journal features

movie review - Snowpiercer

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2014.01.08

This is the tale of inmates of a high-speed train that is circling the Earth on a track spanning a global frozen wasteland. The film establishes that a climate catastrophe has occurred, and it's basically Snowball Earth. The cast wants to improve their impoverished, down-trodden lot in life and this is their moment! Along the way, they find out what they've been eating, they find out who's in charge, and they find out how to get off the train and what lies beyond.

This is an original and downright gripping tale with enough downtime between the bouts of conflict to let you breath and take stock. Excellent cast. Very well done.

Recommended.

rand()m quote

If I had my life to live over, I'd try to make more mistakes next time. I would relax, I would limber up, I would be crazier than I've been on this trip. I know very few things I'd take seriously any more. I'd certainly be less hygenic... I would take more chances, I would take more trips, I would scale more mountains, I would swim more rivers, and I would watch more sunsets. I would eat more ice cream and fewer beans. I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones. Oh, I've had my moments, and if I had to do it all over again, I'd have many more of them, in fact I'd try not to have anything else, just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of my day. If I had it to do all over again, I'd travel lighter, much lighter than I have. I would start barefoot earlier in the spring, and I'd stay that way later in the fall. And I would ride more merry-go-rounds, and catch more gold rings, and greet more people and pick more flowers and dance more often. If I had it to do all over again - but you see, I don't.

—Jorge Luis Borges