The Railway Man.

Eric Lomax and Takashi Nagase.

The consequences of war, or should I say the consequences of politicians sending young boys to war, is clearly portrayed in the former Royal Signals officer Eric Lomax’s autobiography published in 1995. It tells of his experiences as a prisoner of war during WW2 following the fall of Singapore and how he and many other prisoners were forced to help build the Burma Railway under the command of the Japanese military, a railway that cost the lives of 100000 men. For the second time The Railway Man has been adapted for the screen, the first in 1995 for Television starred John Hurt and now we have the feature film with Colin Firth ably taking the role of the older Lomax with Jeremy Irvine (War Horse (2011), Great Expectations (2012)) portraying the younger version. The story is told with intelligent use of flashbacks combining Eric’s current life with his time in Thailand building the railway. 

Early days building the railway.

Directed by Australian writer Jonathan Teplitzky and adapted for the screen by Frank Cottrell Boyce and Andy Paterson it is a remarkable account of how one human being can survive torture and extreme deprivation at the hands of another. The story starts in Scotland in 1980 when Lomax meets a Canadian nurse called Patti Wallace, a woman 17 years his junior, who after leaving his first wife married her in 1983. It’s not long before Patti (Nicole Kidman looking a touch more dowdy than she did in The Paperboy (2012)) realises that her husband has been psychologically damaged by his time in the camp and has severe problems coping with the after effects of his treatment there. But its not until she manages to get fellow veteran Finley (played by a miss cast Stellan Skarsgard) to tell her (via flashbacks) what went on during Eric’s time as a captive of the Japanese that she begins to appreciate the problems and nightmares he is suffering. Finley also explains to Pattie that the only way Eric is going to get any rest bite from his on going torment is to go back to the scene of his traumatic experiences and confront his torturer Japanese officer Takashi Nagase (Hiroyuki Sanada/Tanroh Ishida) who Finley has discovered is still alive.

 

Patti Lomax with Nicole Kidman.

The movie goes some way to explain the meaning of what we now call post traumatic stress disorder, how it comes about and its aftermath. Lomax suffered for 40 years of his life, almost destroying his second marriage and making his own life a miserable existence for a good amount of his life time. Not helped by the ridicules British stiff upper lip scenario and the code of silence that prevailed even between comrades who shared the horrors of war.  As one critic opined ‘this isn’t a war film but one about making peace with the past’[1]

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[1] Kate Stables Sight and Sound.

Oranges and Sunshine

The Child Migrants Trust.

In 1986 a Nottingham social worker involved in post-adoption support was contacted by a women from Australia who told her that at the age of four she had been shipped, along with other children, to a children’s home in Australia and was now looking for help in tracing her parents in Britain. This was the beginning of Margaret Humphreys investigation into a situation that she had no idea had taken place. Home Children is the common term used to describe the British governments child migration programme that involved forcibly relocating poor and under privileged children to Australia, Canada, New Zealand the former Rhodesia and other parts of what was the British Commonwealth. Often the parents had no idea that their offspring was being deported being told that they were being placed for adoption in the UK, the children were often informed that their parents were dead. Humphreys believes that up to 150,000 children were involved in the scheme with approximately 7000 ending up in Australia, some of the kids were as young as three years old! Then as now with government cutbacks aimed at the more vulnerable members of our society the motive behind the policy was saving money. It was cheaper to care for these very young migrants overseas. The cost was estimated at £5 per day to keep a child on welfare in a British institution, but only the equivalent of 50p in an Australian one. Many of the children experienced neglect and abuse particularly, it is alleged, in certain Catholic institutions run by the so-called Christian Brothers where many of the children were housed.

Children on their way to a better life!!!!!!!!

The treatment of these children brings to mine certain aspects of the Holocaust or the inhuman treatment of the Aboriginal children depicted in the Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) not forgetting the Magdalene laundries when Peter Mullan pulled at our collective consciences with The Magdalene Sisters (2002)

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Oranges and Sunshine (2010) is based on Margret Humphreys book Empty Cradles and tells the story of the formation and early struggles of the Child Migrants Trust, at times against overwhelming odds and with little regard to her own well being or safety. Emily Watson gives a brilliant performance as Humphreys, highlighting the women’s courage and compassion, and there’s great support from Hugo Weaving and David Wenham as grown up migrant children. Jim Loach is a welcome addition to the ranks of British directors that can make a serious heartfelt drama. Its not an easy watch, constantly pulling at your heartstrings, but exceptionally well done and tremendously moving, revelling a scandal that had been swept under the carpet by successive governments on both sides of the world. My own Uncle was deported to Australia when he was 13/14 years old, admittedly a long time before the period in which Loach's film is based, and rediscovered his family many years later!