Movie #32 - The Railway Man

A very warm Boxing Day always pulls the crowds into the cinema, the day that the biggest summer releases usually come out.  I heard that the second Hobbit movie had sold out screenings in many cinemas.  But it seems there are plenty of people wanting to see the other serious movies that are out too.  Our screening of The Railway Man was very full, almost sold out although it was a small cinema at Balmoral that we chose (love those prices!).  I think this is a great achievement for a movie that would appear to be so "un-Christmas-y".

The Railway Man is a story of an English man who survived being imprisoned by the Japanese and working on the Thai-Burma railway during World War 2, but has never really overcome the suffering even 20 years on. Compressing all the pain and shame inside has not really worked, as memories and dreams invade everyday life regularly.  Meeting a woman on a train who he falls in love with and marries seems to be a catalyst for him to slide even deeper rather than coming out of it.  Patti though is determined not to be shut out and sets out to find out what happened to Eric so she can help him overcome it.  Flashbacks to the war are used through Eric's own dreams and memories and those of his friend Finbery (Stellan Skaarsgard) as he recounts what he knows to Patti.  This leads to an extraordinary series of events as Eric travels back to Thailand to confront the Japanese interpreter who treated him so cruelly.

The thing about this story is that you would never believe it was true if it wasn't for the fact that it is indeed a true story.  Based on the memoirs of Lieutenant Eric Lomax, the things that the Japanese do in this movie all really happened and Eric really did travel to Thailand and confront Nagase armed with a nasty looking knife.  For those who are not intimately familiar with the atrocities committed by the Japanese in World War 2, this movie will open your eyes with some very confronting scenes, although the director has mostly spared us the real grit and grime by having the impact of many blows off-screen and you feel them through the winces and sorrow on the faces of the witnesses.   You're also spared the worst by the fact that Lomax and his crew were engineers with skills the Japanese needed, so they were treated a lot better than the common soldiers and the absolute misery they suffered is more of a backdrop to this story than front and centre.

For those like me who  know the stories (my grandfather was taken prisoner by the Japanese after the fall of Singapore and survived being on the Thai-Burma railway as well) and who have travelled to Kanchanaburi and Hellfire Pass, it is no less confronting for being familiar in both story and locations.  It does give you a better understanding of why these men never talked about their experiences afterwards, even with each other.

Colin Firth is superb in the role of the current day Eric Lomax, battling his demons while trying to be a loving husband.  There is so much depth in this performance without ever being histrionic as it could have been.  Jeremy Irvine is excellent as the young Lomax trying to keep morale up and maintain his honour in the face of extreme horror, though he gets few happy scenes. Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada is also excellent as the tormentor who has tried to repent for his deeds by becoming a Buddhist and guiding tour groups and promoting reconciliation.

As directed by Aussie Jonathan Teplitzky, The Railway Man is an emotional and tense ride, only slightly lightened by the few tender scenes with Patti.  It's a great shame that Eric passed away last year age 93 and didn't get to see his story made into a tough but wonderful movie that audiences seem to be loving.