Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Rocky Mountain Express 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 8, 2016

Hell On Wheels: The Complete Fifth Season is due relatively soon on Blu-ray, the first volume in what supposedly brings the long simmering AMC drama to a close. Shows like Hell on Wheels and older series like the little remembered Dale Robertson outing The Iron Horse celebrated America’s love with train travel and perhaps more saliently the development of the whole rail industry. As I mentioned in the Hell On Wheels: The Complete First Season Blu-ray review, growing up in Utah meant that knowledge of the transcontinental railway was a regular part of one’s school life, including regular field trips to Promontory Point, where the so-called Golden Spike was pounded into the tracks, completing the link between the east and west coasts. The “romance” of the American rail system’s fascinating history may dull us to the fact that other continent spanning nations, like our neighbors to the north, had their own adventures in creating rail lines meant to link distant cities. Rocky Mountain Express, one of two Shout! Factory releases of IMAX offerings (the other being Flight of the Butterflies 4K +3D), chronicles just one “small” piece of Canada’s rail “puzzle”, albeit an extremely treacherous if simultaneously gorgeously scenic one. The United States’ own rail history plays into the story at one point, since a perilous decision to route Canada’s own tracks further south than some argued for was made to directly challenge any American attempts to usurp Canadian rail passengers.

Anyone who has ridden Amtrak’s Empire Builder east-west line will know how incredibly gorgeous vast swaths of the journey can be, especially when the train ventures through idyllic but rugged spots like Glacier. And it’s in more or less the same longitudes that Rocky Mountain Express finds some of its most scenic locales, albeit obviously a bit further north. As with America’s rail system, the Canadian Pacific depended upon the vision of certain class of industrial titan, though Rocky Mountain Express only cursorily reviews some of this interesting history. Even more curiously, the documentary completely leaves out some of the political finagling that took place behind the scenes, as well as omitting one of the reasons that Canada even undertook a transcontinental railway to begin with, namely the inclusion of British Columbia as part of the nation.

Instead Rocky Mountain Express indulges in the romance of the steam engine, especially since the film “stars” a rehabilitated vehicle bearing the number 2816 (it was evidently a “test run” of this train which inspired director Stephen Low, a lifelong rail aficionado, to approach the Canadian Pacific Railway about making the documentary). This is not to say that Rocky Mountain Express completely avoids doling out facts and figures, for there are indeed some rather fascinating tidbits scattered throughout the documentary, but in some ways this piece works better as a travelogue than even a generalist overview of what went into building one of the most treacherous segments of the line.

While there’s some passing biographical information about relevant personalities like William Cornelius Van Horne (president of the Canadian Pacific Railway) and/or Major Albert Bowman Rogers (“discoverer” of a questionably effective pass which now bears his name), Rocky Mountain Express is simply too cursory to ever delve very fully into any number of subjects. In fact, I personally probably found out more interesting information about the construction of the railroad and the many fascinating personalities who were involved with it in susbsequent research done after viewing the film while in preparation for writing this review than I did in actually watching Rocky Mountain Express. Therefore, as scenic as Rocky Mountain Express undeniably is, it may be better appreciated as a starting point rather than as a cinematic journey’s end.

Rocky Mountain Express 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Rocky Mountain Express 4K is presented on 4K UHD courtesy of Shout! Factory with an HEVC / H.265 encoded 2160p transfer in 1.78:1. As with previous Shout! 4K UHD releases, the label has gone the extra mile by also providing HDR and SDR viewing options. Watching Rocky Mountain Express with HDR is a subtly but noticeably different experience, with deeper, truer blacks and better delineations in elements like the tones of green in the vast foliage the train careens through. There's often breathtaking clarity and depth of field in the many wide vistas on display. There's also a noticeable uptick in (admittedly rare) instances of fine detail, as in a printed steel plate on the front of the steam engine in an early scene. There's some very minor and transitory banding on display in the very lightest gradients. Also, minor judder is prevalent in quicker pans and some aerial shots, though more languid pans offer no discernable anomalies.

For a few more thoughts on the 1080p presentation of Rocky Mountain Express, please see my Rocky Mountain Express Blu-ray review.

Rocky Mountain Express 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Rocky Mountain Express features a great sounding Dolby Atmos track (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 core), one which supports the front and center proclivities of the voice over narration, while also providing an extremely wide spread for elements like the enjoyable score and effects like the click-a-clack of the train riding the rails. There are a number of nicely done effects, all of which receive great spatial placement due to the engagement of the Atmos speakers. Especially redolent are several moments when the train either enters or exits various tunnels, where there's a really appealing "whoosh" that clearly pans over the listener, and is so forceful it almost changes the air pressure in the room.

Rocky Mountain Express 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Both the 4K UHD disc and the standard 1080p Blu-ray disc included in this package contain the same supplements:

• The Romance of Transportation in Canada (1080p; 10:56) is a fun animated piece from 1952 that was nominated for an Academy Award, and which won a BAFTA.


• Railroaders (1080p; 21:20) is a 1958 documentary in black and white that both literally and figuratively covers the same terrain as Rocky Mountain Express.


• Note: Both of these supplements are available under the NFB Videos menu choice, with each film's clickable hyperlink kind of buried in longer text.


• About the Director is a text page with photos.

Additionally, trailers for other IMAX offerings are available.

Rocky Mountain Express 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Rocky Mountain Express 4K is gloriously scenic and it contains a lot of admittedly interesting information, but it's a surface deep experience and is therefore best seen as an introduction to its subject rather than an encyclopedic overview. Director Stephen Low's self confessed obsession with railroads infuses this piece with a certain sense of wonder, but the documentary probably would have been better served by a longer running time and a bit more of an examination about both the engineering challenges as well as what was evidently a gaggle of extremely eccentric characters involved in the construction. Technical merits are first rate, and Rocky Mountain Express 4K comes Recommended.