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“Runaway Train” Written by Akira Kurosawa. Produced by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky. Cast: Jon Voight, Eric Roberts, John Ryan and Rebecca DeMornay. R. Crossroads Mall Cinemas, Daily, 9:15 p.m. only. ‘Runaway Train’’ is on the right track. It starts rolling along in fascinating fashion and ends in the same way, but there are a few valleys among the peaks. Some critics have been raving about this movie, and while I think it’s well worth seeing, I be lieve it could have been a tad better. Jon Voight plays Manny, an Alaska prison inmate whom the warden (John Ryan) has had welded into a cell for three years because of his repeated attempts at escape. Despite his confine ment in the welded cell, the war den is unable to break Manny’s spirit. Instead, Manny becomes a hero to the other inmates. A judge orders Manny re leased. Knowing Manny will try to escape again, the warden tries to have him killed by a fellow inmate. The effort n’t sue once out of the welded cell, Manny meets a young impetuous inmate (Eric Roberts), who tags along with Manny during an es cape effort. Together they cross the ed Alaskan country in the winter and hop aboard a train. As the train begins to move, the rieer has a heart attack and falls off the train. The brakes burn off and the train be comes a runaway. To a degree, the movie is a cross between a prison esca drama and a disaster film. But really it’s more than that. It’s an exploration of a complex but fas cinating character, Manny, and what drives him to do what he does. And Jon Voight is simply brilliant in the role. This is his best performance since ‘‘Deliv erance’’ and ‘‘Midnight Cow boy.”’ It’s idle he’ll get an Academy Award nomination for his performance. The train and Manny are par allels. Like the train, Manny is strong and fast, independent, difficult to stop and headed on a collision course. Along the way the train has some close calls just as Manny has had in his life and his ongoing conflict with the warden. Eric Roberts, complete with his usual heavy southern drawl, also gives a sterling perfor mance as the young inmate who seems to worship Manny and yet fear him. Rebecca DeMornay appears as a girl who works on the train, but I saw no real purpose for her character. I would have pre ferred the film simply wear the strained relationship tween Voight’s and Roberts characters, as well as Voight’s and the warden’s mutual obses sion with each other West Virginians may be inter ested in the film because of the similarity of the prison in the pref aoe of the movie with the pe ous news accounts gave uo the West Virginia Peniten during the recent rioting a eee ‘Runaway Train” will not ap peal to everyone. It’s definitely not for children. It’s violent and bloody and contains a great deal of foul rage. It also contains gut-wrenching suspense. It’s a twi action film, with some substance. Rated R Vaughn Rhody Staff Writer
Newspaper Details
Beckley Register Herald
Beckley, West Virginia, US
Fri, Jan 24, 1986
Page 19
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