Louis Zamperini (Jack O’Connell) still holds the record for being the youngest athlete to qualify for the 5,000 meters, which he ran at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
In May of 1947, Zamperini found himself floating in the Pacific Ocean on a life raft with two other men. During their 47 days adrift, they drank rain water and captured small fish to eat raw. One of the men died. Zamperini and the other survivor, Russell Phillips (Domhnall Gleeson), were captured by Japanese forces off the Marshall Islands and separated.
Zamperini spent two-and-a-half years as a POW, mistreated and forced to work until the end of the war. Zamperini’s main tormentor was a Japanese officer named Mustuhiro “Bird” Watanabe (Takamasa Ishihara), who made General MacArthur’s list of the top 50 most wanted war criminals.
We say, “It’s a fine film, but not nearly as moving or relevant as it is being touted.”
TAYLOR: Unbroken is a fine film, not a great film. I preferred The Railway Man, which is an extremely similar film, except it’s about a British POW instead of an American and, of course, wasn’t directed by Angelina Jolie.
The Railway Man is a much more interesting film, in that it contains a character who doesn’t just merely survive. Jolie has made a film that goes through the motions: Here they are afloat for 45 minutes; here they are being beaten for 45 minutes; here they are starving to death as they work, slowly, for their particularly cruel captors.
The Railway Man is about human beings and the power of forgiveness. Unbroken is about a situation and the will to survive. Zamperini does not do anything other than stay alive. How that makes you a hero is beyond me.
HOWE: I wouldn’t even go as far as saying that it’s a fine film. The floating about on the raft for 45 minutes was way too long. We know they are on a raft catching fish to eat or collecting rain water to drink but do we really need to see it repeated over and over again to get the point that they are stranded at sea for that amount of time?
HOWE: I was getting nauseous just watching them bob up and down on the ocean waves. The only plus point that I can give Unbroken was how it was shot. Some of the scenes looked beautiful, from the shots inside the plane to capturing the cold, harsh winter in the POW camp.
TAYLOR: I didn’t mind the pacing, nor any other technical aspect of the film, I just think the story wasn’t there. In fact, there was only one moving scene. I also felt a bit violated by the film, as it seems to require a bit of patriotism to make it worthwhile. To this end I have but one question for Hollywood: Where is the film about the Muslim terrorist who gets captured by the CIA and tortured for months, only to stand up to his captors and become a hero to his people? It’s a heavy hand that slaps Unbroken down, but is no less correct to do so.
– Howe gives Unbroken 2 sharks out of 5.
– Taylor gives it 2.5 wasted writers out of 5.
– Peter Howe and Brian Taylor are film reviewers based in Vernon, B.C. Their column, Reel Reviews, appears ion The Morning Star every Friday and Sunday.
