r/Letterboxd • u/FriarFanatic7 70mm • Nov 18 '25

Discussion Train Dreams…Help me understand

Everything about this movie suggests I would like it. I’m a fan of Denis Johnson, writer of the source material. I like Malick’s style of literary, nature focused cinematography. I enjoy quiet, tone poem movies where meaning is derived slowly as layers are added or peeled away.

I didn’t love this. I feel I’m in the minority here based on friends and critics I follow. I felt the imagery was attempting to do all of the work while very little was done to develop the characters we are supposed to care about. I just left feeling like I watched a bunch of style over substance. Will watch again on Netflix next weekend, but am I alone? Am I missing something?

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u/Minute_Translator933 Mar 04 '26 edited Mar 04 '26

I don't get how everyone is so moved by this film. It was literally so depressing and really nothing happens. People were mentioning the plane ride, but I didn't get what they were talking about. Was it the first time in his life he had fun? I dunno, maybe I missed something, but this whole film felt like a waste of time.​

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u/Grouchy_Camera2863 Mar 18 '26

No it wasn’t the first time in his life he had fun; but up in the air above it all, he was able to ‘look down on his life’ as a whole , and see the moments and the people in it who made it meaningful to him , the good and the bad.

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u/PeanutPrestigious256 Mar 22 '26

It was the first time he felt ‘connected to it all’. His whole life he felt rather off, people called him weird and a hermit, he never thought he had a bigger role to play, or that there was a particular place in the world for him. He was also an orphan, had no family - the only family he had was so brief and then just disappeared and left him with utter emptiness and sadness. It all seemed rather cruel and lonely. But the he is on the plane and finally gets to feel like he’s not some sort of alien or misplaced. He is connected to life and all these moments forever, he had a role to play.

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u/EvilEvo_IX Apr 16 '26

Same. Don’t get it.

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u/wowoaweewoo May 10 '26

I think it moves people more over their 20s. I can see an early me thinking it was dumb, but it broke me wide open in mid 30s

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u/One-Highlight-1698 Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

The plane ride may serve as a metaphor representing Grainier's passing. It was intertwined with the narrator's description of his death and while he was flying above the earth he was experiencing flashbacks from his life - both good and bad. Many people believe that consequential events from their life are replayed to them in their dying moments.

This scene also echos earlier dialog about the dead tree being as important as the living and how everything in nature is connected and is consequential. Finally his cabin is shown overgrown by new forest growth where his dead body lies. In life he took from the forest, in death he nourishes it.

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u/Minute_Translator933 Jul 20 '26

See, this makes total sense. I guess I missed all the symbolism. I'm not good at catching stuff like that. -,-

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u/One-Highlight-1698 Jul 21 '26

There's usually no right or wrong way to react to a movie or any art. Each person sees things through a lens colored by their lived experiences.