Blog Post #1

What did I learn about Marxist theory from the film I researched?

Marxist film theory highlights the struggle that the lower and higher classes have against each other. Marxist film theory very heavily related to the film I specifically picked, mostly because the entire film as a whole highlighted the theory. The film of discussion was Snowpiercer (2013). In the film, the last survivors of humanity live on a massive train after a massive environmental disaster renders the earth frozen and uninhabitable. On the train, you have a lower, middle, and upper-class; the lower class lives in the tail section, the middle class lives in the middle of the train, and the upper-class lives in the front section, a long with the train’s creator, who has absolute power among everyone on the train.

The plot of the film highlights members of the tail section revolting against the front section and it’s leader, Wilbur, the inventor of the train. By the end of the film, a member of the tail section, Curtis, comes face to face with Wilbur, by which Wilbur explains to him that the lower and upper classes must function together in order to survive. As a whole, this film taught me about how the upper-class in Marxist society does manipulate the lower class. Curtis is told by Wilbur that everyone in the train is a prisoner, no matter what class anyone is. This is a clear manipulation tactic used by Wilbur to make Curtis seem equal to him in a way.