Unbroken

Unbroken

** ½ / ****

Reviewed by Sean Trolinder

Directed by Angelina Jolie

Cast: Jack O’Connell, Miyavi, Domhnall Gleeson, Garrett Hedlund, Finn Witrock, Jai Courtney

 

 

 

            For the past year, Unbroken received a ton of hype for being Angelina Jolie’s second film (her directorial debut was in 2011 for In the Land of Blood and Honey) and being about an Olympic long distance runner, Louis Zamperini, who served during WWII and was taken as a prisoner of war in a Japanese detention camp. Unbroken’s screenplay was drafted by Joel and Ethan Coen (the team who brought to the world such classics like Fargo, Raising Arizona, and No Country for Old Men) and adapted from a book by Laura Hillenbrand (who also wrote Seabiscuit, an adaptation that was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar in 2004). The film’s cinematographer is Roger Deakins (famous for his photography in The Shawshank Redemption and A Beautiful Mind), who I must admit filmed beautiful scenes throughout Unbroken (especially in the 47 day open sea sequence).  With a major movie star trying to make her directing mark in cinema, the subject matter being set during war time, and the TV ads’ focus being on an athlete overcoming obstacles to compete in the Olympics, the subject matter appears to be pure Oscar bait on paper. Unfortunately, the final product is only that.

             Unbroken begins with a great sequence where Louis Zamperini (played by Jack O’Connell) and a few pilots are involved in an air raid in which their mission is to bomb a Japanese base. Immediately, Jolie puts the audience on edge by showing the film’s hero having bullets fired at him and Deakins’ cinematography truly makes the action riveting. However, the film then oddly cuts throughout the WWII sequences to when Zamperini was a troubled youth, constantly fighting older kids, sneaking liquor, and sexualizing women. As a young boy, Zamperini is pushed to run in order to escape his dead end existence and he’s reminded to never give up, since “a moment of pain is worth a lifetime of glory.” The film then flips back and forth between Zamperini’s situation in Japan as a participant in war and his performance at the Olympics, until the film finally settles on the war storyline when his plane crashes in the Pacific Ocean, mainly because two sets of engines and propellers cause the left wing to collapse. At this point in the film, it is hard to understand why Jolie choses to edit the film in such a way, since flashbacks really never happen afterward. Even with this questionable choice, I’m not even sure if telling the story in chronological order would have greatly improved the quality of the overall film.

            After Zamperini’s plane slams into the ocean, he struggles to dislodge a gun that wedges against his leg before he swims above water. As soon as he breathes, he sees a set of life rafts and two of his fellow pilots, Phil (played by Domhnall Gleeson) and Mac (Finn Witrock), swimming toward them. The three are the only remaining survivors of the crash. Then, Jolie makes her second questionable directing choice by belaboring nearly thirty-five minutes of film on Zamperini, Phil, and Mac’s struggle to survive the open ocean for over 47 days. On one hand, Jolie does need to show how Zamperini tries to find food (which involves a comedic moment involving a seagull and several attempts at fishing), but she spends way too much time belaboring Zamperini’s struggle. During this sequence (which does have great cinematography), the movie becomes filled with pointless dialogue, more as a device to try and develop the relationship between Zamperini and Phil (which is only pivotal in one or two scenes once they become POWs). Eventually, Mac (the weakest of the three) dies and after 47 days, Zamperini and Phil’s raft runs into a Japanese destroyer ship. The two men are taken to a general who questions the location of American bases, but they are quickly shipped off to a Japanese detention camp.

            Over the final hour and fifteen minutes of the film, Unbroken focuses on Zamperini’s life as a WWII prisoner of war and the obstacles that the ruthless General Watanabe, also known as “The Bird” (played by Miyavi), put him through. Rumor has it that “The Bird” came from a privileged upbringing, so the prisoners wonder if his extreme form of abuse stems from the fact that he doesn’t quite respect himself as a man. Nonetheless, “The Bird” takes every opportunity to test Zamperini’s will, spirit, and heart, mainly because Zamperini was the only prisoner who ever dared look at him in the eye without request. The final hour of Unbroken is difficult to watch, since the torture scenes rival the relentlessness shown in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. “The Bird” begins abusing Zamperini with simple whacks of his stick, which is not too bad, but then he begin to publically ridicule him once he finds out that Zamperini was a former Olympian (such as having him race another prisoner while extremely wore out). At one point, Zamperini is given the opportunity to leave the detention camp if he agrees to denounce America over a Japanese radio broadcast, but he refuses, which leads “The Bird” to a demonstration on teaching manners and respect. In order to try and break Zamperini another time, “The Bird” has prisoners line up, one-by-one, and take a punch at Zamperini’s face. Many prisoners hesitate to hit Zamperini at first, but he demands it to spare other prisoners further anguish. As for the final extreme moment of abuse, “The Bird” forces Zamperini to hold a large wooden beam over his head after being so disheveled by lifting coal all day, so much so that Zamperini can barely stand up.

            There is no question that Zamperini deserves to have his story told and that the man endured more than probably any other American could imagine. However, Jolie’s wild editing decisions, overlong sequences, and the title card ending that just simply tells us what happens to Zamperini down the road leaves much to be desired. Also, other than maybe Miyavi as “The Bird,” the acting was not the best. Rumor has it that actor Dane DeHaan was a finalist for the prized role of Louis Zamperini, which went to Jack O’Connell. O’Connell has several moments where he seems to be going through the ropes, more like mimicking a man who must endure more than actually making the audience believe that he is one. Also, DeHaan is one of the most promising up and coming actors around, so how he could have handled playing Zamperini is only left to the imagination.

            I feel Unbroken might be a movie greatly respected for its cinematography one day, but as it stand, the film feels like a misfire. Angelina Jolie once said that the story of Louis Zamperini, a man she deeply respected, was her dream project, but I do feel the movie tries to over-glorify the fact that he survived more than inspired.