"Runaway Train" is notable as an attempt by Golan & Globus to elevate their infamous trash-studio Cannon with a story by no less than Akira Kurosawa. The attempt seems to have been semi-successful, as both lead actors Voight and Roberts were nominated for Oscars for their performances here.
Funny, then, that these two great actors - yes, Roberts is a great actor: watch him in "Star 80" if you don't believe me - both deliver impenetrable performances, with bizarre accents and mannerisms that make their already rough-around-the-edges characters downright unlikeable. Roberts sounds like a dangerous, untrustworthy Forest Gump, and Voight reminds me of the Willem Dafoe character in "The Lighthouse".
The movie has a simple plot, and toward the end becomes less about these characters (thankfully) and more some kind of philosophical exercise about a lone train carriage heading into the endless white of a blizzard. It even ends with a Shakespearean quote, which while unnecessary and irrelevant to the story, is not something anyone would have expected to see from a Cannon flick.
I just never really got into it. Murky performances, murky cinematography, and I didn't understand the transition at the end.
Funny, then, that these two great actors - yes, Roberts is a great actor: watch him in "Star 80" if you don't believe me - both deliver impenetrable performances, with bizarre accents and mannerisms that make their already rough-around-the-edges characters downright unlikeable. Roberts sounds like a dangerous, untrustworthy Forest Gump, and Voight reminds me of the Willem Dafoe character in "The Lighthouse".
The movie has a simple plot, and toward the end becomes less about these characters (thankfully) and more some kind of philosophical exercise about a lone train carriage heading into the endless white of a blizzard. It even ends with a Shakespearean quote, which while unnecessary and irrelevant to the story, is not something anyone would have expected to see from a Cannon flick.
I just never really got into it. Murky performances, murky cinematography, and I didn't understand the transition at the end.