Am I missing something, or is it a video filled with a whole lotta nothing, sandwiched around some shirtless halfwit jumping off the platform to run on the tracks?
Watched it twice. What am I missing here? I see the shirtless guy running down the tracks (pretty weird, yes), but the vid runs for another minute and a half. Nothing else happens?
It is clearly both an homage and a counterpoint to the brilliant 1958 Les Raquetteurs. It goal is not to distinguish the rural from the urban but to reveal their sameness, their shared existence. The metaphor for the abyss is perhaps overwrought, but the exposition of the the City and the fate of the Modern, is well told. And who is not roused by the not mere survival, but the triumph of the Modern as acted out by the track runner. His bold strides are a comment on– and a rejection of– the Conformity and the Obedience and the Waiting.
With delicate understatement the director reveals the most with what we expect but do not see; our bitter, jaded, and faded tolerance for defeat is diminished, if only slightly, by the Modern who will not retreat.
This warm and uplifting movie will surely anger the retrogrades among us, once they understand its inspiring message. I expect to soon hear the insane barking of the American Family Association’s hired dogs; they always oppose godless tale of joy, advance, and success.
Funny, I saw it as an homage to Warhol’s Empire for the post-MTV generation… I see where you’re coming from, though. We’d need to know more about the director’s personal bio to get closer to the truth, I guess.
Of course the dialectical approach is the same, perhaps even derivative. We have Music Television without music and the train station without a train, and both subscribed by humans waiting… waiting… waiting in misery … for what? Here the similarities end. We have to revisit the text itself. On MTV, they wait for nothing– nothing at all. In the train station, do they wait for a train? NO! The train is merely the plot device– Hitchcock’s MacGuffin. What are the people waiting for? Escape. Escape and wherever that leads. Here we can consider the shuffling snowshoes of Les Raquetteurs and the counterpunctual strides of the track runner and see cinema unwound, as in Schiller’s immortal words:
Joy, beautiful sparkle of the gods,
Daughter of Elysium,
We enter, fire-drunk,
Heavenly one, your shrine.
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16 Comments so far. Leave a comment below.go toward the light my son
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Am I missing something, or is it a video filled with a whole lotta nothing, sandwiched around some shirtless halfwit jumping off the platform to run on the tracks?
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Seriously, I can’t believe you missed it.
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Reminds me of my favorite headline in the Chicago Tribune: ‘Kids on Track for Rail Safety”.
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Thumbs up for War Amps!
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This happened this morning?
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Is it just me or are YouTuber’s getting really awesome at special effects? I could almost swear that was real.
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Watched it twice. What am I missing here? I see the shirtless guy running down the tracks (pretty weird, yes), but the vid runs for another minute and a half. Nothing else happens?
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2 
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I kept expecting a bigger payoff, like a train coming through, or the doofus tearing back the way he came with security/subway car hot on his heels.
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“WHITE LINE SPECIAL, DEPARTING FOR METHINGTON.
STAND CLEAR OF THE DOORS
BEEEEEEBOOOOOOOOOOOP”
WHOOOOOSHHHH!
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This is brilliant cinéma vérité.
It is clearly both an homage and a counterpoint to the brilliant 1958 Les Raquetteurs. It goal is not to distinguish the rural from the urban but to reveal their sameness, their shared existence. The metaphor for the abyss is perhaps overwrought, but the exposition of the the City and the fate of the Modern, is well told. And who is not roused by the not mere survival, but the triumph of the Modern as acted out by the track runner. His bold strides are a comment on– and a rejection of– the Conformity and the Obedience and the Waiting.
With delicate understatement the director reveals the most with what we expect but do not see; our bitter, jaded, and faded tolerance for defeat is diminished, if only slightly, by the Modern who will not retreat.
This warm and uplifting movie will surely anger the retrogrades among us, once they understand its inspiring message. I expect to soon hear the insane barking of the American Family Association’s hired dogs; they always oppose godless tale of joy, advance, and success.
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….what he said.
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Um, you took the words right out of my mouth.
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Funny, I saw it as an homage to Warhol’s Empire for the post-MTV generation… I see where you’re coming from, though. We’d need to know more about the director’s personal bio to get closer to the truth, I guess.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Of course the dialectical approach is the same, perhaps even derivative. We have Music Television without music and the train station without a train, and both subscribed by humans waiting… waiting… waiting in misery … for what? Here the similarities end. We have to revisit the text itself. On MTV, they wait for nothing– nothing at all. In the train station, do they wait for a train? NO! The train is merely the plot device– Hitchcock’s MacGuffin. What are the people waiting for? Escape. Escape and wherever that leads. Here we can consider the shuffling snowshoes of Les Raquetteurs and the counterpunctual strides of the track runner and see cinema unwound, as in Schiller’s immortal words:
Joy, beautiful sparkle of the gods,
Daughter of Elysium,
We enter, fire-drunk,
Heavenly one, your shrine.
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0 
0
[ed. Deleted and banned. Goodbye.]
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