"The Railway Man" Topic

Movie coming out April 11th in selected cities and everywhere on April 18th.Based on true story of a soldier captured in WWII by the Japanese and forcrd to work building a railway and finds his tormentor years later.Starring Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman. railwayman-film.com
Mark

i saw this at the Toronto Film Festival last year , it's very good

Apparently this is based on the memoir of the same name by Eric Lomax. Having read the book and seen the trailer, looks like there's a HUGE amount of embellishment in the movie. Trailer makes it seem as though the character went to kill the camp guard who oppressed him years after the war – not sure if that's the case in the film or not. But nothing could be further from the truth according to the memoir.

I'd absolutely recommend the book. The movie looks great, too, even if it's been over fictionalized.

A few years ago I had the honour of meeting a former British Far East Prisoner of War. He was a dignified man who had fought at Singapore and been captured in 1942; he was incarcerated at Selarang Barracks, when Japanese general Fukuye concentrated 13,350 British and 2,050 Australian prisoners of war because of their refusal to sign a promise not to escape. He then was sent to work on constructing the Burma Railway and narrowly avoided death again at the end of the war by his Japanese captors before being liberated by Allied soldiers.

He never told his story to a wider audience and I believe he did not tell of his experiences to his family until many, many years later.

If The Railway Man manages to convey the suffering, the horror, the appalling treatment of prisoners of war, and yet the enduring brotherhood that existed amongst those prisoners of war then I believe one former soldier, for one, will rest a little easier and be a happier man, as for 70-odd years he felt that a nation had turned its back on him and his comrades and had conveniently forgotten them.

I look forward to seeing the new film.

benglish – that's certainly how the movie starts .
sadly "based on a true story" doesn't mean the movie will stick to the true story . this does remind me that i want to read the book , thanks !

Rhodes MacGregor – i think it does a good job of presenting all those things . the Singapore/Burma theatre has gotten little attention from the western media , maybe this will lead to other efforts to finally cover that area/period .