Unbroken (2014)
Certified: 15
Duration: 137 minutes
Directed by: Angelina Jolie
Starring: Jack O’Connell, Domhnall Gleeson, Miyavi, Garrett Hedlund, Finn Wittrock, Jai Courtney, Luke Treadaway, Travis Jeffery, Jordan Patrick Smith, John Magaro, Alex Russell, Maddalena Ischiale
KRS Releasing Ltd
Unbroken is Angelina Jolie’s second directorial outing after 2011’s In the Land of Blood and Honey. With Unbroken she is adapting Laura Hillenbrand’s biography of Louis Zamperini titled Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption released in 2010.
The resulting film is a throwback to Hollywood’s classical style of film-making, making this a film that is tasteful, full of character, Academy Award-focused and very much story-driven in the way it manages to reach out to its audience.
Jolie here has managed to capture the essence of both the main character and also the central theme of taking the audience back to that time. The film breathes and lives on a multiple layered approach to presenting its story. This is all done with what looks to be both passion and well-timed preparation.
Adapting Hillenbrand’s book may not have been easy since the late Louis Zamperini had provided a wealth of knowledge.
Hillenbrand herself had interviewed the veteran about 75 times in a process that took about eight years.
Jack O’Connell is Louis Zamperini who, along with the rest of the crew of a B-24 bomber, are in the Pacific theatre carrying out a bombing run over the Japanese.
Through flashbacks we also go back in time to Louie’s younger days (C.J. Valleroy) when he was constantly bullied.
The fact that he got into trouble a lot did not help.
His brother Pete (John D’Leo & Alex Russell) sees that Louie’s knack for trouble and his speed in getting out of it fits him well and he helps his brother along.
The result is that Louie becomes a track hero and goes to the Berlin Olympics where he ends up eighth in the 5,000-metre race.
The major question one asks after seeing Unbroken is why Hollywood took so long to actually get his story to the big screen
Louie’s B-24 crashes in the ocean and Louie ends up stranded along with Captain Philips (Domhnall Gleeson) and tail gunner Sergeant McNamara (Finn Wittrock).
This leads to a one-month saga on the raft with sharks and Japanese planes.
The strong sun and low rations are also part of their problems.
The result is that Louie and Phil end up being captured by the Japanese where they are taken to Omori, a concentration camp in Tokyo.
Louie will soon be faced with the attentions of Mutsuhiro Watanabe ‘The Bird’ (Miyavi) who recognises Louie’s defiant spirit and this inspires him to give him his attentions.
The major question one asks after seeing Unbroken is why Hollywood took so long to actually get his story to the big screen.
This is such an incredible life to tell. It’s the stuff of a quality film if handled right and Jolie certainly does it well.
She delivers the right dose of war-time drama in the classy production that makes it so distinguishable. Even more so the film manages to drill into the character and deliver to us a sense of indefatigable spirit that is its running theme.
O’Connell is the essence of Zamperini and he manages to bring the inner strength and almost tangible energy that makes him such a riveting watch.
On the other side there is the Japanese rock star here turned actor Miyavi. He brings to the character known as ‘The Bird’ a different slightly childish yet still dangerous quality to make him a very different villain.
The relationship between the two is a very unusual one where the ‘The Bird’ treats Louie almost as if he was his pet and is trying to understand him.
Unbroken is a balanced film that walks the tightrope well. Jolie emerges to be a surprisingly strong and meticulous director and it is through her guidance that she seems to curb everyone’s enthusiasm to deliver an enjoyably measured film that could have so easily fallen into soppy melodrama.