The Railway Man (2013)

Colin Firth: Eric

Photos 

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Quotes 

• [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.

• [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.

• 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 : 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 : 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

• 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.

• 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 : [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.