The Marxism behind Bong Joon-Ho’s Snowpiercer

Snowpiercer movie by Bong Joon-ho is a science fiction movie. The movie consists

of social-political issue. Related to the social-political issue, this movie shows some

phenomena about social problem in social life. Such as separation of class, injustice,

abuse of power and so forth. Marxist theory consists about social, economic, and political

problem. Those of the field is the base of principle or system in Marxist. The main basic

of Marxist theory is economic which can influence other subject areas such as politic

system and social. The bourgeoisie (capitalist), proletariat (working class) are two

elements which create a mutual relationship between both of them. The capitalist needs

the laborers to make profit for them and the laborer (proletariat) need money for their life.

In the movie of Jong Boon-ho’s Snowpiercer it represents the idea of Marxism where it

tackles about the struggle of people in having social class. The train is a symbolic

depiction of society with conservative ideologies and the dangers that this could pose.

this goes beyond the previously mentioned message, that the conservative views of

economics can cause a huge separation between the upper and lower classes, going on

to analyze other hidden messages such as drug use, “worship” of a leader, and ultimately

revolt.

Snowpiercer’s world does not have an economy. Each passenger in the train has

been preordained to belong to each section, without the social movement that money

could allow. The currency of their world is survival. For the idea of Karl Marx, the goal of

the revolution is to seize the means of production, which is just a fancier way of saying

the workers controlling the factories, mines, and farms. Afterwards, there would be a

“dictatorship of the proletariat”, where the working class would force society to move
towards the abolishment of money and class. That was the plan, but history has shown

that people tended to take the “dictatorship” part too literally. Returning to the film, this

idea is central to its plot. The poor in the tail end of Snowpiercer’s train get tired of their

oppressive conditions and spark a rebellion. Soon, Curtis and his surprisingly scurvy-free

band of rebels seize a water recycling plant – the universe’s “means of production” that

would give them leverage in the negotiations with the elites. Curtis eventually reaches the

front of the train, where the Eternal Engine lies, tended by the train’s leader, Mr Wilford

(Ed Harris). Wilford tries to convince Curtis that his revolution was all planned to cull the

population, and that Curtis must take over as the train’s leader to regulate its

conditions. Wilford almost succeeds before it is revealed that the poor – its children, in

particular – have been taken away from their families to work on the engine. With some

of its parts obsolete, only children can slip into its nooks and crannies to keep it

running. Even in the money-less world of Snowpiercer, the exploitation of labor by the

ruling class is still apparent.

Jones, S. (2020, September 3). Snowpiercer: Class struggle and revolution...on a train.

Marxist.com. https://www.marxist.com/snowpiercer-class-struggle-and-revolution-

on-a-train.htm
 The Cataclysm Myth: Snowpiercer and Noah’s Ark

Our cultural imagination, especially in Judeo-Christian tradition, for centuries had

been preoccupied with the End of the World, the Great Flood, Apocalypse, the

Armageddon, the Second Coming. In the final century we as a species have gathered

sufficient technological strength to quit the world ourselves, besides the want for an

exterior strength or theological determinism. Now our post-apocalyptic fiction is full of

several situations on how it may want to happen. “The Matrix”, “Zombieland”, and “WALL-

E” all characterize extraordinary methods to an epic cave in of society. Even greater than

the genuine motives of self-imposed apocalypses, these memories are involved in how

leftovers of humanity would stay and interact with every other.

A train is shifting thru frozen panorama carrying the leftovers of humanity, like a

high-tech Noah’s Ark. Instead of the Flood we have the 2d Ice Age and as a substitute of

the “god” – an eccentric inventor Wilford (Ed Harris).

However, the truth of the teach is a long way from Gardens of Eden. The structure

of the educate presents the foundation for the classification shape inside it. At the tail part

of the train, we have the classless people. They are the ones who by no means offered

the ticket to the educate and have been let in out of mercy. The in addition up the train,

the higher the prerequisites are till you get to the Engine. Thus, different than post-

apocalyptic fantasy, “Snowpiercer” is a story about a man’s search for meaning. Our Man

is Curtis (Chris Evans, the Captain America in rags). He units out to see the Father
determine – Wilford, the savior, to ask him the cause of the injustice and struggling in the

world that he has created. If some stay in paradise, why do others have to go through in

hell.

