Snowpiercer

Released by: Anchor Bay Entertainment
Released on: October 22nd, 2014.
Director: Bong Joon Ho
Cast: Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell, Ed Harris, Octavia Spencer
Year: 2013
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The Movie:

Directed by Bong Joon Ho and based on the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige, 2013's Snowpiercer is set in the not too distant future of 2031 where a large scale experiment to pull back the effects of global warming has had a catastrophic effect on the world by effectively ushering in a new ice age. What's left of the world's population now exists in a massive train that will circle the Earth over and over again until… it can no longer do so or some sort of solution emerges. When the story takes place, the train has been moving for seventeen years now and the population inside has got it pretty rough.

Towards the back of the train, hordes of impoverished citizens live packed into cars like cattle with barely enough room to move. All they get to eat are so-called protein bars and periodically the armed guards who deliver these bars disappear with their children. On the other end of the train is where the more affluent passengers live. Here they've not only got plenty of room and good food to eat but schools for their children and even entertainment. Understandably, the poor want what the rich have and the rich are none too keen on sharing. Tensions run high but the military presence onboard is quick to put the stops on any sort of rebellion or uprising that may occur.

From the back emerges Curtis (Chris Evans), who decides he's going to get a small group together to barge into the front of the train and take over. He's able to convince his friend Edgar (Jamie Bell) and their older one-legged inspiration, Gilliam (John Hurt), to help as well as a woman named Tanya (Octavia Spencer), who wants to know what happened to her son when he was possibly taken away some time ago. The train is controlled by Minister Mason (Tilda Swinton) and her military forces and she's fine with using everything she has against Curtis and company as they make their way forward. But Curtis and his crew are determined and the man who might hold the key to all of this is Wilford (Ed Harris), the man who invented the train in the first place but before they can do any of that, they've got to get Nam (Song Kang-ho) out of prison. He designed the locks and knows them better than any man alive.

We won't go into any more detail about the storyline than that because Snowpiercer holds more than a few cool surprises that don't need to be spoiled for those who haven't seen it but let it suffice to say that despite the movie's lengthy running time, it's a really entertaining film. A sci-film at heart built often times built and paced more like a thriller, the movie uses its interesting premise to rattle off some fantastic set pieces and interesting characters all of which come together in an ending that most people just flat out will not see coming.

South Korean director Bong Joon Ho, probably best known on western shores for directing The Host, here collaborates with an English speaking cast and an international crew for a shoot that took place primarily in the Czech Republic but it doesn't really seem like there were any language barrier issues if the finishes product is anything to go by. Like The Host and his 2009 film Mother this picture tends to mix genres up a bit but that's not a bad thing, it only serves to mean that the movie does not play to clichés or stereotypes but is instead something delightfully insane, a movie that just completely goes for it. There's a few spots where the CGI is more than a little see through but by and large this one succeeds as top-notch entertainment which each new car entered by our crew allowing the director to explore a new world.

The performances are pretty strong here with Chris Evans playing the tough guy well. Harris is underused but very good when he is on camera and Tilda Swinton is fantastic as the Thatcher-esque woman in charge of the train. Hurt and Spencer are good here too and Song Kang-ho is great in his supporting role. All involved deliver pretty convincing work and seem to have no trouble getting into character. The whole thing is designed as a cinematic adrenaline rush and it works on that level but there's no shortage of class war allegory relating to the haves and the have-nots here for those who want to think the movie over on a higher level. It doesn't always subscribe to logic but that rarely matters when the movie is as nuts as Snowpiercer is.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Snowpiercer crashes onto Blu-ray from Anchor Bay in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 1.78.1 widescreen and it looks fantastic. The colors have been manipulated a lot here, particularly in the last half of the film, so expect that going into this movie things might look a bit… different as the story unfolds but given that this is quite intentional on the part of Bong Joon Ho there's no reason to fault the disc for that. And it works quite well in the context of the story being told. As to the technical merits of the disc, the image is highly detailed throughout the film and shows excellent texture and depth. Black levels are nice and deep without crushing shadow detail while skin tones look just fine. There are no issues at all with any edge enhancement, noise reduction or serious compression artifacts. This is an excellent picture in every way you could want it to be.

Equally impressive is the movie's English language DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix which really does an ass-kicking job of putting you right smack dab in the middle of the train where the story takes place. There are loads of directional effects present throughout the mix while the levels stay properly balanced to ensure clear dialogue. The score has nice depth and presence and as you'd expect for such a recent feature, hiss and distortion are never problems. Bass response is plenty powerful but never to the point where it buries things and Anchor Bay scores top marks for the audio here.

Outside of menus and chapter selection, the only extra on the first disc is a commentary track with film critics Scott Weinberg, James Rocchi, William Goss, Drew Mcweeny, Jennifer Yamato, and Peter S. Hall. While obviously no one on this track was directly involved in the movie, don't let that dissuade you from checking it out as it's a pretty insightful talk that offers up not only plenty of critical analysis but also a good, thorough discussion about the history of the picture, what makes certain scenes so effective, some of the effects work featured on screen, the cast, the crew and more.

Disc two is where the rest of the extras are found, and there are a lot of them to go through starting with a fifty-five minute documentary entitled Transperceneige: From The Blank Page To The Black Screen directed by Jésus Castro-Ortega. This is a very thorough look at how the project evolved from the original French graphic novel to the movie contained on the first disc of this release made up of interviews with the cast and crew, some interesting behind the scenes production footage and quite a bit more. The featurette also deals with how the artistic style of the source material evolved into what we see on screen, how some of the themes that the graphic novel dealt with translate from page to movie image and a fair bit more. Interesting stuff.

From there, dig into the fifteen minute The Birth Of Snowpiercer, which is a considerably more condensed and typical 'making of' piece that's still worth a watch simply because it features a lot of different footage and also takes the time to focus on some elements the longer piece did not. The Characters is a thirteen minute long segment that, as you could probably figure out, looks at the characters that populate the world of Snowpiercer made up mostly of cast and crew interviews while the five minute Chris Evans And Tilda Swinton On Snowpiercer lets the leads talk about their characters and their thoughts on the movie.

The disc also includes a five minute animated prologue that is pretty interesting to see, an eight minute piece called The Train Brought To Life: Behind The Scenes Of A Special Screening that documents a screening held at the Alamo Drafthouse that also happens to contain a quick interview with the director, two still galleries, animated menus and chapter selection. Both discs are housed inside a Blu-ray case that in turn fits inside a slick cardboard slipcover.

The Final Word:

Snowpiercer is a very well made film. It's an extraordinary technical achievement to be sure but on top of that it boasts a tightly written and intelligent script alongside some powerfully effective performances from pretty much every member of its cast. This is a taut and suspenseful picture, a smart sci-fi thriller that entertains and engages in consistently impressive ways. The Blu-ray release from Anchor Bay offers up the film in fantastic shape and with a great selection of supplemental material to compliment. All in all, a very strong release.

Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!