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The Railway Man

The Railway Man

Drama · History · 2013

A victim from World War II's "Death Railway" sets out to find those responsible for his torture. A true story.

Movie details

The Railway Man

“Revenge is never a straight line.”

2013 Drama · History 1h 56m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.1 / 10

43.4K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

67 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

59 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.8 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

A victim from World War II's "Death Railway" sets out to find those responsible for his torture. A true story.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Railway Man?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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19 year old Irena Gut is promoted to housekeeper in the home of a highly respected Nazi officer in Poland when she finds out that the Jewish ghetto is about to be liquidated. Determined to help twelve Jewish workers, she decides to shelter them in the safest place she can think of – the basement of the German Major's house. Over the next eight months, Irena uses her wit, humour and immense courage to hide her friends as long as possible.

Ordinary People

Ordinary People

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Beth, Calvin, and their son Conrad are living in the aftermath of the death of the other son. Conrad is overcome by grief and misplaced guilt to the extent of a suicide attempt. He is in therapy. Beth had always preferred his brother and is having difficulty being supportive to Conrad. Calvin is trapped between the two trying to hold the family together.

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At an isolated frontier outpost, a colonial magistrate suffers a crisis of conscience when an army colonel arrives looking to interrogate the locals about an impending uprising, using cruel tactics that horrify the magistrate.

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Born on the Fourth of July

Born on the Fourth of July

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The Caine Mutiny

The Caine Mutiny

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Jonathan Teplitzky

Written by

Andy Paterson · Frank Cottrell Boyce

Colin Firth

Colin Firth

Eric

Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman

Patti

Stellan Skarsgård

Stellan Skarsgård

Finlay

Jeremy Irvine

Jeremy Irvine

Young Eric

Hiroyuki Sanada

Hiroyuki Sanada

Nagase

Tanroh Ishida

Tanroh Ishida

Young Nagase

Michael MacKenzie

Michael MacKenzie

Sutton

Court is in session

Put The Railway Man on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Ambition earns the room.”

The film reaches for consequence and scale, accepting the risk of seriousness instead of shrinking from it.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Importance has entered the chat.”

The production keeps announcing its significance, as though awards-season posture were proof of insight.