"Dangerous Hour": Tears smashed by a train

Jewel 2021-10-22 14:33:05

Under the magic wand of an excellent director, "Storyline is the king", which is regarded as a golden rule by film critics, will also be broken. Just like Tony Scott's Unstoppable (2010), the storyline can be as simple as one sentence: an out-of-control train full of chemically hazardous cargoes. The railroad worker risked his life and made a stop.
And such a simple movie is better than many movies full of gunfights, love stories, and computer stunts. It's not because the audience likes the green vegetable tofu after watching visual feasts like IMAX and 3D. Kurt has a perfect grasp of film narrative rhythm, high-speed photography, sound effects, and film editing. Some people also attribute this success to the tacit cooperation between Scott and Oscar actor Denzel Washington, which is their successor to "Red Tide Storm", "Rage Rescue", "Time and Space Clue" and "Metro Cry" After the fifth cooperation.
But, as Don Draper, the creative director of advertising in "Mad Men," said, when you master all the skills, the most difficult and most important unknown element is how to "touch people." Touch people's hearts, touch the most sensual, soft, and warmest part of the human heart.
The parts that resonate in the depths of the human heart are actually the simplest definitions: love, friendship, justice, bravery, kindness, the pursuit of free ideals and dreams...
I bought "Toy Story III" from the electronic chain store Future Shop "(Toy Story III) CD, the guy who sold the CD repeatedly recommended: "I can see it crying." I looked up and looked at him, and he said: "You can understand after reading it. Your heart is surging, all your feelings are piled up, and then you cry. "Of course, I can understand that a successful film must first be able to "tear-jump".
To put it in a sophisticated way, Hollywood has gathered the world’s top film talents, from screenwriters to audiovisualists...with a lot of wealth (millions, tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of production costs) to support them, and they are studying every day. How to capture the most sentimental moment of the audience at the right moment, with the right lighting, the right background, and the heroine's makeup.
The teardrop you thought you accidentally shed in the cinema was actually the result of thousands of professionals calculating and operating. This is called: commercial art.


The real power

corresponds to a large number of science fiction movies, and Hollywood has a large number of followers of "real event adaptation".

"Dangerous Hour" was adapted from an unmanned train out-of-control incident that caused a sensation in the United States in May 2001. It was a catastrophic social event before 9/11. It spread across the country due to the timely intervention of the news media and live reports. Millions of Americans were paying attention to this event at the same time. The accident occurred in Ohio (not Pennsylvania in the movie), and the train involved belonged to the North American Class I (Class I) CSX company. CSX is the top 5 operating railway in North America (including Canada), and the number one railway company in the east coast. Its operating routes even include several large cities on the east coast of Canada. So the occurrence of such a catastrophic accident is a catastrophic scandal for CSX. So far, in Google search, CSX8888 (the number of the out-of-control train) still ranks in the top. At the time, the media called it "Crazy 8s"-Crazy 8s. This unlucky boy had another accident in 2005 and ended his "life" by derailing.
The director Tony Scott rented real locomotives and carriages when filming "Dangerous Hour", so that a diesel locomotive weighing 10 tons (don’t ask me how I knew it in detail), plus a load-bearing carriage. At a speed of 71 miles per hour (about 110 kilometers), from the angle of the side row, it presents the texture and speed of a giant machine, and the lens editing is frequently switched, and the sound effects reach the crisis of heavy metal monsters whizzing by. And a sense of urgency. It is said that the sparks created by the metal collision of the fast train in the movie are all real shots. This is a movie made of cast iron without relying on CGI technology.
Not only that, Tony Scott also specially invited the locomotive engineer Jesse Knowlton (the prototype of Frank Barnes played by Washington) and the navigator Terry Forson (the prototype of Will Colson played by Chris Payne) in the "Mad 8" incident. As a special consultant for the film. Therefore, the various professional techniques and details about the train involved in the film are very professional and true. As civilian heroes who witnessed the incident and turned the tide, Knowlton and Forson also contributed some live conversations.

