Fridae

The careers of the Scott brothers form a study in contrasts. On the one hand, you have Ridley Scott, one of the most treasured visionaries of modern cinema. Chequered as his career may be, there is little doubt that he has already cemented his place in cinematic history with the science fiction classics Blade Runner and Alien, and the crowd favourite Gladiator. On the other hand, you have Tony Scott, one of the most variegated workmen in Hollywood. With the right script he can show as much talent as his brother, but most of the time he’s satisfied with churning out workmanlike products in the action and thriller genres. The prolific nature and longevity of his career including box office hit Top Gun, the cult favourites Revenge and True Romance, and the flops Domino and The Taking of Pelham 123 give ample evidence of his dependability and his adaptability to changing times and tastes.

With Unstoppable, Tony Scott chalks up another such workmanlike product, but like his other products, has proven his adaptability to changing times.

I say that almost as praise, because on its own, Unstoppable could almost be a comedy with the right timing if viewed in a different context. A mix of human error and bad luck (mostly the fault of a fat, sweaty, hirsute train conductor called Dewey) leads to the case of a runaway train careening all across Pennsylvania’s Rust Belt towns. Meanwhile, Frank Barnes, a veteran engineer (Denzel Washington), and Will Colson, a young upstart train conductor whose family’s heavy involvement in unions has earned him much prejudice among fellow workers (Chris Pine), find themselves having to save the day, along with help from a train dispatcher (Rosario Dawson). Yes, in the wake of the 2008 economic disaster and the rise of blue-collar rightist populism, Unstoppable tunes into the national mood by offering a celebration of Everyman heroism.

And boy, if viewed as a piece of individualistic populist claptrap, this movie does know how to touch all the bases. Colson has family members heavily involved in blue collar unions, which earns him the wrath of older workers. The younger blue collar workers and all uniformed bodies are mostly favour-mongers and incompetents. Barnes has a wealth of experience but is about to be laid off. The railroad company’s CEO tees off on the fairway as he overhears the potential damage to his stock prices that a train loaded with poisonous chemicals could do if it blows up.

It needs little guessing to know that this is one of those movies where character development is mostly arbitrary and serves little of the plot, if at all. Colson’s wife has taken out a restraining order on him when he threatened a cop friend of his in a fit of anger while Barnes has lost his wife to cancer and his daughters work at Hooters to pay for college. The runaway train ends up heading for Colson’s hometown, and a friend of Barnes dies in the process of stopping it. Needless to say, when the movie reaches its climax, there will be intercutting to seeing all of them cheer for their kin as they watch their heroic actions on live network news, which of course has to be Fair and Balanced Fox News.

Unstoppable is hardly the equivalent of its title. Disposable is more like it. Anyone looking for cinematic populist junk food won’t be disappointed, others are advised to search elsewhere.