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''Rocky Mountain Express'' is a 45-minute IMAX film released in the fall of 2011. Directed by Canadian filmmaker Stephen Low, it features the Canadian Pacific Railway’s restored 4-6-4 H1b Hudson steam locomotive 2816. Shooting began in 2006 and continued intermittently over the next five years, primarily on the main line between Calgary and Vancouver, with the cooperation of the CPR. The film was shot in 15 perforation/70 mm film, using a helicopter and gyro-stabilized camera mount as well as a variety of engine and train mounts. The film takes the audience on a steam journey along the historic Canadian Pacific route from Vancouver to Montreal, focusing on the western mountain portion. In parallel, it tells the story of the construction of the first transcontinental railway to link the new Dominion of Canada from sea to sea and the massive effort required of a nation of fewer than five million people to connect its population for the first time. ==Story== The building of the Canadian Pacific Railway is an epic tale that begins in the 1880s and stretches over a century, with primary construction lasting from 1881 to 1885. ''Rocky Mountain Express'' highlights the aspects of the story that directly relate to the landscape the train is travelling through. The geography is illustrated by CGI maps and the history is told through dozens of black and white archival photographs. The period of exploration and survey is quickly summarized over aerial shots illustrating the enormity of the task at hand and the variety of the landscape. The journey then begins in Vancouver with the departure of 2816 pulling a train made up of several period cars. One of the narrative difficulties was how to combine a linear and literal eastbound journey with a story about a construction project that advanced simultaneously from east and west and continued over decades. The solution was to let the journey dictate the narrative and to move back and forth in the historical timeline as necessary. As the train proceeds eastward, the film tells the story of the challenges the builders faced in the granite cliffs of the Fraser Valley, where thousands of lives were lost; among the fragile, erosive sandstone hoodoos of the Thompson River; and bypassing the vast, deep lakes of the interior. As 2816 passes through Rogers Pass, the film explores the results of the gamble taken by the CPR and General Manager Van Horne to set aside the recommended northerly route in favour of a more southerly route that would dissuade incursions from American railroads but depended on an as-yet-undiscovered pass through the Selkirks and a viable pass through the steep Rockies. Coming out of the Selkirks, the film takes a side trip southbound along the Columbia River and with the use of CGI, tells the story of the 1903 collapse of Turtle Mountain, which partially buried the mining town of Frank, Alberta, and the heroic rescue of an oncoming train. Returning to the main line, the train follows the Kicking Horse River up the west side of the Rocky Mountains and the film looks at the challenges faced by the builders and the engines coping with the dangerous grades of the ‘Big Hill’. As the train passes the continental divide, the sun comes out both literally and metaphorically on the majestic Rocky Mountains. This chapter celebrates the completion of the railway, the creation of Canada’s national parks system, and the birth of a flourishing tourism trade before bringing the audience and railway crashing back to face the reality of the inestimable difficulties of winter in the mountains, and particularly the Selkirks. The film ends with the train steaming off across the prairies to cross the continent and arrive in the port city of Montreal. The final moments are shots of the weathered stone and wood gravestones of unnamed workers—a monument to “the country they built—Canada.” 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rocky Mountain Express」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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