Laputa – Tòa Lâu Đài Trên Không Phim Laputa Castle In The Sky xoay quanh cuộc tìm kiếm Laputa - một hòn đảo hay nói đúng hơn là một lâu đài trôi nổi trên bầu trời của 2 người bạn Pazu và Sheeta.
Recently, I watched Hayao Miyazaki’s 1986 film Castle in the Sky with my family in the local movie theater. This was part of a series of re-screenings of Studio Ghibli films that Fathom Events is calling “Studio Ghibli Fest 2017″. It has been almost 5 years since I last watched it, so it was fun to revisit it.
The movie tells the story of a young boy and girl and their race against pirates and government agents to find a legendary floating island.
I was a bit worried going into the movie, as it seems that in Miyazaki’s films, the preferred vehicles are fantastical and impractical airships. While there are a number of these ridiculous flying machines in Castle in the Sky, there is no shortage of trains. A major location of the film is the mining town where Pazu lives, and in almost every shot of the mines, you can see minecarts and rails. There is also a fast-paced railway chase scene in the film, featuring a plucky engineer and his old, but faithful, locomotive racing atop a massive trestle, and ending with the presentation of a magnificent armored train.
The railway chase got my blood pumping, and the minecarts and rails were an appreciated bonus. The studio could have easily made the film without these small additions, but they took the time and care to include them. These merits earn Castle in the Sky a Silver Medal.
Castle in the Sky is a great movie because it shows off an oft forgotten part of railroading History, the armored train.
Armored Trains came into being in the mid-1800s and were used mostly during the 19th and 20th centuries. Their earliest forms were used in the American Civil War, and the first and second Boer Wars. They were a fast and convenient way to transport heavy artillery, as things like cars and trucks either didn’t have the power, or didn’t exist (Karl Benz is credited with creating the first true automobile in 1885/1886, 20 years after the American Civil War ended).
The first Armored train was made in the American Civil war. It was a modified baggage car created to defend the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad. It was outfitted with a 24 pound Howitzer and oak and boilerplate armor. It was effective at its job, but due to being stuck on the rails, it was easier to target by artillery and saboteurs.
The basic design of the armored trains has remained fairly consistent, the trains were essentially tanks on rails. They had heavy armor and often used artillery guns from tanks. As technology advanced, the turrets were given the ability to swivel and such, but the overall form and function remained the same until they fell out of use in the late 1900s.
The last major leap in armored train technology came during the Cold War, when the superpowers began tests for a railway based ICBM system. The USSR deployed a SS-24 missile by rail, but the program was eventually scrapped.