a chopper then pummeled. But it is an altogether different film. Scott is all about energy in the camera. Every scene moves in a dance that is composed. The rhythm and energy is in our eye. He works to give is narrative stances for that eye: TeeVee cameras, characters that are observers and others that comment on observation.

The train is only a prop, the characters only something to carry the narrative thrust. The art is in the eye, on our side of the wall.

This film has three animals: Voight's character, a convict driven to heroic madness, the opposing warden who is every bit as demented and colorful. Both of these are runaway trains, bested by the train itself which has agency of its own. It seems to have killed and ejected the engineer, enticed two convicts aboard, then gone mad, attracting the warden as well. It is "imprisoned" in a braid of rails, designed here to relate to the train as the remarkable prison building is to the humans.

All the cameras are static except the ones following the train, some of which race through the woods the same way we saw in "Rashoman."

It seems that like with "Star Wars," Kurosawa can bless a film by merely breathing on it.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

I am just discovering old new classics and this one is a little jewel. I can't understand why nowadays producers can't create great movies with simple and credible things.

First, the story it is not original but entertaining. It keeps you on the seat during the the almost two hours. The end is great for me and it works well.

Second, the cast is great. Credible, dumb psycho's but with soul. Important to include a great cast for such simple neurotic roles.

Last, FX's here are better than 95% of nowadays CGI. Embarrassing to watch how old school can create this on 1985.

To add, music is great too. Great oldie vibes and interesting song for conclusion.

So, overall this movie is better than 75% of movies created on 2023. Something is not working in Hollywood.

RUNAWAY TRAIN is one of only a few films which are so great that you'll like the people involved in it for the rest of their career regardless in which movies they appear in the future. Walter Hill's underrated STREETS OF FIRE did this to Willem Dafoe, Diane Lane and even Michael Pare while RUNAWAY TRAIN did the same to John Voight, Rebecca DeMornay and even Eric Roberts.

I find it interesting that a film written by a Japanese (Akira Kurosawa!) and directed by a Russian (Andrej Konchalowsky) which features American actors can be such a coherent masterpiece. Although the story is very simple there are deeper layers of meaning which have a lot to say about the human condition and which are so universal that everyone can read the metaphors. Truly an existential action-film!

RUNAWAY TRAIN is not only one of my favorite action-movies of all times but one of the greatest films ever in my opinion. And the famous "gold"-monologue by Manny is just so true!