I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that WWII Japanese prison camps weren’t much fun. No, no, that’s just where I stand. I know that’s gonna seem shocking to most of you, but I’m not backing down.
The Railway Man is probably the second best movie ever about English prisoners in WWII forced to build a Japanese railroad between Thailand and Burma along the river Kwai. That’s no sleight on Railway; the David Lean is simply one of the greatest films ever made. Unlike the Lean, Railway is spliced into two parts, a past one during the war with young Eric (Jeremy Irvine) and the “present” tale with 1980 veteran survivor Eric (Colin Firth). Does anything really happen between the bookends of this story? I don’t think so.
Eric is a train enthusiast. We get the idea that he spends his free time studying models and memorizing train tables much like a geeky American kid with a box of baseball cards. At his veteran’s club, he sits separate from his friends – because he’s an introvert? Because of the PTSD? Hard to say. He meets Patti (Nicole Kidman) while circumventing a line stoppage elsewhere. He seems nonplussed by her interjections until he realizes that talking train tables is foreplay in English culture. Oh, how adorable. It isn’t until their wedding night that Eric demonstrates his vulnerability. When she departs for the bathroom, he has a flashback and is suddenly reduced to screaming on the floor in the 
fetal position. The Railway Man is based on a true story which made me wonder a number of things: Did the relationship with her suddenly spur the trauma anew and why? And did he demonstrate any of the symptoms before the honeymoon? That’s quite the bait & switch, huh? Sorry, all sales final, babe. Ahhhhh, that’s why he was single. Check it out – lucky for Eric, Patti is a nurse and a fighter; she ain’t giving up so easy.
This is where we meet young Indiana Eric and his nutty foibles as a radio operator. The Japanese spent the first half of the 40s being angry and took out some very misplaced and paranoid aggression on their POWs. Forced into the labor camp, Eric and his mates build a radio and are punished severely when discovered at the hands of Officer Nagase (Tanroh Ishida). You can get lost in the camp scenes. I know because I did and had to remind myself at one point that the film was really about present-day Eric resolving his pain with present-day Nagase (Hiroyuki Sanada). Both timelines are worth the visit.
It occurs to me that The Bridge on the River Kwai was made in the real Eric’s lifetime. How do you think he felt about it? This, of course, makes me think of all war veterans. Did Casablanca do justice to members of the resistance? If you landed at Omaha Beach on D-Day and were lucky enough to live to watch the tale, how would Saving Private Ryan make you feel? Do they show Zero Dark Thirty on endless loop to the captured terrorists who inspired it – I wonder if they have their own critique on the realism.
♪Midlife
(Midlife)
Proved too much for the man
(Too much for the man
He couldn’t make it)
So he’s leaving a wife he’s come to know, ooh
(He said he’s going)
He said he’s going back to find
(Going back to find)
Ooh, what’s left of his mind
The mind he left behind not so long ago
He’s leaving
(Leaving)
On that midnight train to Thailand, yeah
(Leaving on the midnight train)
Said he’s going back
(Going back to find)
To a harsher place and time, oh yes he is
(Whenever he takes that ride, guess who’s gonna wave good-bye)
I’ll just let him
(I know you will)
On that midnight train to Thailand
(Leaving on a midnight train to Thailand, woo woo)
I’d rather live in this world
(Live in this world)
Than live without sane
(His mind’s a mess, a mess that’s his alone) ♫
Rated R, 116 Minutes
D: Jonathan Teplitzky
W: Frank Cottrell Boyce and Andy Paterson
Genre: PTSD, serious PTSD
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Veterans with ghosts
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Veterans who cannot deal with their ghosts
♪ Parody inspired by “Midnight Train to Georgia”
