Hell-Bound Train

The film Hell-Bound Train (1930) has a lot of meaning to it and conveys a strong message to everyone. Being the cast is African American is very interesting for this type of film being filmed for a Christian type film, although it was an African American couple that created the film. This film can also be portraying different social and political issues as well.

Hell-Bound is a 1930 silent film directed by James and Eloyce Gist. What the couple did before this film is that they made films and travel around to preach their own Christian morals and beliefs. They portray many sins in the Christian faith. The film starts off with a group of random people that get a ticket that is heading to hell. As they enter the train there is a character dressed up as the devil who is the “engineer” of the train. As these people are on the train, they do many sinful acts including excessive drinking, adultery, gambling, thief, husbands beating their wives and murders. As these sinful acts keep happening the train keeps running until it goes into a tunnel which is known as “hell.”

 There wasn’t a company that produced this film but for James and Eloyce Gist this was their first film. James was given credit for the film but Eloyce rewrote and reedited the film after her husband completed it. She does receive some credit for editing and revisioning the film but both of them get credit for the film.

This film falls under the “crude” banner whereas the train was an iniquity as a demonstration of jazz age sins. The film depicts a lot of sinful situations that happen especially during the party scene on the train. You see many people partying and drinking very excessively and then you see a murder happen. The devil then dances around and is all content that these people are doing this on his train. The main idea of the story being told is that you choose to do all these bad and horrible acts in life, the punishments are disastrous and can hurt you for the rest of your life or in this case hell. The train goes straight to hell. This film is being told by African American filmmaker, which to most scholars this film was also there most ambitious and interesting film ever made.

Different ways what this film represents is it has political and social issues. On the political issues it is a very conservative film because the film is sort of like a message and a moralistic sort of film. For example, the part where it shows the female character murder a guy on a train and people excessively drinking is a stand for don’t do this because it’s the devils work, he’s tempting you. For social issues the film depicts and says that people shouldn’t be acting like this or else they go to hell. The chaos ensuing also shows that this shouldn’t be how society should be acting and the dangers of music, dance and drinking leads to all this.

This film is very informative and stimulating and gives a reason why diverse films are so important to multi-racial groups (this film, black). This film has historical curiosity, where in this early 1930s film we see African Americans act in their natural daily lives but from a black perspective. The genre represented in this film is comedy and drama because you have the characters on the train who act as the comedic people who don’t care about what happens to them and they do all the bad sins. The devil is supposed to be a dramatic person because he represents the actual figure of Satan and influences these bad decisions people are making.

For being an independent black film, this film really is a great piece of African American film history. The depiction of the devil show how he truly works and influences bad behavior. For the effects of sin and bad decisions it’s straight forward, if you drink excessively or choose to do bad, those effects will take a toll on you and yourself. Leading these people straight to hell is a foreshadow of if you keep doing more horrible bad deeds you never know when you will go straight to hell. It’s a great film and has a powerful message.

Works Cited

Clark, Ashley. “Second Showing: Unearthing the Lost History of African American Cinema.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, February 12, 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/feb/12/pioneers-african-american-cinema-oscar-micheaux.

The Cinematic Packrat, and The Cinematic Packrat. “Hellbound Train.” The Cinematic Packrat. Word Press, March 1, 2019. https://thecinematicpackrat.wordpress.com/2019/02/28/hellbound-train/.

Morgan, Kyna. “Eloyce King Patrick Gist.” Women Film Pioneers Project. Center for Digital Research and Scholarship, September 27, 2013. https://wfpp.cdrs.columbia.edu/pioneer/eloyce-king-patrick-gist-2/.

The Cinematic Packrat and The Cinematic Packrat, “Hellbound Train,” The Cinematic Packrat (Word Press, March 1, 2019), https://thecinematicpackrat.wordpress.com/2019/02/28/hellbound-train/.

Kyna Morgan, “Eloyce King Patrick Gist,” Women Film Pioneers Project (Center for Digital Research and Scholarship, September 27, 2013), https://wfpp.cdrs.columbia.edu/pioneer/eloyce-king-patrick-gist-2/.

Ashley Clark, “Second Showing: Unearthing the Lost History of African American Cinema,” The Guardian (Guardian News and Media, February 12, 2016), https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/feb/12/pioneers-african-american-cinema-oscar-micheaux.