SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
"Train Dreams" is a movie of a life in full in just under two hours. An orphan, Robert Grainier, grows up among ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest, becomes a logger in the early 1900s. He marries and leaves home for long stretches, cutting trees to build railroads that will usher in change and progress all across America. Joel Edgerton plays Robert Grainier. The film's most constant voice belongs to its narrator, Will Patton.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "TRAIN DREAMS")
WILL PATTON: (As narrator) He earned $4 a day on most jobs, minus expenses for what the company provided.
(SOUNDBITE OF HORSES WALKING)
PATTON: He and Gladys figured that after one more long stint in the woods, they'd have enough money to start building a sawmill back home.
SIMON: "Train Dreams" is based on the novella by Denis Johnson. Clint Bentley directed and co-wrote the screenplay. He joins us now from New York. Thanks so much for being with us.
CLINT BENTLEY: Thank you for having me, Scott. Longtime listener, first-time caller over here.
SIMON: (Laughter) Well, thank you for calling. Hope you win the prize. Well, the movie is a prize for us. Why did you want to tell this story?
BENTLEY: You know, I'd been a fan of Denis Johnson's for a long time. I think he's a spectacular writer. But I don't know that I would've had the courage to make this book into a movie until some producers had the rights to the book, and they reached out after seeing my first film, "Jockey." And I was just struck by not only the beauty of it and the poeticism of the book. The story of Robert Grainier really, really spoke to me and reminded me of you know, great-grandfather, great-grandmother who we only have one story left of, and yet they lived this rich and beautiful life. And that's what stood out to me, is taking the story of this laborer and someone who, yeah, he's not - even when the railroad's done, nobody's going to etch his name in stone at some monument there. And yet I really wanted to show the richness and the beauty of that life and of just the simple life.
SIMON: Robert meets Gladys. They marry, build a cabin, have a beautiful baby. How do they help each other make a life?
BENTLEY: Yeah. Gladys is played by the incredible Felicity Jones in the movie. Pretty early on when they meet each other, they feel like that each of them has found their person in the world who they're going to go through this with. And what I wanted to show with that is just show all the subtle nuances of a marriage and a relationship like that that's - where you're partners and you're lovers and you're friends, but you're also trying to parent kids together and run a house together and just all the varieties of that relationship as they're - again, they're trying to figure out how to pay the bills and then also trying to stop and enjoy the little moments together along the way.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "TRAIN DREAMS")
FELICITY JONES: (As Gladys Grainier) What if we came with you out to the cut?
JOEL EDGERTON: (As Robert Grainier) To the cut.
JONES: (As Gladys Grainier) Yeah.
EDGERTON: (As Robert Grainier) What?
JONES: (As Gladys Grainier) Yeah. I'd be helpful. Like, I could make some money washing clothes, and now she's not so much to keep up with.
EDGERTON: (As Robert Grainier) It's really dangerous.
JONES: (As Gladys Grainier) I'm just trying to find a way is all.
SIMON: Of course, he's away a lot.
BENTLEY: Yeah. You know, in my line of work making films, we'd go away for months at a time and then come back home and we're different people, and our families are different people, and there's that. But I find talking to friends also feel kind of this tragedy of the day-to-day when they spend, you know, an hour commuting to work each way and just coming home and feeling that time being kind of lost as your family's growing up.
SIMON: Quite an assortment of people brought together by logging, and I have to particularly mention William H. Macy. What a particular (laughter) - what a great character he makes.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "TRAIN DREAMS")
WILLIAM H MACY: (As Arn Peeples) My family is everywhere there's a smiling face. Never been somewhere I didn't have some family there, except for Kansas. That state is a collection of savage lunatics.
BENTLEY: (Laughter) Oh, he's incredible. Like many of us, I've been a fan of his for a long time, and I grew up watching his movies. And Arn Peeples is a really magnetic kind of larger-than-life character in the book. And then we expand him here. It's a real testament to William H. Macy's just gifts and abilities as an actor to take that character and kind of make him something very unforgettable.
SIMON: There's a moment where William H. Macy's character - the explosives expert - is sitting around the fire, and he says, we just cut down trees that have been here for 500 years.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "TRAIN DREAMS")
MACY: (As Arn Peeples) Upsets a man's soul, whether you recognize it or not.
SIMON: Upsets a man's soul, whether you recognize it or not.
BENTLEY: Yeah. There's a couple moments like that that William H. Macy gives through his character. And a lot of times, I think we feel, as humans, we're very outside of nature and we kind of float above it and forget how deeply entwined we are with something that seems as far away as, like, a deep ocean current or some very, very old trees that have been here longer than the country has - and just wanted to recognize that, that there is stitching to everything, that once we start undoing it, we really don't know what the end result of that is at the end of all of it.
SIMON: Yeah. Robert suffers what I'll just call an unspeakable loss of the kind for which there maybe is no real recovery. Was it hard to lead the story through that territory?
BENTLEY: It was. Most of us have been through that, and it's a fact of life. And if we haven't been through it, then it's waiting on us at some point. And yeah, there was something to - that I wanted to explore with the film that's, again, inherent to life that we're going to have to deal with this loss, and a lot of times there's no going back from it, and it leaves you scarred. But then what do you do with that? And kind of speaking to the - this paradox that we have to live with that you don't lose that limp from whatever loss you've experienced, but yet, also, there can be some real beauty and magic and wonderful things ahead of you. And part of figuring out what we're doing here is just trying to figure out how to live with those two things in the same hand.
SIMON: Clint Bentley's new movie, "Train Dreams," is in theaters now and on Netflix later this month. Thank you so much for being with us.
BENTLEY: Thank you, Scott. I appreciate it. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
