Train Dreams: Cinematography You Don’t Want to Miss
It is the most beautiful representation of what it means to be human in a world that doesn’t stop for anyone.
When finally getting to watch Train Dreams on Netflix, I didn’t quite know what to expect. The reviews I had seen online were all positive, with truly no negative remarks. It made me excited to press play on a story that I had no idea where it would take me, but knew only that something good would come out of it.
Only a few minutes in, I was completely aware of the fact that this would become the most beautifully shot picture I have ever laid eyes on. Every scene is a perfect frame that could be printed and hung in any museum. There is a perfection in each shot that comes from truly caring about the material that is being presented. Nothing is irrelevant. Even the slightest change in the wind can be perceived in these images we’re being shown, and there is a reason for that. Every decision made by Clint Bentley is the right one.
Nature becomes a character we can’t stop staring at. The trees stand out the most. We see them come to life, and we see them die. Just like the rest of the characters, they have a purpose, and they tell a story. And there is something so beautiful and complex about these silent, inanimate objects that become some of the most important actors of the story.
Train Dreams carries in itself more topics than one can tell from a first watch. I am sure that by the time I rewatch it, I will have found new things I didn’t notice the first time. But I truly believe that is what makes a movie timeless. If you can keep coming back to the material and finding something new every time, then you know the movie will never die.
The story being told feels extremely intimate to the viewers. This is due to the fact that it is being narrated at the same time as we’re watching it happen. The narrator’s voice is calm and soothing, reminding the audience of a story that is being read to us. It almost feels like a story our grandparents would tell us when we’re little. That is what makes it all the more special. It’s not just a random story; it is one that we are meant to listen to, one we are meant to know.
The feeling of someone older and wiser sharing this story with us is also rooted in the notion that a big part of the film centres around the wisdom that comes with age. The character of Arn Peeples (William H. Macy) is the perfect representation of this. He is that wisdom achieved with age, surrounded by a bunch of “Minnesota boys” who carry the naivety of being young.
Years later, Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton) experiences exactly this when he goes back to the woods one last time. The younger men who have taken his old place make fun of him, laugh at his injury, and don’t take him seriously. But he knows there is more to life than that. He knows their behaviour comes from knowing absolutely nothing at all about the life they are living because he was once in their place.
The big difference between a young Grainier and those young loggers is the fact that Grainier was always split between his duty to do what was right to provide for his wife, Gladys (Felicity Jones) and daughter, Kate, and the things he would miss every time he left. His character carried that heaviness with himself until the very end. If one looks closely, we can see Grainier blaming that duty for not being there the night of the fire that took his wife and daughter.
While it may seem the movie becomes about grief the moment Grainier loses his family, the truth is grief has been present from the very beginning. It doesn’t necessarily reside in the fact that Robert didn’t know his biological parents. The grief lives in the life he so desperately wants to live with Gladys and Kate, but must leave behind every time he goes to work. He grieves for the daily routine, the small changes in his daughter, and the presence of his wife every time he finds himself working as a logger. He grieves for the normalcy of being at his cabin with him.
After the deaths of Gladys and Kate, the grief becomes tangible. Everyone around Grainier can see it, and those viewers who weren’t looking closely can begin to feel it as well. It comes with the fire that feels so intense and bright through the screen that one feels trapped in it as well. It becomes more obvious when the pups appear and Grainier begins to wonder how much they know. It is there in every moment of solitude he spends in that vast outdoors. And it is very much there when he hears whispers of his wife and daughter talking and laughing in the woods.
It is the same grief the loggers experience every time they nail a pair of boots to the trees to remember the men who lost their lives on the job. The grief we feel in the existence of Claire Thompson (Kerry Condon) once she shares the loss of her husband. Because the reality is that most people go through life experiencing grief like Claire: in silence, masking it with other experiences. When the truth is, we would all love to let grief consume us as it does Robert, allowing us to feel the pain so deeply that we can never move on. Because, as Train Dreams proves, there is a beauty in the grief Robert carries because it is so personal that no one can ever take that away from him.
Train Dreams takes the viewer on a beautiful adventure that begins the moment we hear Gladys say, “We are married. All we need now is a ceremony to prove it.” That sole quote exemplifies how deeply we will feel everything the movie has to offer. It’s not just about watching a character grieve through life, but about feeling that grief ourselves. By watching the beautiful nature shots and experiencing Robert’s grief, the viewers are given room for their personal emotions to come out. Train Dreams allows us to grieve whatever it is that’s eating our souls deep inside.
Train Dreams is the most beautiful representation of what it means to be human in a world that doesn’t stop for anyone.
Train Dreams is now streaming on Netflix.
Photo Courtesy of Netflix
It is the most beautiful film I've seen since Cinema Paradiso. And that was décadas ago. A must.
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