Is ‘Train Dreams’ on Netflix based on a book?
When it comes to literary adaptations for the screen, it’s easy to lose track of the source. But if we’re talking about Netflix adaptations like the upcoming Train Dreams, unfaithfulness is not even on the cards.
For those wondering whether Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams on Netflix is based on a book, the answer is yes! Documented in just over a hundred pages, Train Dreams is Denis Johnson’s novella, which was first published in The Paris Review in 2002 and eventually released as a standalone book in 2011.
Bentley is adapting the Netflix film, co-written by himself and Greg Kwedar, to honour the elegiac essence of the novella it borrows from. This adaptation replicates its spare and lyrical forms, utilising a singular visual language to amplify the narrative’s textures for the screen. If you’re uninitiated about its literary premise, Train Dreams revolves around Robert Grainier, a man who reared himself in the wilds of the Pacific Northwest forests in the early 20th century.
Grainier didn’t just live amid the towering trees; he grew up and worked under their shade, paving railroad tracks while building a home from scratch with his wife, Gladys. Train Dreams is a tribute on page to a fleeting way of life that once was and “to the extraordinary possibilities that exist within even the simplest of existences.” The film captures a time and place that no longer exists while telling the story of those people who could only dream of a future they had built bridges for.
Many elements are retained just as they were from Johnson’s work for the movie version, including the intimate scenes between Robert and Gladys, and veteran railroad worker Arn’s study that “a standing tree is a friend.” However, as is the case with most adaptations, discrepancies and departures also exist, allowing the movie to blossom in its own right.
In a recent conversation with Tudum, Bentley and Kwedar shed light on their method of approach to creating Train Dreams for Netflix. According to the director, the challenges and exciting aspects of translating the book for the screen were actually the same. He acknowledged that, despite being a slim book, Johnson’s novella captures the tale of a whole life lived, documenting a specific time of change that existed. The story is built around memories of that time. So, translating the spirit of the book into a film was quite a task, but it was just as much a joy.
For Kwedar, the first step while adapting Train Dreams for the platform was to read it and experience it. He recalls writing, “Oh, this is a book about language in a way, the language of working men, the language of love, the language of sadness, the language of solitude, the language of community.” Once that was done, it was up to the creators to read in between the lines and beyond them to ensure it finds new life on the screen.
Although Kwedar and Bentley have worked on several scripts previously, the latter describes this experience as unique since they had never adapted a work of fiction before. Their approach for this was similar to others, which was extensive research. The only catch is that researching about a time gone by is no cakewalk. However, determined to do justice to Train Dreams, they travelled to the place where Denis Johnson lived, and the story is set.
During their writing process, Bentley and Kwedar even stayed in a cabin by the river where Grainier would have lived had he existed. They met the loggers of the area and also families whose previous generations were loggers. “It was a really unique writing process and really rewarding. I wanted to make sure that we were completely loyal to the spirit of the book that Denis had written, but also let the adaptation take its own path to become the movie it needed to be,” Bentley continued.
They spent day and night trying to strike the perfect balance and read the book “five or six times” to ensure they knew it by heart by then. While clearly, the creators have gone above and beyond to internalise Train Dreams for Netflix, all that remains is for the subscribers to finally be able to witness it when the movie drops on the streamer this November 21st.