SNOWPIERCER (2013)
SNOWPIERCER. Joon-ho Bong, dir., screen-story, script, with Kelly Masterson, based on the graphic novel Le Transperceneige[1] by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand, and Jean-Marc Rochette.. Stefan Kovacik, prod. design. South Korea, USA, France, Czech Republic: SnowPiercer et al. (prod.) / The Weinstein Company (US dist.), 2013/14. See IMDb for details on [production and distribution].[2]
Supertrain (1979), put into The Ship of Fools tradition best seen relatively recently (on a highly mechanized ship) in James Cameron's TITANIC (1997), set in an implausibly sterile world after a man-made, apparently world-wide great Ice Age. See for a large range of images of containment within a complex mechanism — the train — from close confinement amidst squalor to great luxury. Note especially the transit of the train's wraparound aquarium: the image shows people inside a kind of fish-tube with beautiful fish and at least one ray, itself inside the mechanism of the train. The engine/power-plant becomes a kind of mechanical and atomic god, in which a child is confined in a horrific variation on the theme of Charlie in The Machine in MODERN TIMES (1936). NOTE: There are reports of a controversy between the director and US distributor on length and pacing (and tone?) of the film; [3] on a small screen at least — it's a psycho-mechanical-optics thing — SNOWPIERCER may indeed be too long and slightly off in pacing; so this is one often-claustrophobic film viewers should watch close to a video screen, or definitely try to see in a theater.
ALSO NOTE: The comparisons with MODERN TIMES and TITANIC go deep; SNOWPIERCER should be studied carefully for cinematic handling of issues of class intersecting with essentially Modern and mechanical technology.
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Snowpiercer begot a TNT 2020 TV series that has continued into 2021.[4] A long Wikipedia article (q.v. at link) indicates that the series starts off, anyway, pretty much in the tradition.
Snowpiercer is set in 2026, seven years after the world becomes a frozen wasteland, and follows the remnants of humanity who have taken shelter on a perpetually moving luxury train. Designed and built by the eccentric billionaire [...] the train consists of 1,001 carriages and circles the globe 2.7 times per year. The constant motion of the train provides energy and prevents the passengers from freezing [...T]he train's population has become rigidly separated by class, caught up in a revolutionary struggle against the [...] social hierarchy and unbalanced allocation of limited resources. The show explores issues of class warfare, social injustice, and the politics of survival.[5]
Istvan Csicsery-Ronay notes that "The take" in the TV series "is basically steampunk -- the train almost demands it" (post, 6 June 2021).
++++++++++++++++++++++ TV series produced by James Hawes and Graeme Manson, developed by Manson and Josh Friedman, Netflix 2020-. Original network: TNT, premier: 17 May 2020.
• Videographic information and extensive discussion in the Wikipedia entry at link here.[6]
• Reviewed, adding more background, by Ada Cheong, SFRA Review 51.2 (Spring 2021).[7] Of immediate interest for the wiki:
As is typical of works in the post-apocalypse and cli-fi genre, energy scarcity forms a key concern, managed through human technology and ingenuity. Indeed, across all Snowpiercer’s permutations, humanity’s last vanguard of defence against a frozen death is the old energy myth of sf: the perpetual motion engine. In Lob’s graphic novel, the engine assumes a pseudo-sentient status, requiring human companionship. Although it loosely gestures towards notions of sentient AI, the comic series never really develops this, eventually choosing to take its plot off-train. In the TV series, on the other hand, as with Bong’s film, the eternal engine is completely inanimate and thoroughly engineered by human design: specifically, by Wilford Industries. Mr. Wilford, as the creator of the engine, assumes a god-like status in both film and series, something that Manson and Hawes magnify in the latter. The man is even afforded an altar in the Snowpiercer’s Tea Room, a spiritual car. In a tongue-in-cheek allusion to the Catholic practice of drawing the sign of the cross, his supporters draw a W across their chest. Wilford’s deification in the TV series most vibrantly articulates the faith in the progress of Humanity’s technological expertise that has become so characteristic of the Capitalocene. This technocratic faith is also encapsulated by the admittance of protagonist Layton’s adopted son, Miles, into the ranks of the train’s engineers, a highly esteemed role. As the brightest new mind to continue this essential work of balancing the train’s energy inputs and outputs, his full name, Miles and Miles, is a hopeful prayer for an engine truly eternal.[8]
5. DRAMA, RDE, 05/VII/14, 5-6June21; 6Nov21