During his development toward the Engine, he meets a few impressionable

characters. One of most hanging ones is Wilfords minion Mason (Tilda Swinton in a

awesome performance). She offers her model to the reply Curtis is seeking, which

reminds us of Marxists type struggle, or the standard Indian caste system.

However, the Man is now not relaxed with this version, and he strikes ahead with

assist of his friends. Among these is Namgoong Minsoo, a Korean engineer, who created

the locks of the train, and a psychedelic drug addict. He is performed Kang-ho Song, who

seems in different Bong Joon-ho’s films. He and his daughter Yona grant some comical

comfort and English Korean misunderstandings that probable refer to real difficulties that

arose on a multi-national movie set.

One of most memorable scenes vividly glorifying the type of conflict and human

riot in opposition to authority used to be most likely the torch carrying scene. It is makes

use of the possibility to exhibit the power in cohesion and revives the Ancient Greek

fantasy of Prometheus, a Titan assisting humanity in opposition to the will of gods.

After that we get into a very contrasting college scene that appears like taken from

difficult to understand Disney young people show. Here we have very unambiguous

poking at an education schooling gadget as a manufacturing unit producing devotees of

the system. Curtis single-mindedly strikes forward. This journey, however, does now not

come except hard ethical alternatives and dropping comrades. These iconic “moral
decision” scenes are no longer given to us through dialogue, however thru gorgeous

filming approach that takes the horizontal thing of the educate and performs with it. Tony

Zhou in “Every Frame a Painting” explains it in detail. As the viewer strikes with Curtis,

we see that the supposed paradise at the the front of the teach is now not what was once

promised. While there are many luxuries, human beings do now not appear to be happy.

They are remoted and fed on with what they are doing, now not reacting to something

that is occurring round them. But Curtis is blind to this as he swifts via toward the Engine

and the Father. Curtis already has a father determine in the lower back of the train; a

crippled man named Gilliam (John Hurt). In one scene he exhibits a touching story about

how Gilliam bought crippled, and we get a higher seem to be into the characters. One

aspect Gilliam suggested Curtis at the begin of the quest used to be “Do now not let

Wilford talk”. But being a prodigal son, he does now not hear to the recommendation and

for that reason enters the temptation. Wilford solutions the query Curtis got here to him

with. The motive for the struggling is retaining the balance. Only the meticulously

engineered stability of the train, the meals rations, the water, births, and deaths, can make

sure the similarly existence of humanity. Moreover, Curtis is right here to take over the

obligations of the Father in the sacred Engine room. For the first time we see a spark of

doubt in the eyes of the man. He stormed via the teach with relentless zeal and now his

sturdy faith in humanity falters. Curtis nearly believes in the divinity of Wilford and the

Engine. It takes an unspoiled viewpoint of a younger girl, the engineer’s daughter Yona,

to shatter the Wilfords picture and smash Curtis from the spell. She suggests that Engine

is certainly no longer best and no longer Eternal, therefore it is made with the aid of a

man, no longer a god. Then with the use of fireplace they damage the Engine.
 The end of the movie or The New Beginning scene is very iconic. Only two children,

who have been born on the instruct and in no way noticed the ancient world, survive. Like

young Adam and Eve, they step into the snow, first time transferring diagonally away from

teach wreck, they increase their eyes onto large nature. What used to be declared as Hell

through the instruct authorities (as a count of fact, in Dante’s Inferno Satan is trapped in

ice), was once surely the unique vicinity for lifestyles and human beings.

“Snowpiercer” gibes at humanities reliance on technological know-how to shop

ourselves. The educate when proven from interior regarded majestic, human beings had

been concerned in their affairs and their missions regarded so vital to them. In the end,

however, instruct collapses and is proven as a small child’s toy in the grandness of nature.

In nature there is no “preordained position” and no want to hold the balance, as nature

balances itself. This is the place the director attracts our eyes to and “So it is”.

Serpytyte, A. (2015, February 2). Snowpiercer, or Noah’s Ark in the modern post-
apocalypse. The Asian Cinema Blog.

https://theasiancinemablog.com/essays/snowpiercer-movie-review/