The mainstream heroes under the capitalist system

moved the North American audience, and of course the reality of the character design.
A crucial dialogue in the film is that the vice president of operations of the Iron Works said to Frank, an engineer who has served the railway company for 28 years: "If you are a hero and must stop this locomotive, be careful to be fired."
Frank replied. : "You have fired me."
Frank received a letter of notice to retire early and halve his pension. In fact, this is a consistent method used by capitalists to bully the lowest-level professionals in disguise. The annual salary of a grassroots railway engineer who has served the company for 28 years may be as high as 100,000 US dollars. If the salary is about 80% of the pension, then if Frank serves to the retirement age of 65, and get the full pension , Will be a huge expense for the company. So the company will prevent him from completing the number of years of service, and look for various opportunities to reduce the pension. Generally, the first letter of early retirement notice is also dressed as a "voluntary acceptance". If he chooses not to accept the company's early retirement notice, the next round of waiting for him is to lay off employees. At that time, he has no choice, and the compensation for dismissal (no retirement pension) may only be 6 months to 1 year of annual salary.
At the same time, capitalists will hire young employees (they currently do not have pensions and high benefits due to years of service) to replace relatively expensive older workers. But the hidden dangers are self-evident. Will only received 4 months of training before he started. This is why when the film began, a group of old workers collectively rejected Will, the young navigator.
Between Frank and Will, there is actually a cruel relationship between an old laid-off worker and a young substitute. Especially for Frank, who loves this railway job, they can be in the most critical situation. The moment of life and death together is entirely due to the simplest human nature of the two people. They are risking being fired and losing their lives. A blue-collar pilot who has been abandoned by the company (the capitalist system) ignoring his life with a sense of personal responsibility. This sense of social responsibility and dignity, which overrides personal interests, is the naive heroism of the film's theme.
Although the film does not have time to develop the character, these two protagonists are actually the most familiar people around North American audiences.
Frank did not have any higher education, served the company as a teenager, and lived on the railroad and two baby girls. Both daughters are working at the bar Hooter, which attracts customers with large breasts, fat buttocks, and short buttocks. He said that they are preparing for college. The audience knows that many girls of this kind have lived in this kind of service industry for a lifetime.
Will is a young man in a small town. Most of the ancestors of young people in American railroad towns served the railroads and had no big ideals. The same was true for him. He did a lot of work but did not last long. Because he was young, he acted rashly and even dared to threaten the police with weapons to be jealous.
However, it is such a blue-collar class that constitutes the biggest cornerstone of the social and ethical standards of the American Pyramid. They are the biggest supporters of Bush and the conservative Republican Party. They believe in a single value and a conservative personality concept. They are also the largest group of people who simply trust Obama, because they need attention just as much as the "Chicago plumbers".
In the real incident, the two railway workers were not fired and were promoted. In addition, the person in charge of the command scene, Connie, was promoted from a small station command to vice president of operations-replacing the former vice president of bureaucracy.
You have to admit that transcending the personal heroism of the film is precisely the affirmation and existence of conscience and justice within the framework of capitalism. Only values ​​such as justice and courage will continue to be deeply rooted at the bottom and become the foundation of society. With them, how can capitalism be "every evil"?


Tears from a train

I have worked for the most famous railway company in Canada for 5 years. I have four generations of colleagues who have worked for this century-old company, and friends of grassroots engineers. I have also witnessed the biggest layoffs.
When the young navigator Will suddenly disappeared from the FOX camera of the live report because of the connection between the two trains, and a few seconds later, he leaned out of the sparkling camera again, Tony Scott and his The teardrops worth tens of millions designed by a group of creative people finally fell through me.
The simplest sense of justice and responsibility in these people shines not only because of a crazy train. They are the mainstay of this greedy and arrogant world, and will not be destroyed.

They are worthy of being praised by an excellent director, and more worthy of being moved by our tears

View more about Unstoppable reviews

Extended Reading
  • Zechariah 2022-04-24 07:01:04

    Standard American film.

  • Dashawn 2021-10-22 14:41:34

    The subtitles of Mega Studios are very intimate "please bring your phone, wallet and boyfriend"......囧.

Unstoppable quotes

  • Frank: [to Will] I only got one rule. One rule only: you're gonna do something, you do it right. You don't know how to do it, you ask me, all right? Likewise, if you need anything from me, you'd better speak up. 'Cause, uh, you're the conductor. Once we get our freight, it's your train. I'm just the guy driving it.

  • News Reporter: He's literally running on top of the train-

    [Frank Jumps from car to car]

    News Reporter: Looks like the gap between cars has stopped him.

    Nicole Barnes: Come on. You can do it Dad.