Wednesday 16 July 2014

"The Railway Man"


About twenty years ago I read Eric Lomax's very moving account "The Railway Man". Basically, Eric was a train enthusiast who was drafted into the Signals Corps in WW2, shipped to Singapore, taken into captivity when Singapore was surrendered to the Japanese in 1942. He and his colleagues were transferred to work on the Burma railway. After the war, he struggled to adapt to civilian life, married and met one of his captors. A very good book, a really interesting autobiography that is well written and accessible. I recommend the book.

Now - the film. I enjoyed it very much. It is a telling of the book in 110 minutes. The dictates of film format dictate the amount of story that can be included, so it is inevitable that some things would be lost but the basic struggle to survive in the two worlds of the POW camp and of being a survivor is very well shown and acted. Overall - I think 7/10.

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