The Railway Man (film)

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The Railway Man
File:The Railway Man -- movie poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Jonathan Teplitzky
Produced by <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Screenplay by <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Based on The Railway Man
by Eric Lomax
Starring <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Music by David Hirschfelder
Cinematography Garry Phillips
Edited by Martin Connor
Production
company
<templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • Archer Street Productions
  • Latitude Media
  • Pictures in Paradise
  • Silver Reel
  • Thai Occidental Productions
Distributed by <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Release dates
 <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • 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 <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • United Kingdom
  • Australia
Language English
Budget $18 million[1]
Box office $22.3 million[2]

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.[3][4][5] It premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival on 6 September 2013.[6]

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".[7][8]

Cast

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.[9] 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."[8]

Rachel Weisz was originally to play Patti, but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with re-shoots for other films.[10]

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.[3][10][11]

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."[12] At Metacritic, the film received a score of 59/100 based on 33 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[13]

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".[14] 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."[15] 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"[16]

Accolades

Award Category Nominee Result
AACTA Awards[17][18]
(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.[2]

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".[19]

References

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External links

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