Critical Essay: Snowpiercer

How is Snowpiercer a transnational film?

Snowpiercer in my opinion displayed transnationalism in three different 

ways: diverse cast/characters, Korean director for American film, and the movie 

was based off of a French graphic novel Le Transperceneige.

Wikipedia defines transnationalism as “a social phenomenon and scholarly 

research agenda grown out of the heightened interconnectivity between people 

and the receding economic and social significance of boundaries among nation sates.”

Cast/Characters

In the film the audience is given no background of the characters before the

apocalyptic freeze 17 years prior. It is made very clear however that the last 

people on Earth living on the train came from all different parts of the world. Within 

the first thirty minutes of the movie three different languages were spoken.

The specific scene including the multiple languages being spoken is Minister Mason 

(Tilda Swinton) giving a seven-minute speech before freezing a man’s arm and shattering 

it with a hammer. There was English and two other languages being translated for the

“scum” people of the back of the train.

This assists the audience in understanding that people aboard the Snowpiercer did not 

all just hop on in America. The cast included huge Hollywood names (Chris Evans, 

Tilda Swinton, Ed Harris) along with various other actors of different ethnicities.

Director: Bong Joon-ho

Snowpiercer was director Bong Joon-ho’s first English language movie of his career. 

Joon-ho is from South Korea. A South Korean director making a majority English 

spoken film directly links with this film being transnational.

“The global forces that link people across nations.” (Ezra and Rowden, Transnational 

Cinema, pg. 1)

I believe the significance of having directors of different nation states create movies 

gives the movie a new twist on the repetitive Hollywood originals we watch every 

couple years concerning the social class segregation included in Snowpiercer

(ex: Hunger Games series).

This movie is considered and English film but it premiered first in Seoul, South 

Korea a couple months before its release at the Deauville American Film Festival.

Le Transperceneige

Snowpiercer was based off a French graphic novel Le Transperceneige written by 

Jaques Lob. Director Joon-ho found this graphic novel in a bookstore and read the 

book cover to cover while standing in the store. He was inspired by this graphic 

novel and added his own South Korean-Czech science fiction thriller twist to it.

Did Snowpiercer successfully conform and/or expand transnationalism?

At first, while watching this movie I struggled to find connections with this 

being considered a transnational film because it was one society on a single train 

simply segregated by train cars. The more I got to know the characters and researched 

the director and his inspiration it became clear.

In my opinion from the three examples above Snowpiercer conformed directly 

with the definition of transnationalism. The genre of this movie in and of itself 

screams transnationalism: English-language South Korean-Czech science fiction

 thriller film, quite a mouthful and highly transnationalist. 

Roughest Draft: Argo and Persepolis

Who is telling the story?

The Islamic Revolution was in full blast in 1979. Iran has strict censorship policies, which limits the people of Iran to be able to express themselves freely whether it be music, name brand materials, movies, and numerous other activities. These limitations are still active today, but two stories in particular occurred directly in the middle of the revolution and the stories live on today. Persepolis, first a graphic novel, then was turned into an animated biographical film. The story follows author and director, Marjane Satrapi throughout her young childhood years, into her life as an adult during the Islamic Revolution. This movie has been translated into three languages, but the original was made in French. The second story is Argo. This thriller drama 2012 film is directed by Ben Affleck. The movie was based off a true story of a CIA mission named Canadian Caper. This real mission, transformed into a film of the Islamic revolution hostage situation at the United States embassy in Iran closely follows many situations that happened during this time in history. The purpose of comparing these two films set during the Islamic revolution of 1979 is examining who is telling the story, and how the story changes based off who is telling it. We will be finding similarities and differences amongst an Iranian born Islamic female Marjane Satrapi and Ben Affleck/former CIA agent Tony Mendez. Interviews, scholarly journals, and examination of filming techniques will assist in finding the similarities and differences between the two.

