Runaway Train

This 1985 thriller directed by Andrei Konchalovsky and adapted from an Akira Kurosawa screenplay, garnered three Oscar nominations -- one for lead actor Jon Voight (almost unrecognizable and, we are told, wearing a body suit under his clothing to bulk him up), one for co-star Eric Roberts, and one for editor Henry Richardson.

The film is also bug-nuts crazy, and - get this! - features a de-glamorized Rebecca DeMornay as a railroad worker who finds herself trapped aboard a speeding train with two escaped convicts. Voigt plays Oscar Manheim, a jailbird so tough he's withstood three years of military confinement in a penitentiary in Alaska. Roberts plays a much younger, always-hustling motormouth named Buck. Not only does their escape go wrong when they board the doomed train, but they are pursued by a homicidally sadistic prison warden (John P. Ryan) bent on annihilating them. Part disaster movie, part pressure-cooker drama, "Runaway Train" has a fittingly unstoppable momentum.

The handsomely-shot film (cinematography by Alan Hume) is dramatic all on its own, cold and rather majestic, and well-served by this 1080p high-definition transfer. The isolated score track showcases the music by Trevor Jones. An audio commentary featuring Roberts together with a pair of film historians - Twilight Time regular David Del Valle and C. Courtney Joyner - bursts with enthusiastic chatter, as the trio offer trivia and lavish praise on the production and the talents behind it. (It's all about symbolism!) Julie Kirgo's liner notes are more level-headed, and as richly written and informative as ever.

When people walking out of mega-budget superhero movies complain that movies just aren't what they once were, this is the sort of film they are thinking back to. Check it out!

"Runaway Train"
Blu-rau
$29.95
http://www.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm/ID/32215/RUNAWAY-TRAIN-1985/