Skip to main content

Film Review - Railway Man

Stars - Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman

Inspired by real events circa WW II.

Story of a rail enthusiast Brit, Mr. Lomax, who has served in the second war in SE Asia.  He is living with the nightmares of being tortured by the Japanese Imperial Army as a prisoner in their camps in Thailand.  The movie is based on the story of these British soldiers that were humiliated and made to slave to build the railway line from Thailand to Burma (now called Myanmar).

Today there are luxury train rides available on this route starting from Singapore in the south going all the way north into Myanmar that cost a pretty pound.

Colin Firth plays the role of a signal engineer that has stood up to the brutal interrogations and beatings when his cadre is discovered to be building a secret radio in the camp.  Memories of the treatment at the hands of Japanese soldiers has kept him suffering deep inside for decades until he runs into Nicole Kidman's character on a train journey in the English country.

She later becomes his wife and helps him fight the fear and depression that he has kept bottled inside.  He makes a trip to the camps in Thailand again to confront one of his captors who has been providing guided tours of the area.  Scenery of the bridge over the river Kwai - which I visited few years back - is one of the key shoot locations in this film.

After threatening the Japanese translator (army soldier) who had assisted his military command's wishes to extract information from Lomax using brutal techniques decades ago, Lomax discovers that they both have suffered in their own way and it is time to bury the hatchet.  He forgives the Japanese man and eventually becomes friends.

Both good actors with Colin Firth again dominating in his role of Mr. Lomax brings a wonderful tale of deep suffering and forgiveness to the silver screen.

Definitely a must see.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

But What If We're Wrong?

I attempted to read this book by author Chuck Klosterman backward to forward but it started hurting my brain so I decided to stop and do it like any other publication in the English language.  Start from page 1 and move to the right. Witty, caustic and thought provoking this is a book you want to read if you believe that the status quo might, just might be wrong. At times bordering on being contrarian about most things around us it tries to zero in on the notion of what makes anything believable and certain in our minds.  The fact that there is a fact itself is ironic.  Something analogous to the idea that you can never predict the future because there is no future. Many books and movies have tried to play on this concept - best that I recollect (I think I am) was 'The Truman Show'.  This book by Klosterman attempts to provoke the reader to at least contemplate that what they think they know may be wrong. He uses examples like concept of gravity, and how it ...

You are important to us

Followed by piano music.   Followed by 'we are experiencing heavier than usual call volume'.  Sounds macabre like bleeding during menstruation or after a ghastly attack with a weapon on a hemophiliac.  Sorry Mrs. Johnson but it appears little Gertrude here has been bleeding heavier than usual what with her night time activities competing with the woodchucks in your neighborhood. Some services even go as far as to pick a random day to say - 'if you were to call us during the Chinese lunar month when the moon is axiomatically hugging the polar star with Jupiter intravenous when call volume is light'.  Well I will be damned.  I thought  I had checked with my astrologer before I placed this well focused call but  I guess this is what you get for listening to a quack. Umph! I am not sure which marketing genius came up with this personal touch concept of informing the caller that you are really a jackass for actually calling the customer serv...

Of Jims and Johns

Here is another essay on the subject of first names. As in birth names. Or names provided to an offspring at birth. While the developed world tends to shy away from the exotic like Refrigerator or Coca Cola for their new production there is a plethora of Jims and Johns and Bobs or Robs. Speaking of which I do not think there is a categoric decision point at the time of birth if a child will be hereafter called as Bob. I mean have not yet met a toddler called Bob or Rob for that matter. At some point though the parental instinct to mouth out multiple syllables runs out and they switch from calling the crawler Robert to simply Robbie to Rob. Now speaking of - it is strange that the name sounds like something you would not want Rob to do - i.e. Rob anyone. Then why call someone that? After all Rob Peter to Pay Paul is not exactly a maxim to live a young life? Is it? Perhaps Peter or Paul might want to have a say in it? Then there is this matter of going to the John. Why degrad...