BlogBat Reviews

The Railway Man (2013)

Excellent Film Depicts Japanese Barbarity with Accuracy

[8/10 · 5 January 2014]

The heart of this story is that Eric Lomax, a signaler, is treated with appalling cruelty by his Japanese captors. In particular he is treated brutally by a young Japanese officer.

The film shows how his mistreatment blights his life for decades after the end of the war. He marries but the baggage that he carries with him from his mistreatment stays with him and badly effects his everyday life.

The flashback sequences very accurately depict what we have read about post traumatic stress disorder and how visions of bad experiences recur at inconvenient times.

There are excellent performances by Firth and Kidman and also Hiroyuki Sanada as the sadistic Japanese officer.

The scenes of the Burma railway are extremely accurate to the final detail.

At the end he has the Japanese officer at his mercy and chooses reconciliation. Personally I would have twisted his neck! I do hope that this film is distributed in Japan. The Japanese have still not been told about the disgusting, depraved and barbaric things that their soldiery did in World War Two.

The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006)

Five big issues arising from the movie

[7 October 2006]

I am an Australian of Northern English background, no sectarian affiliations and just back from a glorious holiday in Ireland. I saw the movie last night and would like to raise 5 big issues.

i) As a movie it is first rate; brilliantly written, directed and acted.

ii) I appear to be one of few non-Irish people who has read up enough on the history who know it is historically accurate. In 1919-20 the British government repression in Ireland was a dead-set disgrace.

iii) Irish people seem to miss that the same people who were exploiting them in Ireland were also exploiting working people in England and Scotland. My great grandparents in England were not persecuting the Irish, they were too busy being worked to death for the same lousy pay as the Irish were getting.

iv) To English people the events in Ireland in 1920 pale into insignificance compared to (say) the Spanish Armada in 1588. As it said in the movie. to English people Ireland was a 'priest ridden backwater'

v) Ireland is now clearly a prosperous liberal democracy with a seat at the table of the 'rich man's club'. It is good to see the Irish getting on with driving BMWs rather than warring incessantly.

Incidentally, I survived two IRA bomb blasts in London. Gerry Adams never did explain why he tried to kill me. I'm darned if I can understand it either.

Rosenstrasse (2003)

Rosensrasse Goebbels Motivation in Backing Down

[7/10 · 16 June 2005]

Goebbels motivation in backing down was not explored. In the aftermath of Stalingrad the Reich had decided to go for 'total war'. This is referred to in the film. Part of this was to use women in the war effort, which Germany had not previously done to any great extent. An SS massacre of women would have faced Goebbels with a public relations disaster of massive proportion. His preference was to make the problem go away as quietly as possible, on the basis that the Jewish men could always be rounded up later. I understand the majority survived the war.

His other problem was that the 'Red' Berlin had never been very enthusiastically behind the Nazi cause and had to be handled cautiously. Again a massacre of women could have cost the Nazis what mediocre level of support they had in their capital city.

It was interesting that the majority of SS uniforms showed patches which indicated that the men wearing them were not of German nationality, but were from German origins in other countries such as Lithuania or Latvia

Love Actually (2003)

It's an entertaining and well done piece

[8/10 · 7 February 2004]

My partner and I wanted an absorbing, feelgood film for a Saturday night. 'Love Actually' fitted the bill very well. The characters are engaging. The eight separate episodes are well worked out and come together very cleverly.It has good production values.

It has a number of well thought through and original plot devices. These vary from the all-too-believable to the surrealistic. If Colin's experience in Milwaukee is real then I want to know when the next plane leaves!

There are a number of strong performances. My personal favourites were Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Lúcia Montez and Bill Nighy but other people will have their favourites. Lovely cameo from Rowan Atkinson. Hugh Grant as the Prime Minister? Oh dear!

Nevertheless the scene where he tells the arrogant American president off in public nearly got a round of applause here and probably did so in London.

For what it is, an entertaining and well done piece, I would certainly recommend it.