The Railway Man 2013

      This film is based on a bestselling autobiography recounting the epic true story of a British Army Officer.  During WW2, many Allied prisoners of war worked on the construction of the Burma-Siam “Death Railway.”  The Japanese soldiers at the camp treated the prisoners horribly.  They felt the Allied soldiers were cowards because they had surrendered instead of dying.  The work itself was very difficult and the constant heat didn’t help.  Eric Lomax was subjected to extreme harshness after he put together a radio and the prisoners were able to hear how the war was going.  The Japanese also could not understand why he had drawn a map.  His answer that he had always been interested in trains did not seem to be the true answer to their questions.  Years later in 1980, Eric is older now and living in Northern England but he has not recovered from or forgotten what happened in the war.  On a train, he meets Patti, she is a former nurse, they fall in love and they marry.  Eric doesn’t want to talk about anything that happened to him during the war and she see how much pain is still in his life.  Patti wants to help him come to terms with his past in order to for them move forward in their marriage.

     I didn’t know what this film was about and I didn’t see a trailer before viewing.  I also didn’t know until later that this is a true story.  Many of the war scenes are difficult to see and also the suffering of Eric and Patti.  It seems incomprehensible that everything is true?  You want to say, “How can this be!”  You want to say that over and over!  Firth and Kidman do a good job in their roles too.  4* (I really liked this movie)

116 min, Bio directed by Johathan Teplitzky with Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman, Stellan Skarsgard, Jeremy Irvine, Michael MacKenzie, Jeffrey Dauton, Tanroh Ishida, Tom Stokes, Bryan Probets, Tom Hobbs, Sam Reid, Akos Armont.

Note:  Imdb 7.1 out of 10, 66% critic 70% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 2 ½*.