Unbroken (2014) * *

Directed by:  Angelina Jolie

Starring: Jack O'Connell, Takamasa Ishihara, Garrett Hedlund, Domhnall Gleeson, Jai Courtney

Louis Zamperini lived a full life until dying in the summer of 2014 at aged 97.    His life was documented in a best-selling book by Laura Hillebrand and now made into a well-acted film.    The trouble is, the film concentrates on mostly the World War II portion of his life, which includes being stranded 45 days at sea following a plane crash and then a torturous stay in a Japanese POW camp.    Images of better films like Life of Pi and Bridge on the River Kwai flowed through my mind when I should've been focusing on this man's story.   I've seen this before in other films, even if the film was close to the facts, which I have no reason to believe otherwise.   Zamperini's experiences in the camp could be mirrored by thousands of other men, yet Unbroken is made about him, so what was so special about him?    Others had it worse than him also and some, of course, died. 

Unbroken is a film that tells me that the character is special without really delving into why.    It scratches the surface, but strangely the epilogue explaining Zamperini's post-World War II path to forgiveness of the Japanese and eventually carrying the Olympic torch during the 1998 Nagano games sounds like a more compelling story.    The POW stuff may seem easier for moviegoers to swallow, but the real story began just as the movie was ending.     I'm reminded of the line in Barton Fink in which the movie producer tells Fink, "The wrestling with the soul crap is for the critics."   Oddly, Unbroken's script was co-written by Joel and Ethan Coen, who made Barton Fink.    They should've tried the wrestling with the soul crap.   

Zamperini is played by Jack O'Connell, who is athletic and good-looking, if not entirely charismatic.    Then again, Unbroken doesn't really give him much to do, even when going through the hell of being adrift at sea and then in various Japanese prisons.     One character says, "I'm glad it's you that's here with us," when they are floating in their rafts.    Why is that?     As a bombardier during the air battles in the Pacific, he shows real nerve like the others in his crew.    One problem in the film is how other characters damn near genuflect in Zamperini's presence.    They apparently read the novel.   

As the film opens, Zamperini is a teen who cuts school and gets into trouble, but by accident becomes a track star on his high school team.    He is chased away from looking up girl's skirts from under the bleachers and amazes others at his speed.     I couldn't help but think of Bear Bryant discovering Forrest Gump.     His older brother Peter, sounding like a walking, breathing motivational poster like the ones hanging up in offices, tells him, "If you can take it, you can make it."     This becomes his rallying cry.    Soon enough, Zamperini is running the 5000 meter race in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.     The film never fully explains exactly how he finished.    He definitely didn't win, but the play-by-play radio narration explains how his final lap time of 56 seconds set some sort of Olympic record.     This reminds me of a baseball team losing a game 15-3 and bragging about how they managed to eke out the 3 runs.    I had to look up in Wikipedia to find out that he finished 8th in the event.

Then comes World War II.    He and his friend survive 45 days at sea, which is not a record anyone wants to set; eating fish, sharks, and getting sick biting into a seagull.    They are captured by the Japanese, who at first send him to the jungles of the Pacific and then to Tokyo, where the camp is led by a fey corporal (Ishihara), who looks stern and wears a lot of mascara.     The corporal pays special attention to Zamperini, berating him and beating him for looking at him during his introduction to the troops.    Later, the corporal says, "When I first looked at you, I wanted you to be my friend."    It is not made entirely clear whether the corporal is attracted to Zamperini sexually, but there are vibes.    The torment he puts Zamperini through is his version of a cold shower.    A word of advice to the corporal:  Beating a guy up, asking every prisoner to punch him in the face, and then forcing him to keep a heavy piece of wood lifted over his head are not ways to win friends and influence people. 

Unbroken is professionally made, with plenty of atmosphere thrown in by director Jolie and cinematographer Roger Deakins.    It looks great and moves along well, but at the service of a story that we've frankly seen before, just not with Louis Zamperini.