17 Jan Unbroken
(2014) Unbroken, the film, is the story of Olympic distance runner Louis Zamperini and his agonizing treatment in Japanese prison camps during WWII. It is based on the bestselling Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand.
Louis Zamperini wrote a book about his life, Devil at my Heels, in 1956. The following year Universal acquired film rights. It took a long time for anyone to come out and finally make the movie. Angelina Jolie accepted the challenge.
I have read a lot of reviews, both before and after seeing Unbroken. The consensus seems to be that the air battles in the B-24 bomber (the first 30 minutes) and the scenes when Louie and two other airmen were on rafts in the middle of the ocean, were the best parts of the movie.
I do agree, the B-24 segment was well done. When that plane crashed into the ocean, all I could think of was how close my Dad’s B-17 came to doing the same thing. Then Louie and the other two airmen who survived the crash spent an unbelievable 47 days afloat. One did not make it until the men were captured by the Japanese. There was no way to make this part seem long enough. 47 days.
Throughout were flashbacks to Louie’s childhood and the events that led him to compete in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. We got to see Jesse Owens but not Hitler.
Then came two years imprisonment as a Japanese POW. Mutsuhiro Watanabe, commandant of two of the camps singled out Louie, the “Olympic champion” for his most brutal beatings. His nickname was “The Bird,” and he was played by Japanese rock star Miyavi. My first reaction, having read Hillenbrand’s book, was that this almost feminine looking young man did not fit my mental image of “The Bird. Then I did the math. Watanabe was 27 years old in 1945. Miyavi is 33. So now I would say, interesting choice.
Someone thought that the film didn’t portray how brutal it really was for Louie. Maybe not, but I for one didn’t want to see anything worse than what I was already seeing. By the time an emaciated and weakened Louie was ordered by “The Bird” to heft a huge plank into the air and hold it there, I was ready for Truman to drop the bomb. Enough already. If this weren’t a true story, we’d all be saying that it could never have happened.
Jack O’Connell, the British actor who played Italian Louie Zamperini, was Louie transformed. He had to work hard to hide his accent … I was surprised when I heard what he really sounds like. Too bad he was passed over for the Oscar nomination.
In my opinion, Angelina did a great job, and I’m not sure who could have done better. Spielberg turned it down, even though the subject is one that I think he would want to do. Perhaps he thought that there was just too much to Louie’s story.
And other critics did complain that the movie didn’t cover enough. When the war was finally over and he went home, Louie wasn’t “over it.” PTSD led him to alcoholism, rages, and nightmares. His wife was ready to divorce him when in 1949 she went to a Billy Graham revival. Now this was when Billy Graham was a very young minister, only 31 years old. Even though Louie didn’t much like tent revivals, when his wife begged him to go back with her, he did. Pastor Graham made the call, and Louie went forward and accepted Christ. His life changed from that point on. The nightmares were gone. He reconciled with his wife. Instead of wanting to murder “The Bird,” he was ready to forgive him. At the end of Unbroken, the movie, there is a slideshow that quickly explains all this.
There just wasn’t time for anything more. Plus, there was someone more qualified to show “the rest of the story,” the most triumphant part of Louie’s life, the proof that he really was unbroken. Rightfully so, the Billy Graham Evangelical Organization has created a documentary, Louis Zamperini: Captured by Grace, all about Louie’s conversion to Christianity and his relationship with Billy Graham. In 2011, the two men were able to meet for the last time.
In the making of this movie, Angelina quickly connected with Louie. She described him as a father figure to her. Louie Zamperini passed away on July 2, 2014, but Angelina was able to show him a rough cut of the film in his hospital room. She was anxious to hear his review. I’m sure he loved it. It’s a fitting film tribute to a remarkable man, and a thank you to all those guys … the ones who made it through and the ones who did not.
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