Nightmare

My thoughts on "Train Dreams"

Spoiler Alert - If you have not seen the movie “Train Dreams”, or have not read the book, I suggest not reading this post, unless you don’t care.

Train Dreams, by Denis Johnson, is a quick 100 pages. The entire story turns around an early scene where Robert, the protagonist, contributes to the murder of a Chinese co-worker in a logging camp. In the scene, a racist mob has snatched the man, but is having trouble securing their captive. Robert steps up to lend a hand, grabbing the man’s legs, carrying him to the bridge to be launched into the gorge below. Traveling home by train after his logging job is finished, he contemplates the act, and is remorseful. He arrives home to an inferno, burning the forest that is his home, killing his wife and child. Through the rest of his life, he connects this tragedy to his act on the bridge, punishment for his sin. The book is an investigation of the threads, linking cause and effect, that run through our lives. He dreams of the pain of his orphan youth, the joy found in his wife and child, the terror of their loss and the man he helped to murder on the train bridge.

The movie has been nominated for Best Picture. So anxious to see it, I reupped a Netflix subscription. Movie starts … beautiful love story of the couple meeting and starting life together. Off to the logging job. We come to the pivotal scene. He is sitting at break across from the mob’s target. The mob appears, grabs the man. Richard gets up, starts yelling “What has he done…”. He grabs the man’s legs in an attempt to pull him away from the mob, but is kicked off. He sits there as the mob carries him to the top of the bridge and casts him into the gorge.

I stop the movie. I start screaming at the screen … No, no,no! They have changed the entire point of the story, begging for empathy. He tried to do the right thing. No he did not. The rest of the film progresses as the book does, more of less, but the moral catalyst that drives the plot no longer applies or at least is so weak as to be insignificant.

Nothing makes any sense. In order for his sin to be the force in his life, to lead him to a hermit’s existence, living rough on the burnt ground where his family died, he needed to be a party to the murder. Trying to do the right thing and failing is not enough. The opportunity to investigate if the life’s events are connected on a spiritual or supernatural level is squandered. At one point he reflects to his friend … isn’t this punishment enough. Without the force of his complicity, it loses all meaning.

We have a hard time dealing with the presence of evil. We would rather not think about it. If we go to church, we rarely hear about sin, and the impact on our lives. Why should the movies be any different? Hollywood can read the room - empathy above all.