The Railway Man

[last lines]

Eric:
[handing him a letter] Dear Mr. Nagase, the war has been over for many years. I have suffered much, but I know you have suffered, too. And you have been most courageous, and brave in working for reconciliation. While I cannot forget what happened in Kanchanaburi, I assure you of my total forgiveness. Sometime the hating has to stop.

Eric:
Don't move.

Patti:
Why not?

Eric:
Because I'm looking at you.

Patti:
[Kisses Eric] I've never kissed a man with a moustache before. [pauses] And I don't think I'm going to kiss a man with a moustache again.

Eric:
And if the man removed the moustache?

Patti:
Yes, that would do nicely.

Nagase:
You are a soldier, Lomax. You never surrendered.

Eric:
I'm still at war.

Patti:
Did you know Warrington is famous for vodka?

Eric:
[eyes on his book] You know, with all due respect to your friend, if all he mentioned is vodka, he's really only scratched the surface of Warrington. [looks up at Patti] the Black Prince? Remember the Black Prince? Had all his armour made there. Warrington was really the only place to go if you wanted a suit of armour. Sort of Saville Row in steel

[first lines]

Eric:
At the beginning of time, the clock struck one. A drop of dew, and the clock struck two. From the dew grew a tree, and the clock struck three. Then the tree made a door, and the clock struck four. Then man came alive, And the clock struck five. Count not, waste not, the hours of the clock. Behold I stand at the door and knock.

Finlay:
When we surrendered, the Japs said we weren't men. Real men would... would kill themselves, would die of shame. But we said no. We'll live - for revenge. But we didn't, no. We don't live. We're miming in the choir. We can't love. We can't sleep. We're an army of ghosts.

Nagase:
That's what I saw. So many murdered. So I will speak. I make pilgrimages. I work for... reconciliation. I will not let them forget the tragedy of war.

Eric:
The what?

Nagase:
The tragedy of war.

Eric:
No, this wasn't a tragedy. This was a crime. You're not tragic. You're a criminal. You were an intelligent, educated man, and you did nothing.

Nagase:
I tried to make amends.

Eric:
You're living off this. [indicating the war museum] You're a criminal and a liar.

Young Takeshi Nagase:
You have no honor. Your army's defeated. You surrendered like dogs. Look at you, you should be ashamed to be alive. If my army was defeated, I would take my life to save my honor.

Young Eric:
You'll get your chance. Any day now.

Eric:
My mother was already dead, as it happens. All through the war, I wrote letters home to a dead woman.

Eric:
What do you tell people about what you did to us?

Nagase:
We do not talk about it. No one will talk about it.

Eric:
Nor do we. And you know why? Because no one would believe it. No one would believe what you did to us. You treated us like animals because we surrendered.

Patti:
When Finlay died, I was scared. I was scared that the same might happen to you.

Eric:
It was different for Finlay. He didn't have you.

Patti:
[upon seeing the war camp] I wouldn't have lasted a day here.

Eric:
I you'd been here, you'd have caused quite the stir.