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[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]
Patti: 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]
Eric: 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]
Eric: 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.
The Railway Man Quotes
Extended Reading
