Based on a screenplay by the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, "Runaway Train" is bloody, intense and oppressive
It is a movie with arresting images about a notorious life term prisoner who has been welded in a hole for 3 years and a psychotic warden who practically hopes that his dangerous prisoner will make the first move, so that he can have an excuse to 'stop his clock.' The film takes place in the freezing landscapes of the Alaskan wilderness, and in a maximum security prison where the only escape is death
Soon enough, Manny (Jon Voight) is on the loose along with another fellow prisoner, an unbalanced prizefighter called Buck (Eric Roberts), infected by Manny's madness Their escape is a serious blow to the obsessive warden (John P. Ryan) who knows that his prison will be out of control if he fails to get them back
Faced with certain death in the world's most inhospitable climates, Manny and Buck wind up on an unmanned train ignoring that its driver has suffered a heart attack, and the locomotive is rolling into something very fast
Jon Voight completely embodies the brutal convict The fierce intensity in his eyes, the ferocity in his voice, the hardness to withstand pain, these are indications of his madness He has an injured hand, a scar around his eye, and a desire for revenge rooted deeply in his thoughts
Though the movie is a character study of the dangerous inmate... We see the aftermath of Manny's last encounter with the warden... We don't get the opportunity to examine his mind or figure out what makes him so fiery... Just like Buck, we're looking at a man at war with world and everybody in it
The film's centerpiece is the showdown between the warden and Manny... At this point it becomes clear that the warden's personal obsession overrides any human consideration It is a thrilling show Manny believes in nothing, and is capable of anything
Andrei Konchalovsky depicts prison life with all the usual clichés: uptight guards, beatings, and murders He does an admirable job of taking us into strange figures on a killer train Konchalovsky crafts a memorable screen moment that reminded me the dramatic sequence of John Huston in Moby Dick
Soon enough, Manny (Jon Voight) is on the loose along with another fellow prisoner, an unbalanced prizefighter called Buck (Eric Roberts), infected by Manny's madness Their escape is a serious blow to the obsessive warden (John P. Ryan) who knows that his prison will be out of control if he fails to get them back
Faced with certain death in the world's most inhospitable climates, Manny and Buck wind up on an unmanned train ignoring that its driver has suffered a heart attack, and the locomotive is rolling into something very fast
Jon Voight completely embodies the brutal convict The fierce intensity in his eyes, the ferocity in his voice, the hardness to withstand pain, these are indications of his madness He has an injured hand, a scar around his eye, and a desire for revenge rooted deeply in his thoughts
Though the movie is a character study of the dangerous inmate... We see the aftermath of Manny's last encounter with the warden... We don't get the opportunity to examine his mind or figure out what makes him so fiery... Just like Buck, we're looking at a man at war with world and everybody in it
The film's centerpiece is the showdown between the warden and Manny... At this point it becomes clear that the warden's personal obsession overrides any human consideration It is a thrilling show Manny believes in nothing, and is capable of anything
Andrei Konchalovsky depicts prison life with all the usual clichés: uptight guards, beatings, and murders He does an admirable job of taking us into strange figures on a killer train Konchalovsky crafts a memorable screen moment that reminded me the dramatic sequence of John Huston in Moby Dick