Movie Theaters Searchable, up-to-the-minute movie times for all area theaters can be found at rochestercitynewspaper.com, and on City’s mobile website.
Film
Brockport Strand 93 Main St, Brockport, 637-3310, rochestertheatermanagement.com
Canandaigua Theatres 3181 Townline Road, Canandaigua, 396-0110, rochestertheatermanagement.com
Cinema Theater 957 S. Clinton St., 271-1785, cinemarochester.com
Culver Ridge 16
Return to the River Kwai
2255 Ridge Rd E, Irondequoit 544-1140, regmovies.com
Dryden Theatre 900 East Ave., 271-3361, dryden.eastmanhouse.org
“The Railway Man”
(R), DIRECTED BY JONATHAN TEPLITZKY NOW PLAYING
Eastview 13 Eastview Mall, Victor 425-0420, regmovies.com
Geneseo Theatres
[ REVIEW ] BY GEORGE GRELLA
Geneseo Square Mall, 243-2691, rochestertheatermanagement.com
Greece Ridge 12 176 Greece Ridge Center Drive 225-5810, regmovies.com
Henrietta 18 525 Marketplace Drive 424-3090, regmovies.com
The Little 240 East Ave., 258-0444 thelittle.org
Wars never really end, and as Faulkner said, the past is not even past — almost 70 years after the Japanese surrender in World War II, the horror of the conflict and the behavior of the enemy toward their Allied prisoners continue to trouble the memories of the survivors. A number of histories, memoirs, and novels recount the stories of captured soldiers and civilians, often inspiring some memorable films — most notably David
Movies 10 2609 W. Henrietta Road 292-0303, cinemark.com
Pittsford Cinema 3349 Monroe Ave., 383-1310 pittsford.zurichcinemas.com
Tinseltown USA/IMAX 2291 Buffalo Road 247-2180, cinemark.com
Webster 12 2190 Empire Blvd., 888-262-4386, amctheatres.com
Vintage Drive In 1520 W Henrietta Rd., Avon 226-9290, vintagedrivein.com
Lean’s “Bridge on the River Kwai,” but also “King Rat,” “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,” and “Empire of the Sun.” Now an Australian production, “The Railway Man,” returns to the war, to the jungles of Southeast Asia, to the notorious POW camp on the River Kwai. Based on a memoir by Eric Lomax, a British soldier captured after the fall of Singapore, the movie concentrates on the persistence of memory, the crushing burden of a history of unimaginable pain. In 1980, Lomax (Colin Firth), who calls himself a “railway enthusiast,” first meets Patti (Nicole Kidman), who will become his wife, on a train, and with the encouragement of his pals at the Veterans Club, uses his encyclopedic knowledge of English train schedules to figure out a way to meet her on her return journey. Their brief courtship and subsequent marriage initially establish a mildly comic, mildly romantic tone that soon collapses under the burden of Lomax’s past. Deeply disturbed by his memories of the Japanese camp, he experiences nightmares and
Colin Firth stars in “The Railway Man.” PHOTO COURTESY LIONSGATE
Film Previews on page 37
hallucinations, confuses his daily life with his time in prison, and alienates himself from his wife and friends. Since he refuses to reveal the source of his problems to Patti, she insists that his best friend, and fellow survivor, Finlay (Stellan Skarsgård) tell her the story of their experience in the war. From that point the script alternates between Eric’s present and his past, with frequent flashbacks that sometimes combine reality with delusions. After a much smaller force inflicted the worst military defeat in British history in Singapore, the Japanese, who regarded a man who surrendered as a person without honor, merely an animal, treated their prisoners severely, violating most of the strictures of the Geneva Convention. In the film they pack the captured soldiers, including the young Eric Lomax (Jeremy Irvine), into boxcars, bringing them to the River Kwai to build that famous bridge. When the captors learn that their prisoners, under the leadership of Eric, a radio operator, have constructed a receiver, they embark on a campaign of brutal interrogation and punishment. They beat Eric repeatedly with staffs and pick handles, starve him, confine him in a cramped cage, and worst of all, waterboard him — an act that the United States once officially regarded as torture but now practices with the blessing of Congress, the military, and the CIA. Eric’s chief antagonist, the man who haunts both his dreams and his waking life, is Nagase (Tanroh Ishida), the interpreter who yells incessant questions,
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