Why a 1990 thriller director insisted his film was not a remake
In short: Peter Hyams directed the 1990 action thriller Narrow Margin, yet he and his team famously rejected the label of remake. Despite being based on a 1952 film of the same name, they argued the story and characters were so distinct that the term simply did not apply to their production.
The 1990 version of Narrow Margin, starring Gene Hackman and Anne Archer, follows a deputy district attorney protecting a murder witness on a train. While the premise of being trapped on a rail journey was inspired by the 1952 original, director Peter Hyams relocated the setting to the Canadian Rockies to justify the lack of transport alternatives. This creative departure led to a public rebuke from the original director, Richard Fleischer, who pointed out the striking similarities between the two projects despite the massive budget disparity; the 1990 film cost between $15 million and $21 million, whereas the original was made for $188,000.
Production was a logistical feat, as Via Rail declined to lease most of the necessary carriages. The team had to source equipment from a Texas collector, a Colorado company, and BC Rail, repainting them to match the flagship Canadian route. Filming the climax atop a moving train near Squamish, British Columbia, required three weeks of work, limited to only a few hours daily to avoid disrupting regular traffic. For the most dangerous sequences, Hackman and Archer were secured by cables hidden under their clothing, marking Archer's first experience performing her own stunts.
Critical reception was polarized upon release. Roger Ebert dismissed the film as an 'Idiot Plot' that relied on contrived behavior, while others praised its escapist energy and the absence of typical action-genre aggression in Hackman’s performance. Retrospective views have been kinder, with many critics highlighting the film's tight pacing and effective character work. Despite a disappointing domestic box office gross of $10,873,237, the film found a second life on home video, eventually securing a 4K Blu-ray release in 2020 that preserved the legacy of this contentious, train-bound thriller.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Narrow Margin
- Also: Wikidata — The Narrow Margin · CC0
- Also: Wikidata — Narrow Margin · CC0
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