The Railway Man (2014)

Lack of good storyline.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The railway man was the only solution that television offered that evening next to stupid game shows or standard, boring action movies. The description was not very hope giving (to confront his former enemy from a japanese war camp) and we feared some horror-torture scenes. We were blown away, I admit it...it's an intense movie that shows how extreme traumas can impact a human being. The torture scenes were limited to the amount needed to show the horrors that people can do to each other, the focus was constantly more on the mental problems and questions on how to handle life with these traumas and to confront them. It shows how horrible people can to each other but also how beautiful. And that war does not end in the minds of people when the fighting stops.highly recommended

A very harrowing tale of POW's in WW2 and the impact it has in later life with PTSD and unlike many glorified other war stories, this true tale is given commendable deference to both the protagonist and the victim. Sometimes powerful moments does not need large explosions or car chases or fight scenes. I felt more blown away and moved by the coming together of the two main characters in later life than in any of the opening 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan (not that I am deriding that film at all). Colin Firth is rock solid as the stiff upper lipped Englishman and is well supported in this moving film. Definitely worth watching if you admire understated storytelling that is very well executed.

Just when one thinks this is just another love story, this movie actually is much more than that. It's about dealing with your past in the present. It's also about fighting your (inner and outer) demons. Very nicely portrayed. Though the resolution might not feel right to some, this movie is consistent in what it is doing.The performances are really great and the flashbacks flesh out what and why the characters are in their current state. There is still a lot of in between the lines you can read and some things might feel either too much or too little (is it rough edges or soft edges?), but that will depend on your personal view of certain things. As it is, it portrays a battle (literally and metaphorically speaking), that is tough to fight with ...

I usually don't "review" films which have already been reviewed more than 100 times, but I will this time because I was where part of this movie was filmed. The part of the film where they are building the railroad in the jungle was filmed in the area known as Hellfire Pass, northwest of the Bridge On The River Kwai, and adjacent to the River Kwai (which is actually pronounced like quack without the k). Unlike the film :The Bridge On The River Kwai", which was actually filmed in Ceylon and looked almost nothing like the actual bridge and river, this film is very accurately depicted. I could almost relive my hiking in that area quite a few years ago. This gives a far more realistic representation of how the western POWs were treated by the Japanese (at least based on the readings I have done).I give this film a lot of credit for the way in which they tell the story. It begins with a rather disheveled man on a British train who meets a beautiful British woman and they eventually get married. Then she learns why at times he is so distant or goes into his psychological MELTDOWNS -- what happened building the Death Railway from Bangkok to Burma.Fortunately, they don't attempt to make Colin Firth and the other actors look young and old, depending on what part of the story is being told. Colin Firth plays the mature main character (and brilliantly), and Jeremy Irvine plays the young main character (equally as brilliantly). Nicole Kidman plays the bewildered wife, and is excellent. Stellan Skarsgård, suddenly looking considerably older, plays a war time colleague who helps tell the story. Hiroyuki Sanada plays the old Japanese man who once tortured Firth, while Tanroh Ishida plays the war time torturer.I can only find one thing to criticize here and that is failing to show the true suffering that took place by the Western POWs as they were digging out of the rock Hellfire Pass. Many simply dropped over dead...little more than skeletons when they died. In other words, they didn't show half the horror that existed there (and if you doubt me, Google photographs of "death railway" and "hellfire pass").On the other hand, the all important scene between the old Firth and the old Japanese torturer is quite remarkable. Maybe it shows that some Japanese might have shown some remorse over what they did.For those who like historical films, this is a stunning piece of work. My father fought in the European theater, including with the troops who first went into Germany and found all the atrocities. He would never speak of that, and I only learned a bit about what he experienced after he died and I was going through his personal belongings. And this fact -- the not willing to talk about it -- is actually covered in the film. Few films give us any idea of how some some suffered in World War II. This film does.P.S. -- at the end of the film you get to see the real Bridge On The River Kwai and the real Hellfire Pass.