Tooting My Horn At "Mystery Train"

To me Mystery Train is a take-it-for-what-it-is-worth film. Amusing at times, artistically created, and, my personal favorite, not one of the cookie-cutter films that the world continues to make. Absalom called it out, he said it was like Pulp Fiction. Like Quentin Tarantino’s cult classic Mystery Train takes the story and fragments it. It is told in three different parts and all comes together in the end. A good use of the train and the song Blue Moon ties the time of each story piece together. It jolts the memory, and for an instant it takes one back to a previous scenario. This happens three times, as a matter of fact, when the song plays, when the train rolls by, and the gun fires in the earliness of the morning. Even though these all tie the film together in a time-frame, they each represent something of their own to the film, and perhaps to represent Memphis.

Blue Moon in the style of Elvis Presley being played from the 1950s art deco radios and the old truck radio gives a feeling of romance that Memphis holds, not only in the city but in the music that made the city, or should I say the city that made the music. The director does a good job of adding a beautiful song into what seemed to be three ugly stories set in a rough neighborhood. And through all that had happened in each setting the song brings ease and comfort to everyone, as if for a moment to take everyone’s burden away and let them know everything was going to be alright. As the song plays a train rolls through town and the engineer blows the whistle.

There has always been something about the sound of a train whistle that is mysterious. It pervasively fills the air. It can be heard from miles away, not clearly giving any clue as to where it is, unless of course one is familiar with the layout of the land and where the only railroad runs. But the thing that makes trains mysterious is the nostalgia of riding in passenger cars. Here in America, trains were used less and less when automobiles became more affordable, and a new era and style of transportation began with the baby boomers. Highways were being put in, new technology was at work, and as I see it America had reached its climactic point. Trains were a major means of transportation during the days of the world wars and immediately post World War II. I half expected to see the ghost of Elvis dressed in Army fatigues material in the hotel room. Though he is dressed in the fancy high collar flashy 1970s style “old bloated Elvis” suit, and ironically he was young and thin. The song and the train made me think that either the song and a train rolling by magically makes Elvis appear, or the song came on coincidentally and simultaneously as Elvis’ ghost hops off the “midnight express” and, as the hustler said in the Arcade Restaurant, Elvis was trying to find his way back to Graceland. On a personal note I thought the train plays a good role in tying the story together. Without the train, the emotional setting would be altered.

As for the gunshot in the morning, Erin Mullinax’s blog references to the Fisher King story and how its symbolism is tied into the story line. I’m not going to elaborate too deeply on the Fisher King, please read Erin’s entry entitled The Fisher King/Mystery Train. I did not know the legend of Fisher King, so it did not apply to me much during my viewing. The end starting with the actual gunshot scene was humorous to me. I thought the ending was bitter sweet and I thoroughly enjoyed the film.