Unbroken

I had never heard of Olympic runner Louis Zamperini until he died last year. My dad had read Laura Hillenbrand's book about Zamperini's experiences in a Japanese POW camp, so Zamperini's death caught his attention. But the news that there was a movie about Zamperini's experience getting released caught my attention.

Well, Angelina Jolie's "Unbroken" isn't a great movie, but it's worth seeing. The point is that Zamperini refused to let his captors break him, hence the title. Seeing what the captors did, I got the feeling that anyone in their positions would do the same. War simply breeds cruelty.

The movie's obvious downside is that Jolie probably made the movie with the aim of winning an Oscar. I didn't find the movie Oscar-worthy, and the Academy apparently agreed. In fact, some parts of the movie drug on too long. But I thought that it was a good look at how Zamperini stood strong in a desperate situation. Not a masterpiece, but something that you should. As for Jolie's decision to exclude the part about Zamperini's conversion to Christianity, that wasn't an important part of his survival in the POW camp, and there are a few too many movies in which people's faith "saves" them. The movie is good enough already.

I never compare books and movies, but one thing the book has over the movie was the distinct unpreparedness we had for war. The planes were flying deathtraps, and the supplies were totally inadequate.

Angelina Jolie had to make decisions about what to include and exclude in a two-hour film, so we missed a lot of important information that was in the book. No matter, the film itself was well worth watching. Not a great film, but entertaining.

If you want to be shocked and angered at the aircraft manufacturers, the military that failed to supply the troops ( where have we heard that before?), and the absolute barbarity of the Japanese in their prison camps, buy the book.

Come to think about it, watching the film will help you appreciate the book so much more.

Lets just say I just saw a great movie about loyalty, courage, survival and redemption. Angelina Jolie has fantastic directing skills and its Oscar worthy. Jack O'Connell knocks his performance out of the park and he's proved himself with this great performance along with his performances in "Starred Up" and "'71". He embodies the characteristics of Louis Zamperini and the great wonderful life he lived. Jai Courtney had a small role, but really good surprisingly, can't wait to see him as Kyle Reese in next summer's Terminator reboot. The movie slowed at a point but picked it up and blew me away, O'Connell gives an Oscar worthy performance, but given the competition it's unlikely. Who cares though? This is one of 2014's best films and you'll see it at the Oscars I promise you that.

This film came out a few months ago, so by now there are quite a few reviews--so I'll try to make my comments brief. The film is a biography of the wartime experiences of Louie Zmaperini--as well as a few flashbacks to his life before the war. Zamperini was famous both for being an Olympic athlete as well as his being a prisoner of war in Japan--all of which he later wrote about in his biography. In it, he also talks about his difficulties coping with PTSD and anger towards his Japanese tormentors--as well as, with the help of God, he was able to let go of the anger and life a normal life. In many ways, this is extremely similar to another recent film, "The Railway Man"--a film which, to me, is better and makes a much stronger emotional impact.

What what did I like and dislike about the film? The aerial sequences were pretty amazing--particularly how they used wonderful CGI to make it appear as if Mitsubishi Zeros were attacking a formation of B-24 Liberator bombers. The story also was very interesting. But the film also seemed to be missing the spiritual and emotional side--and mostly only talked about this in the epilogue which was written only. In many ways, interesting but curiously uninvolving at times.

Director Angelina Jolie has adapted Laura Hillenbrand's great biography, Unbroken, and made a conventional story about one of America's true heroes, Louis Zamperini. I'll continue to think about how Jolie could have made this more suspenseful, considering Louis was an Olympic runner, stayed in a life boat for the world record 47 days, and survived torture in two Japanese POW camps.

Although the film shows Louis to survive unbroken, despite the-Passion-of-The-Christ-like torture overdose, and follows his life story accurately, there's no soul, just dutiful recounting of the separate incidents. As a colleague commented, the real life footage of Louis returning as an old man to run the Olympic torch is more engaging and emotional than the whole film.

The cinematography of the renowned Roger Deakins is splendid on land and sea while Alexandre Desplat's music swells with romance at the right times. Otherwise, it's business as usual—get the history right. For me, a filmmaker could play with the story to make it more meaningful and involve more emotion if she has to—and Jolie has to.

The mediocre writing, that includes work of the Coens and the screenwriter of Gladiator, William Nicholson, repeats this trite line, "If you can take it, you can make it." Also this line, "One moment of pain is worth a lifetime of glory," doesn't sound right, whereas in the book, it does: "A lifetime of glory is worth a moment of pain." Now that makes sense.

The villain, called Bird, should be a ruthless torturer with emotional issues tied to his lack of promotion and homosexual longings. However Jolie has chosen an androgynous Japanese rock star, Takamasa Ishihara, who doesn't click as mean or psychotic, just barking torture orders to fill his time with an occasionally enigmatic sentence or two to entice us into thinking we havedepth. Like the film, Bird promises much but delivers too little.

As opposed to the boring torture—how about more of his home life or his search for Bird after the war? I want Jolie to do well—she has an exemplary family and solid career as an actress—but, with the negligible first directing effort, In the Land of Blood and Honey, she has yet to achieve as a director.

"I assess the power of a will by how much resistance, pain, torture it endures and knows how to turn to its advantage." Friedrich Nietzsche