Oliver

Solid

Snowpiercer is honestly a masterclass in dystopian storytelling. The message is apparent at the beginning of a class conflict, as is with Bong Joon Ho’s other films. However i believe the various twists towards the end make the message more nuanced than the classic rich dominating the poor. For starters, too many dystopian films focus too much on the beginning, and im happy snowpiercer reveals little by little about the world and train before the movie. At the end we know just enough to formulate opinions on characters and the situation while also digesting the narrative and message with nuance. This is especially apparent when Curtis is telling stories of eating babies and surviving right before wilford talks about how the system and order are “necessary” ;blissfully ignorant. Chris evans is also amazing and the camerawork really brings out the essence of a crowded train. Back to the message, it is clear that Bong Joon Ho has done his research on political theory and revolutions. Foucault argues that resistance occurs because the mechanisms of power allow it to happen within the means of the system, preventing meaningful change. Historically, regimes have co-opted revolutionaries the same way wilford has to create the facade of change and freedom. When curtis rejects wilfords offer in star wars fashion the cycle breaks. The train is a symbol for the system. People operate and unknowingly perpetuate the system by simply existing within it. Breaking out of the train is indicative of breaking out of the system of oppression and power. It ultimately doesnt matter who operates the system or in this case the train because as long as it exists, it has power over everyone within it. The only true way for revolution was the destruction of the train. There are a couple of things that keep snopiercer from being perfect tho, first is obviously the very end where the girl and little boy survive, the message would be fully fleshed out if everyone died, plus the cgi was pretty meh and outside of chris evans, wilford and the security guy the other performances were not amazing. Overall fantastic film that shows the versatility of Bong Joon Ho by showing us that a message like this can be prescribed in a dystopian action movie