Persepolis was narrated from the standpoint of a Marxist raised middle class Iranian female. Marjane Satrapi and her family were viewed as radicalisms in her town, and feared walking the streets of Tehran frightened by the Muslim fundamentalist who took power during the Islamic Revolution. Marjane growing up witnessed firsthand family members being murdered, arrested, and ________. The arrest and execution of her Uncle Anoosh was the final straw which led her to act out in class and get in trouble with the police by breaking modesty laws.  Going to school abroad for her remaining grade school years, college, and early adulthood Marjane avoided talking about her nationality and religion at all costs. To new friends she would say, “I am French, born and raised in Paris.” Marjane felt the need for this because of how the rest of the world views Iran and Iraqi people in the 1980’s and still today. In an interview with Bitch magazine Satrapi encourages non-Iranians, “the 70 million people [of Iran] are human beings, they are not an abstract notion. They are individuals with life, love, hopes. Their life is worth the life of anybody else in the world.” (Frames and Mirrors). Satrapi attempts to teach people through her graphic narrative and biographical animated film the frameworks of acceptance with the use of  “pictorial framing of the comic art panel.” (framing and mirrors). In Persepolis the audience sees that Marjane is a normal teenage girl who loves punk rock, Kim Wilde, and Bruce Lee. Elajih(author of article) believes the purpose of showing Marjane’s infatuation with western pop culture is to not only “piece together a divided identity,” but to bring forward the contrasting sides Marjane had to live with growing up during this time in Iran. In a single frame Marjane is pictured in her Hijab with a Persian artworks in the backdrop, placed next to image of Marjane free of the Hijab surrounded by posters, clothes, etc. This technique Marjane used throughout her film is to assist her audience in understanding the competing states of her life.

(paragraph about other graphic novels from Middle East, with sources included)

Argo was told from the standpoint of a white male CIA agent entering the ciunrty of Iran in the middle of the Islamic Revolution for an undercover mission. The opening scene of this movie begins with a group of Iran/Iraqi protestors swaying an American flag that is on fire outside of the American embassy. With a movie beginning in this way automatically gives the audience an idea on who/ what type of person is telling this story. Within the first five minutes the audience sees the people of Iraq and Iran as mad people in the wrong, and with that initial image of these people, sets the stage for how the director, Ben Affleck, wants the audience to view the people of Iraq and Iran. In an interview with director of Good Will Hunting Gus Van Sant, Affleck explains how he wishes he could have traveled to Iran to see the country in person but the studio said “it was a bad idea… whenever people go there (Iran) they always end up being followed by secret service agents.” (Ben AFFLECK)With this movie being released in 2012, during the United States and Iraq war, Americans already had their stereotype of Iran/Iraq people figured out. The story of Argo seems so far-fetched the fact that it is a true story brings light to so many questions unanswered within the film. In an interview with Ben Affleck and Tony Mendez (the actual spy who completed the Argo mission of 1981) go into detail about the feature film. “The events in Argo weren’t the first time. I was working with them (Hollywood) routinely,” Mendez says. The completed mission of Argo was just one short chapter of Mendez’s entire spy career. People may question how accurate Ben Affleck’s movie may be, since it is not categorized as a documentary. Mendez states, “I didn’t think he needed to change a thing.”

Both of these films Persepolis and Argo took place at the exact same time within the same region of the world. What makes them so different? Persepolis is a black and white animated film. The specific purpose for the film being told in black and white animation was to prove that the people in the movie put in these different scenarios could be from any country not just specifically Iranians. Color of skin, or miniscule physical features could not be depicted to prove that characters were a certain race. Persepolis being told from a female perspective reveals some situations to be more lighthearted than if it was told from a male’s point of view. For example, in multiple scenes Marjane goes into great emotion about relationships with boys. Yes this is an autobiography and this was a part of her story, but most would agree these scenes do not add to the plot of the movie. Persepolis was first released in French in 2007, then translated into English, Persian, German, and Italian. This clearly show Marjane’s direction on who she wanted to appreciate and learn about her film, everyone.   Argo is a biography drama filmed in color. This movie being filmed in color gives it more life and feeling of being in the streets of Iran during the Islamic revolution. Color is necessary to depict who are the Americans and who are the Iranian people throughout. Argo is told by not only a male, but a CIA spy. The narrator makes himself clear throughout the actions of his overall mission that he will do anything no matter how implausible it may seem, and add a couple badass riot scenes to keep the audience on their toes. Argo has not been translated into any other languages, it is only featured in English, which again clearly shows what audience Ben Affleck was reaching out to, Americans. Both of these films show straightforward differences that are obvious on purpose to assist viewers in representing who is telling the story.

(paragraph about similarities, with sources included)

Persepolis and Argo were both box office hits, receiving enormous amounts of attention from people across the world. Still today, Persepolis is not sold or streamed on televisions in Iraq and Iran because of their strict conservative laws and the governmental standpoint of Marjane’s story being inaccurate. The course concept of transnationalism is clearly the focal point throughout both movies. Persepolis is a melting pot of cultures all thrown into one animated feature length film. Marjane is Iranian, her movie was originally released in French, and her artistic technique used for her cartoon has a Persian flare. Argo includes two languages throughout the film, English and Farci. The movie takes place in the United States and multiple countries in the middle east. The importance of transnationalism in film is becoming more prevalent and viewed as a way to unite the people of the world. Information about similar historical events told from various countering people one ups history textbooks for the sake of perspective.