Happy holidays to everyone! Well, I hope this finds all readers enjoying the blessing of family, friends, and other loved ones during the 2014 Holiday season! I know I will most certainly be taking advantage of finally getting the week off between Christmas and New Years this time around, so plenty of spare time to work on film reviews, and possibly some interviews, and plan for the upcoming year! Therefore, I will start off with the first of several film reviews I have to share, starting off with an excellent piece of history in the true story-based offering….”Unbroken”.
SEE THE TRAILER HERE
Directed by well-known actress Angelina Jolie, with a screenplay co-written by Joel and Ethan Coen based from the book by Laura Hillenbrand, the story immediately launches us into the lives of a World War II bomber crew heading toward a run over Japan. It is here we are introduced to Louis Zamperini (Jack O’Connell) who, along with the crew, are looking forward to completing the mission and getting home. It is during this sequence that we then see flashbacks, first to a young Zamperini’s (C.J. Valleroy) very unsettled and trouble-filled childhood, which is only kept in place by the urgings, frustrations, and ultimate patience of his older brother Pete (John D’Leo/Alex Russell) and long-suffering parents. Beating the odds as well as prejudice against his Italian ethnicity, Zamperini grows to become an incredibly accomplished High School runner. Back in the WWII present, the bomber is attacked and as they strive to make it home following the encounter, we see further flashback, this time to the period when Louis has become an Olympic athlete, competing for the American team in Germany and achieving acclaim during the race he runs in. Returning again to WWII after the plane manages to limp to base, Zamperini and a partially new crew are sent out on a rescue mission to find a bomber crew who had to ditch in the ocean, but thanks to a sub-par plane, they themselves encounter disaster, leaving only Louis and his friends Mac (Finn Wittrock) and Phil (Domhnall Gleeson) drifting for over a month. Suffering another loss, rescue finally comes, but NOT in the form expected….the Japanese Navy. Taken to a prison camp in Tokyo, Zamperini is then cruelly introduced to its sadistic Commander, Mutsuhiro “The Bird” Watanabe (Takamasa Ishihara). Taking constant punishment, but refusing to give up or give in, there is an initial respite offered to Zamperini, but given what he would be made to say about his home country, he refuses, and is returned to the camp. Initially free from The Bird thanks to a promotion, Zamperini looks to simply survive the war as the Allied forces close in on Tokyo. Ultimately moved to another camp, Zamperini is “reunited” with The Bird, and the ultimate test of courage, resolve, and both physical and mental strength plays out between Zamperini and his nemesis as the war’s end comes. Further detail would constitute spoilers, and so, well, you know!
For me, I am a total sucker for true story-based films. Even when I’ve already determined the outcome (or have previously read about the story beforehand), it still inspires me to see these tales of people who overcame seemingly insurmountable odds and come out the other side beaten and harried, but NOT defeated. This is most certainly the case with Zamperini’s story here, and of course you know there are a LOT of details missing from his life both pre and post war. However, Jolie and the writers have chosen to mainly focus on the days lost at sea and the subsequent nightmare of the Japanese prison camps to tell of Zamperini’s endurance and perseverance. And this works fine, though there were times where perhaps a LITTLE more details about events pre and post war would have been nice. The supporting cast is solid enough, intertwining minor characters in and out of Zamperini’s life where there’s connection, but not necessarily the complete realization of what effect Jack O’Connell, however, is the true lifeblood here, infusing his portrayal of Zamperini with a full gambit of emotions in his trials, but doing so convincingly in both moments of real strength as well as times of absolute, utter exhaustion, where most people would have crumbled LONG before. And likewise, Ishihara’s “Bird” Watanabe is just as fierce and driven as Zamperini, but in a solely focused way…to make this ONE defiant prisoner his example. But Zamperini becomes his biggest project, a test of fortitude in its own right, and again, the film really does come down to the battle of wills between the two men. The FINAL key moment between them is a powerful one most assuredly. Visually the film carries us along satisfactorily, again mainly in the illustrations of the vast emptiness of the Pacific to the harsh confinements of the prison camps. The hardships faced by Zamperini are MANY and often excruciating, and one cannot even IMAGINE what it was to ACTUALLY go THROUGH them, but those visceral images stick with you as they come. The more I pondered “Unbroken”, I cannot say in itself that it carries the FULL weight of impact on me that a film like “Saving Private Ryan” did (a fictional work, granted), but DO NOT let that statement lessen the OVERALL quality of Zamperini’s story in this film or the gravity of his efforts shown here. This is a movie worth seeing and remembering in that this also represents what the human spirit and drive to live can push a man to come through, that it can then become an inspiration to countless others in realizing it IS a CHOICE to endure, to NOT let the circumstances bring you down, and that we CAN make it through more than we think when we make the decisions to survive. R.I.P. Louis Zamperini, 1917-2014.
As always, this is all for YOUR consideration and comment. Until next time, thank you for reading!
Nice review. I’ll think now I’ll take my dad to see it. Thanks!
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