The Nerdwriter Offers An Insightful Analysis of Bong Joon-Ho’s Science Fiction Film ‘Snowpiercer’

In his latest episode of Understanding Art House, Evan Puschak aka The Nerdwriter offers up an incredibly insightful perspective analysis of the science fiction film Snowpiercer, examining the style in which director Bong Joon-Ho addressed both the overt and the obscure societal themes within the story.

It’s quite obvious that Snowpiercer is an allegory of class culture, how tensions innate within it lead to resentment and eventually revolution. Some have criticized the film for being so transparent in this respect, but the genius in director Bong Joon-Ho’s art house sci-fi action film is not in the message as such, but how, through the tools and techniques of filmmaking, he conveys it. For example, it’s understandable, symbolically, why the tail section of the train might not have any windows. For passengers in that section the train is literally the world…Just as the lower classes in society are forced to be concerned almost exclusively with survival, living at the whims of ideologies invented by those of higher cultural standing, but as Curtis and his band reach the front of the train toward the end of the film we notice that those sections are also devoid of Windows
In sauna cars and rave cars and drug cars, the affluent members of the upper-class are just as encouraged as their counterparts to consider the train as the entirety of what there is.

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.