Runaway Train (1985) YIFY - Download Movie TORRENT

To see the words 'A Golan-Globus Production' on a movie poster in the '80s was not usually a sign of good quality cinema. Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus were a pair of Israeli cousins who had financed various films in their homeland throughout the '60s and '70s before deciding to have a crack at the American market by purchasing a distribution and production outfit called the Cannon Group, Inc. Around 85% of Golan- Globus's Canon output was low-grade, trashy rubbish, more often than not badly made and badly acted. Every now and then, however, a Golan-Globus film would turn up that was a little better than the usual fare. Something slightly more artistically motivated and more high-brow in conception. Into this bracket would fall films like the Julie Andrews vehicle Duet For One, Jean Luc Godard's adaptation of King Lear, or the exciting existential thriller Runaway Train , directed by celebrated Russian film-maker Andrei Konchalovsky during his 'break-into-the- American-mainstream' phase. Runaway Train is notable for two remarkable leading performances from Jon Voight and Eric Roberts. Voight plays Manny Manheim, a notoriously violent bank robber serving a life sentence in a remote Alaskan maximum security prison. Manny is a legend amongst the other inmates, an almost animalistic criminal considered so dangerous that at one point the warden, Ranken (John P. Ryan), had his cell door welded for a period of three years. Once allowed back into general population, Manny plans an audacious escape aided by none-too-bright inmate Buck (Eric Roberts) whose position as a laundry room worker gives him access to a potential escape route. Against Manny's wishes, Buck decides to join in him in daring break for freedom. Unfortunately for them, they seek refuge aboard a train during their getaway only for the elderly engineer to suffer a heart attack at the controls. Through an accumulation of unforeseeable coincidences, the emergency break system on the train fails and the two escaped convicts find themselves aboard a runaway train, gathering momentum as it surges unmanned and out-of-control across the Alaskan wilderness. An inexperienced hostler, Sara (Rebecca De Mornay), is the only other person on board. Together the three of them fight against the power of technology (the train) and the power of nature (the harsh Alaskan conditions) as they try to regain control of the train.Violent, bloody, sharply characterised and frequently very exciting, Runaway Train may well be the jewel in the Golan-Globus crown. It's a tough film for sure – peopled mainly by ugly characters who do little more than snarl and threaten each other in abrasive, foul-mouthed exchanges – but it's never anything less than enthralling. The strength of characterisation is impressive. Voight's terrifying convict; Roberts' dumb but loyal opportunist escapee; De Mornay's vulnerable unwilling participant; Ryan's sadistically over-zealous warden – all fabulously written characters, played to the hilt by actors in top form. In one unforgettable scene, Voight attempts to uncouple the cars to stop the back section of the train – the couplings close over his hand, literally tearing off almost all his fingers in a shocking spray of pulpy gore. Still grinning maniacally, his hand a bloodied stump, Manny struggles back aboard and continues to terrorise his travelling companions. He's every bit as chillingly convincing as, say, Robert De Niro in the Cape Fear remake, a role that has striking similarities. The location is unusual and effective – the vast, freezing wilds of Alaska provide a perfect backdrop for the drama on-screen, enhanced further still by Trevor Jones's atmospheric score. The film's unrelentingly ugly tone and a strangely pretentious ending are minor quibbles, but overall Runaway Train is a thunderingly good film.

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by degeneraatti 7 / 10

A rare gem from the Cannon Group filmography

I don't think I could dislike the movie that gave us both Machete and Zeus.In all seriousness though, Runaway Train might just be the best film to come out from the crap-factory known as Cannon Group. Unsurprisingly this gem is based on a script by someone head and shoulders above the pack, this being here Akira Kurosawa. But no man is an island, and it takes considerably more than a script to make a movie. Jon Voight and Eric Roberts might provide the best performances I've seen from either one in a chilling setting that beautifully emphasizes the desperation of the characters in both their current predicament and life in general.In addition to compelling cinematography, this Cannon film also surprises the viewer with yet another aspect sorely missing in many of their films: character development. This films grips the viewer on so many fronts and doesn't let go. The Runaway Train might be without a driver, but the film about it very much in control of its own fate, from beginning to end. I was pleasantly surprised by the way the movie almost poetically wraps itself done before the credits roll like any properly told story should.It saddens me to realize how often overlooked this movie is. Before the Cannon Group documentary Electric Boogaloo I don't remember any mention of it, even though I've scanned quite some of their catalogue in search of "so bad it's good" b-movies (and boy, do they deliver that in a steaming pile!)However, Runaway Train is in a completely different category, and despite some minor flaws I do heartily recommend it to anyone even vaguely interested in it. Such poetry in film never comes too often to our screens, so it should be savoured at every chance.

Reviewed by barnabyrudge 8 / 10

Runaway Train

1985

Action / Adventure / Drama / Thriller

Runaway Train

1985

Action / Adventure / Drama / Thriller

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Movie Reviews

A rare gem from the Cannon Group filmography

One of the few genuinely excellent Golan-Globus productions - a tense, violent and exciting thriller.

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