Prelude
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This is the third and final part of a multi-part article on the messages and themes of the movie Snowpiercer. Each part builds off of the previous post so if you wish to read the previous sections before continuing on please click the links below.
Previous Articles
In part one, I go on a bit of a rant about how most movies today are mindless dribble with the exception of a few rare gems. I also give a brief introduction and synopsis to the movie Snowpiercer, since it is the topic of this multi part article. Please click the link below if you wish to be directed to part I.
Part I: Movies with Messages
In part two I discussed the major and minor plot lines of the overall film in order to provide background for the current article. If you wish to be directed to part II, please click the following link:
Part II: A Review of Snowpiercer
In the current article, I will discuss some of the messages that the movie suggests throughout its story which in my mind are relevant to today’s world. However, these are just my interpretations so other individuals may not agree with my viewpoints. Please feel free to discuss your thoughts.
Theme One: Poverty and Classism
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One of the major and obvious themes in the movie is the notion of classism and the unequal distribution of resources. The movie parallels our own world and the society that we live in today. In our world there is a vastly unequal distribution of resources and many individuals live in extreme poverty while others live in luxury with tremendous amounts of wealth and resources.
Much like the conditions on the train, our society sets up many physical, psychological and social barriers that make it nearly impossible for individuals to escape the livelihoods that they are born into.
One interesting scene in the movie is when the violinist is separated from his wife and is brought to live in the front of the train where he will play music for the first class passengers. We see him a little later in the film dressed in a tuxedo suggesting that the man has “made it” in society and has transcended his lower class status, though he is actually a pawn for the upper class.
What true demonstration that people can make it in the world if they have the skills, talent and strong work ethic….Naaawwt.
This scene actually portrays the inequality of the system. The man is taken to the front of the train alone, despite the fact that his wife has the same (yet even better) musical talent. The man’s wife being left behind demonstrates that in our society, all people are not treated equally and that hard work, talent, and skill do not really determine social position. However, the upper class elite in society often use anecdotal cases of people working hard and bringing themselves out of poverty to suggest that - “see anyone can do it. We all have an equal chance.”
Ha – anyone who is aware of the systemic social structures in place in our society that keep people oppressed, knows that this is actually bullshit. Ok, moving on…
Theme Two: Brainwashing Children
One particular scene in the movie showed the child passengers of the train being indoctrinated into the governing body’s ideology. In this scene the teacher essentially brainwashes the children with a combination of fear and repetitious kid’s songs into not only idolizing Mr. Wilford and the engine that he built, but also to fear alternative ways of thinking. The teacher shows the children what happens when people question society and try to go off on their own – ”They all freeze and die.”
These ideologies are even ingrained within the adults as seen when Minister Mason comments on the child’s song that is like a “tonic” to her.
This scene is not unlike some religious or authoritarian regimes that put in a lot of effort to brainwash children at an early age into believing exactly what they want them to believe. See the videos below as an example. In these videos fundamentalist Christian sects brainwash young children into believing that dinosaurs did not exist, and that evolution and even Harry Potter are works of the devil.
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Theme Three: When Both Sides Work Together to Control Society
The next message is the most disturbing theme of the movie to think about, at least for me. Once Curtis reaches the front of the train and is introduced to Wilford, he finds out that Wilford and his mentor Gilliam had been working together the whole time. Wilford informs Curtis that the front and the back of the train had always worked together to maintain a system of fear and chaos in order to control all of the passengers. Passengers at the front of the train fear rebellion from passengers living at the back and passengers at the back are kept in poverty in order to create conditions ripe for rebellion. When the train becomes over populated, leaders at the front and back work together to insight rebellion so that war will break out and numbers can be reduced. This is in order to maintain the balanced ecosystem of the train.
The disturbing part of this for me is that it has changed the way I view conflict and war in the world we live in today. The film suggests the possibility that perceived enemies (take your pick: America vs. North Korea, America vs. Russian, whichever) could work together in order to reduce the populations of their own nations.
