Unbroken, the retelling of the true story of Louis Zamperini, an Italian-American immigrant whose parents spoke no English. This is an adaptation of the NY Times bestseller of the same title, written by Laura Hillenbrand. This movie also has many flashbacks, and jumps between events. In his teens, Louie is an outcast, picked on for his ethnicity. He manages to overcome that, and participates in the 1936 Olympics in Germany. He becomes a bombardier in World War II, in the Pacific theater. While on a search and rescue mission, his plane goes down and is cast adrift with two survivors. They are eventually captured by the Japanese and interned in Japan. He suffers through the abuse of a Japanese soldier, and tries to survive.
It’s a very compelling tale, directed by, surprisingly, Angelina Jolie. The flashbacks disappear before the final third of the film, and you’re left wondering what will happen, in the end. Jack O’Connell, as Louie, was the only memorable prisoner. Takamasa Ishihara was the prison guard Wantanabe, who became the major tormentor, and he provided the right amount of intensity. This film represents prison life, and is quite brutal. I was quite stunned when I saw that Joel and Ethan Coen were listed as the first and second screenwriters (two others besides Laura received credit), but given the story and nature of the film, it seems about right.
It seems that most American movie actors, at some point, have to star in a prison film, and this film allows Jack to make that check mark. WIthout straining too hard, Bruce Willis, Sly Stallone, Paul Newman, Robert Redford (twice!), Burt Reynolds (and Adam Sandler in the remake) immediately come to mind as also having that check mark. I’m sure there are exceptions to the rule, so no need to point them out.
I really am on the fence with this film. I can say with certainty that if you want to see it, you don’t need to see it in the theaters. Most of the cast exist to serve the plot, but the ‘atmosphere’ didn’t quite gel for me. None of the other prisoners were all that memorable to me, as was also the case for entirety of the Japanese captors, besides Wantanabe. They seemed to exist just there as filler. I do want to grumble a little about the trailer, but I don’t want to say more.