Unbroken (2014)

Directed by: Angelina Jolie
Country: USA

Movie Review: Jack O’Connell is Louis Zamperini in “Unbroken”, the second feature directed by Angelina Jolie, based on the real story of the mentioned Olympic athlete and World War hero. Louis, the son of a respected immigrant Italian family, was known as a stirrer. His life suddenly gains perspective when his older brother encourages him to be a runner, impelled by the motto ‘if I can take it, I can make it’. Zamperini’s successful run in the 1936 summer Olympics in Berlin seemed to give him perspectives of a great future, however patriotic duties spoke louder and he joined the US Army. During the world war, and after a first fright with a consolidated B24 liberator, Zamperini and friends have another accident, this time with a plane that revealed to be too old to fly. Crashing in the ocean, he spends 45 days trying to survive on board of a small floating raft until being captured by the Japanese. Taken to a detention camp with Phil, the only survivor besides him, Louie will have a hard time with Sergeant Watanabe, a sadistic young Japanese officer who showed brutal cruelty mixed with a concealed admiration for Louie’s courage. Well, this very personal dispute didn’t strike me at all, attaining the last straw when the exhausted Louie was forced to raise a wooden plank above his head. Emotions were enhanced here in the worst way, sinking a bit more what was already half-sank. Conventional and relying solely on the physical situations endured by its hero, “Unbroken” should have been more ‘dirty’ and raw in its imagery, and more intelligent in its approach. After all, we’ve seen all this before and much better depicted.