Runaway Train

1986's RUNAWAY TRAIN is certainly the most thoughtful movie from the Cannon Group I've ever seen.  But it still bears the marks of a low grade genre pic, and while Alan Hume's cinematography at times is quite stunning, the entire film still looks kinda cheap. It's crude and vulgar, with key scenes occurring in bathrooms and the general dialogue loaded with gutter talk, though quite appropriate for its hardened, desperate characters.  There are numerous unintentional laughs.  There are also prison fights and riots (complete with fire), and a determined (and cartoonish) warden who tirelessly stalks his prey, an escaped convict.

And...it was originally written by Akira Kurosawa.  Back in the 1960s, the great writer/director had intended to shoot this in the U.S., to be his second film in color.  It did not work out for what I assume are all the usual reasons films don't get made.  A loss.  This could've have been something extraordinary, or at least another, hmm, thoughtful near masterpiece.   So what to say of the eventual movie from director Andrei Konchalovsky and screenwriters Djordje Milicevic, Paul Zindel, and Edward Bunker? I've already given you a summary of sorts, but don't be too quick to dismiss it.  Within this grimy B picture is a minor gem, a philosophical actioner that will leave you with much to chew upon.

I should not be so surprised.  Many exploitation movies' obvious crowd pleasing elements mask existential angst, sometimes rendered with the high art aspirations of Bergman or Bresson.  RUNAWAY TRAIN even closes with a quote from Richard III, one so fitting for Manny (Jon Voight), a legendary convict in a maximum security lockup in Alaska.  His two previous attempts at escape have earned him three years of solitary confinement.  His assimilation back into the general population is far from smooth - another prisoner plunges a knife right through his hand.

Manny is now ready for his third attempt, and he succeeds with the assistance of an enthusiastic, but somewhat dimwitted motormouth named Buck (Eric Roberts).  The Alaskan wilderness is unforgiving, but soon a train is in view.  Manny seems certain about one in particular.  A shame that its engineer has a heart attack and the train begins a perilous journey, leaving our escapees with new dilemmas, physical and otherwise.  And how to deal with a third passenger, another engineer named Sara (Rebecca DeMornay, entirely de-glamorized) who was asleep during her boss' infarction?

RUNAWAY TRAIN cuts to the dispatch crew, who argue about strategies. Then our heroes, who in the face of certain death begin to ponder their existence.  Also, manhood.  Then those great shots of the train, barreling through the snow.  Sometimes, the men attempt to reach the locomotive to reach the kill switch, in action scenes of great skill and excitement.   Something for everyone? No love story, though.

Both Voight and Roberts were nominated for Oscars.  The former does solid, raw work as a man who feels that manhood is below that of animals. Roberts goes a bit overboard, sounding like Matthew McConaughey and Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump at various times.  Of course, no one would have thought this in the 1980s, so a latter day viewing has its hazards.