Runaway Train (1985)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1985
Running Time	106:11 (Case: 111)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (54:23)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Andrei Konchalovsky
Studio Distributor	MGM	Starring	Jon Voight Eric Roberts Rebecca De Mornay Kyle T. Heffner John P. Ryan T.K. Carter Kenneth McMillan Stacey Pickren Walter Wyatt Edward Bunker Reid Cruickshanks Dan Wray Michael Lee Gogin
Case	?
RPI	$19.95	Music	Trevor Jones

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired German for the Hearing Impaired French Italian Spanish Dutch Swedish Norwegian Danish Finnish Portuguese Polish Greek Czech	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Manny (Jon Voight) is an exceptionally hardened prisoner who for the past three years has been welded into his Alaskan prison cell by the equally vicious warden Renken (John P. Ryan). After he gets unwelded thanks to a court order, Manny justifies Renken's preventative action by immediately escaping with a dumb fellow prisoner Buck (Eric Roberts). Faced with certain death in the snowbound Alaskan wilderness, the pair hop aboard a freight train. No sooner do they do this than the driver suffers a fatal heart attack, and the brakes conveniently fail. Also on board is engineer's assistant Sara (Rebecca De Mornay). The trio are trapped on board a speeding train heading for destruction, with seemingly no hope of rescue.

    Runaway Train is based on a screenplay by the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. After reading a magazine article about a runaway locomotive in the mid-1960s, Kurosawa wrote the screenplay and was to direct the film in the US. However, for various reasons the project fell through, and the screenplay was eventually filmed by the Cannon group. Well, an adaptation of the screenplay was filmed. This film resembles Kurosawa's screenplay but there are a number of elements added and changed, mostly for the worse in the view of those who have read the original. This has been described as an existential film, not without cause.

    The film is reasonably well directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, with some nice visuals as well. The film falls a little short of its ambitions, and should be approached like a B-movie with some good ideas rather than a screen classic (which it is not). The performances are good, though often a little over the top: Ryan's Renken seems to be even more of a psychopath than Manny. An enjoyable film, but don't take it too seriously.

Video

    The film is presented in the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is sharp without being of reference quality. There is an amount of detail available, including shadow detail, but overall the transfer falls somewhere between VHS and DVD quality.

    Colours are muted, which seems to have been a deliberate choice. Kurosawa wanted his film to have an almost black and white look, with the dark train highlighted against white snow. Konchalovsky does not quite go to this extreme, but there is little in the way of bright colour in the film. Flesh tones are reasonably lifelike, and blacks are quite black without any noticeable low level noise.

    There is plenty of grain present throughout, a bit more than might be expected.

    Film artefacts are also omnipresent, in the form of dirt and regular white specks.

    Subtitles are clear and match the dialogue for the most part, though they seem to be a trifle large.

    This is an RSDL-formatted disc with the layer change positioned at 54:23 at a cut between shots, and is mildly disruptive.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The default audio track is the original English Dolby Digital 2.0 track.

    Dialogue is clear and the audio is quite good, with decent stereo effects matching the on-screen action. Surround encoding is present and effects and music give the rears and especially the subwoofer a workout. This is a reasonably good audio transfer, though perhaps a 5.1 mix would have been useful.

    Music is by Trevor Jones and fits the film well, without being anything out of the ordinary.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Theatrical Trailer (1:50)

    The trailer is 16x9 enhanced and gives a good idea of what the film is about, though it perhaps does not give a good indication of the tone.

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

    There are Region 1 and Region 2 releases of this film already available.

    In comparison to the Region 1, the Region 4 misses out on:

• 1.33:1 pan and scan transfer on flip side of DVD in addition to 1.85:1 transfer

    In comparison to the Region 4, the Region 1 misses out on:

• 16x9 enhancement

    In comparison to the Region 2, the Region 4 misses out on:

• Production notes
• Cast and crew biographies
• Photo gallery
• Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack

    In comparison to the Region 4, the Region 2 misses out on:

• 16x9 enhancement

    Despite the presence of a surround mix on the Region 2, the Region 4 is preferable due to the 16x9 enhancement.

    A reasonably entertaining film but not as good as it could have been.

    The video quality is average.

    The audio quality is good.

    The sole extra is a trailer.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall