Taking a story straight from the six o'clock news, writer Mark Bomback crafts an excellent narrative for the film Unstoppable (Tony Scott, 2010). At first glance it would appear that this type of story, rather pedestrian in appearance, wouldn't have much in order to captivate it's audience. But Bomback does an excellent job of interweaving the editorial story of the runaway train with human interest stories for it's two protagonists as well as making insidious commentary on the culpability of corporations when it comes to disasters such as this. This excellent storytelling, along with some great technical work in editing, sound and visual make for a taut, tense thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout the film.
The editing for this film is rather well done. The sound editing, nominated by the Academy, is superb. The combination of score with amazing sound from the trains propels the tension and helps lock the audience into the action. The visual editing, with a tremendous amount of cutting spurring the action ever faster really cements the audience on that edge. The only things that I dislike within the film technically is the constant overuse of handheld camera. I know this serves to add to the realistic tone of the narrative but ultimately to me it infuriates me as a viewer. The constant switching between camera styles and the excessive use of handheld is confusing and overwhelms the narrative at times.
The narrative though is just excellent. Bomback does an excellent job of helping us to identify with his protagonists. Frank Barnes (Denzel Washington) and Matt Colson (Chris Pine) are both excellent portrayals of blue collar Americans. Both men are strong and tough but not to perfect not to have their faults. Barnes has problems with authority and his daughters, Colson with his young wife. The supplementary characters within the narrative are also excellently portrayed in a realistic manner.
One of the most striking things to me is this films realistic portrayal of how a corporation's only concern EVER is the bottom line. Rather than avert the disaster early on, the bottom line becomes the impetus to not derail the train before it gets to a more populated area. The films two protagonists have an early disdain for each other because they represent two different workers, ones created by the way the corporations have treated their work force. Barnes is on the way out, making way for a younger, cheaper generation of labor represented by Colson. Finally the responsibility for the disaster lies at the feet of an inept railroad worker. One who was probably cheaply trained in the goal to pay less money and have bigger profits.
Regardless, Unstoppable is an excellent film.
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