The Railway Man (film)

The Railway Man
File:The Railway Man -- movie poster.jpg Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jonathan Teplitzky
Produced by	Chris Brown Bill Curbishley Andy Paterson
Screenplay by	Frank Cottrell Boyce Andy Paterson
Based on	The Railway Man by Eric Lomax
Starring	Colin Firth Nicole Kidman Jeremy Irvine Stellan Skarsgård
Music by	David Hirschfelder
Cinematography	Garry Phillips
Edited by	Martin Connor
Production company	Archer Street Productions Latitude Media Pictures in Paradise Silver Reel Thai Occidental Productions
Distributed by	Lionsgate (UK) The Weinstein Company(US)
Release dates	6 September 2013 (2013-09-06) (TIFF) 26 December 2013 (2013-12-26) (Australia) 10 January 2014 (2014-01-10) (United Kingdom)
Running time	116 minutes
Country	United Kingdom Australia
Language	English
Budget	$18 million
Box office	$22.3 million

The Railway Man is a 2013 British–Australian war film directed by Jonathan Teplitzky. It is an adaptation of the bestselling autobiography of the same name by Eric Lomax, and stars Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman, Jeremy Irvine and Stellan Skarsgård. It premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival on 6 September 2013.

Plot

During World War II, Eric Lomax is a British officer who is captured by the Japanese in Singapore and sent to a Japanese POW camp, where he is forced to work on the Thai-Burma Railway north of the Malay Peninsula. During his time in the camp as one of the Far East prisoners of war, Lomax is tortured by the Kempetai for building a radio receiver from spare parts. The torture depicted includes beatings, rape, and waterboarding. Apparently, he had fallen under suspicion of being a spy, for supposedly using the British news broadcast receiver as a transmitter of military intelligence. In fact, however, his only intention had been to use the device as a morale booster for himself and his fellow prisoner-slaves.

Years later, and still suffering the psychological trauma of his wartime experiences, with the help of his wife Patti and best friend Finlay, Lomax decides to find and confront one of his captors who had escaped prosecution as a war criminal. Lomax returns to the scene of his torture after he has tracked down Japanese secret police officer Takashi Nagase, "in an attempt to let go of a lifetime of bitterness and hate".

Cast

• Colin Firth as Old Eric Lomax
  • Jeremy Irvine as Young Eric Lomax
• Nicole Kidman as Patti Lomax (née Wallace)
• Stellan Skarsgård as Finlay
  • Sam Reid as Young Finlay
• Hiroyuki Sanada as Old Takashi Nagase
  • Tanroh Ishida as Young Takashi Nagase

Production

While he was working on the screenplay, co-writer Frank Cottrell Boyce travelled to Berwick-upon-Tweed in Northumberland with Firth to meet 91-year-old Lomax. Firth said of the film: "I think what is not often addressed is the effect over time. We do sometimes see stories about what it's like coming home from war, we very rarely see stories about what it's like decades later. This is not just a portrait of suffering. It's about relationships ... how that damage interacts with intimate relationships, with love."

Rachel Weisz was originally to play Patti, but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with re-shoots for other films.

Shooting began in April 2012 in Edinburgh and North Berwick in East Lothian and St Monans in Fife, and later in Thailand and Ipswich, Queensland, Australia.

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, the film has a score of 66% based on reviews from 109 critics. The consensus reads: "Understated to a fault, The Railway Man transcends its occasionally stodgy pacing with a touching, fact-based story and the quiet chemistry of its stars." At Metacritic, the film received a score of 59/100 based on 33 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Kidman, Firth, and Irvine were all praised for their roles. Katherine Monk of the Montreal Gazette said of Kidman "It's a truly masterful piece of acting that transcends Teplitzky's store-bought framing, but it's Kidman who delivers the biggest surprise: For the first time since her eyebrows turned into solid marble arches, the Australian Oscar winner is truly terrific" and finishing with "Coupled with some dowdy clothes and a keen ear for accents, Kidman is a very believable middle-aged survivor who will not surrender to melodrama or abandonment". Ken Korman agreed with the notion stating "Kidman finds herself playing an unabashedly middle-aged character. She rises to the occasion with a deep appreciation of her character’s own emotional trauma." Liam Lacey of The Globe and Mail stated, "Firth gives the performance his all as a man trapped in a vortex of grief, shame and hate, but as in Scott Hicks's Shine, which the film occasionally resembles, there's an overtidy relationship between trauma and catharsis"

Accolades

Award	Category	Nominee	Result
AACTA Awards (4th)	Best Film	Chris Brown	Nominated
		Bill Curbishley	Nominated
		Andy Paterson	Nominated
	Best Adapted Screenplay		Won
		Frank Cottrell Boyce	Won
	Best Cinematography	Gary Phillips	Nominated
	Best Original Music Score	David Hirschfelder	Won
	Best Sound	Gethin Creagh	Nominated
		Colin Nicolson	Nominated
		Andrew Plain	Nominated
		Craig Walmsley	Nominated
	Best Costume Design	Lizzy Gardiner	Nominated
Saturn Award (41st)	Best International Film		Nominated

Box office

The film grossed $4,415,429 in the US, and $17,882,455 outside internationally, for a combined gross of $22,297,884.

Historical accuracy

Dr. Philip Towle from the University of Cambridge, who specialises in the treatment of POWs, awarded the film three stars out of five for historical accuracy. Reviewing the film for History Extra, the website of BBC History Magazine, he said that, while he had no problem with the representation of the suffering of POWs or the way in which the Japanese are portrayed, "the impression [the film] gives of the postwar behaviour of former POWs of the Japanese is too generalised..."

Dr. Towle also points out that the meeting between Lomax and his tormentor was not unexpected, but rather there had been correspondence leading up to it. He writes that the film may not have made it clear: the railway was basically finished, and by the time of their rescue "...the main dangers to the POWs came from starvation and disease, Allied bombing and the looming threat that all would be murdered by the Japanese at the end of the war".

External links

• Official website
• The Railway Man at IMDb
• The Railway Man at AllMovie
• The Railway Man at History vs. Hollywood
• Pathe News footage of the real railway