Train Dreams

This was such a gorgeous, heartfelt film. The pictures of the landscapes just made me want to go out and explore! They gave me a sense of nostalgia for the Pacific Northwest in the early 20th century. It looked so pure, raw, beautiful, and largely unsettled.

The main character worked as a logger, so he was contributing to a slow decay of the environment in which he spent his whole life. I wonder if the (spoilers!) fire that destroys his life can be seen as ‘nature fighting back’; the character seems to take it as a curse, unrelated to Nature itself.

The contrast when he visits a city towards the end of the film is jarring: we’ve gotten to the 50s/60s, and cars, TVs, and telephones are everywhere; man is in space. His little world stood still, but the World did not.