"Railway Children is inspired by a beloved novel which was previously adapted for a 1970 film. The latest attempt takes place forty years later and features Jenny Agutter who played Bobbie, one of the children in the previous film. She is now a grandmother with a daughter and grandson who took in additional children during the second World War. It is 1944, a dangerous time for Great Britain as Nazis threaten attacks on its major cities. In the opening scenes, several mothers are boarding their children onto a train to live in the country in hopes of saving them from the possible horrors to come. It’s a fast moving and emotional scene that will clearly tug at the hearts of parents everywhere given the unimaginable situation.

Soon though, the children arrive in a Yorkshire village which gladly welcomes them. In an attempt to keep siblings together, Bobbie and her family agree to house Lily, Pattie, and Ted. The three of them have no problems adjusting, which might appear a bit unrealistic but this is a family friendly film after all and lessons are to be learned… They begin frolicking through fields and assisting their adopted family with chickens and baking. It’s all very innocent and stands in sharp contrast to what was happening to them back in Manchester. Flashbacks depict their home in a dark and smoke filled neighborhood which is clearly struggling with the war. The countryside though is sunny and bright. It is here the film exposes one of its central questions: Should children be exposed to the truth of war or be protected from it?"

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