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This notion would not even be that hard to accomplish. For instance, governments on both sides, partnered with media agencies, could bombard their own nation’s citizens with negative propaganda about the other country (this already happens). Then once war breaks out between the two countries, government officials on both sides could work together to manipulate battles in order to reduce their own populations. By working together secretly, individuals in power on both sides could decide which battles they will win and which they will lose (ie. Side A sends 100 thousand troops while side B sends 60 thousand troops to a predetermined battle location. Side A wins the battle this go around and then in a subsequent battle side B would send more troops and would win that battle). This process would continue on until the desired population threshold was reached on both sides, at which point a seize fire would be declared and propaganda would again brainwash both sides into believing they were the victor.
The notion sounds farfetched and very conspiratorial in nature but considering the fact that many people and groups believe that the planet is over populated it’s really not that hard to consider it as a possibility. Battles were fought in a similar way during WWII when the allies discovered the German code Enigma and then used statistics in order to win the war. The film The Imitation Game explained this concept.
Conclusion
That concludes the final part of this III part article. Please feel free to comment or share your thoughts on the movie or my interpretation. I won’t be offended if you tell me that this its a farfetched concept and that you recommend I take off my tin foil hat :)
Thanks for Reading
I agree with the children brainwashing part, Its common practice for every society to model their young ones after their culture.
For the collaboration between class leaders, it is true in some situtations, e.g in most countries, the elitist government and labour leaders(representing the lower masses) are always in cahoot, but Labour leaders have to create an anti government persona most time. But as for inter-country collaboration for population reduction, that sounds like conspiracy theory as you said. lol.
For difficulty in moving between social classes, that is also true but its funny some times when people with talent break that barrier and become "rich pawns", they still dont learn how to maintain that class and they go broke fast. If you dont mind rap music, Jay z's the story of OJ explains how the lower class (in some cases) keep themselves in that class. I think class movement in America is easier compared to most countries but the division is clear everywhere.
Collaboration also occurs in system social structures. Non-profit organizations and public services are often funded by the government and other large organizations which means they are required to operate under the neo-liberal model of putting profit before people. For that reason, despite their purpose being to advocate social justice and enacting transformative change, these organizations are often only able to make superficial change. They are permitted to help small amounts of individuals overcome barriers in society but they are not permitted to change the systems and structures that create the issues. They often can't even bring real issues to light without their funding being cut off. So what we see in society are systems that create mass poverty and inequality, but nothing to combat the systemic issues that create poverty. Instead, our social organizations spin their wheels using up all their resources in order to help a few individuals navigate the system in order to crawl their way out of a position that they were placed in by society. Then the upper class system turns around and says "see look, we helped 200 people this year, the system works." But they completely ignore the 10,000 others who are trapped in their place.
We see the same issues with all sorts of public service organizations. Organizations - saying "hey look at this, we reduced the amount of children in child welfare hurray." But then if we disaggregate the data, we find out that, yeah the numbers of white children entering child welfare has reduced significantly. However, the numbers of black children entering child welfare has increased 10 fold. So, although the overall numbers have decreased, certain demographic groups continue to be oppressed by society.
I'm not sure I agree that class movement in America is easier compared to most countries. America is known for its extreme wealth inequality.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. You are probably right that using war as a form of population control is a conspiracy theory. A lot of people believe that the world is over populated though so I often wonder.
I totally agree with the opening argument and also agree that a lot of effort goes into maintaining social structures while pretending to be alleviating poverty in the lower classes.
I've always thought class movement is relatively easy in the US compared to African countries. Maybe I need to reconsider that.
And about overpopulation, I think the 21st century economy is why the world feels overpopulated, it is urban centric while rural areas world wide are sparsely populated, that's what I think about it but it's also true that the world's population has grown a lot in the last 10,000 years.
I am not familiar with the class structure in Africa. I am certainly open to the possibility that this issue is more challenging in Africa, but I think the notion that wealth disparity is non-existent in America and that everyone has an equal chance is completely false or misguided. That's often what the media portrays and what the upper class loves to believe, so I can see how people come to that conclusion, but its not true by any means. Wealth disparity is extremely high in the U.S. because most of the wealth is concentrated among a few individuals/families. Wealth disparity is basically a natural by product of predatory capitalism.
You make good points about urbanization in comparison to rural areas.
I agree with this.
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Thanks for the support :)
You're welcome, your support is also appreciated!