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UNBROKEN Send This Review to a Friend
Angelina Jolie as director, and co-producer with Clayton Townsend and Matthew Baer, has made a visually and emotionally strong film about a real character and his story. “Unbroken” captures the saga of Louis Zamperini, who ran in the 1936 Olympics, became a World War II bombardier, crashed, miraculously survived an ordeal stranded at sea only to be taken prisoner and tortured by the Japanese.
How he finally came through alive makes for powerful telling. The screenplay was written by Joel and Ethan Coen, Richard LaGravenese and William Nicholson based on the book by Laura Hillenbrand. The film gains its strength from the performance of Jack O’Connell as Zamperini, the great cinematography of Roger Deakins, and of course, the directorial vision of Jolie.
It is always a pleasure to find someone who has earned a reputation in one category succeeding in another. Jolie, known primarily as an actress and for her glamorous looks, demonstrates with “Unbroken” that she can be a major player as director.
The film emerges as a survival thriller, embracing Zamperini’s relationship with those around him. There is also the history involved, detailing the grim realities that befell prisoners of war in the grip of the Japanese.
We meet the sadistic Japanese prison camp officer Watanabe (Miyavi), who is determined to break Zamperini, stubbornly determined not to cave in to the brutality meted out to him and other captives.
“Unbroken,” by dramatizing one man’s saga, extends its reach to reflect what others went through in the war. Jolie, while not the first woman to delve effectively into action films, has given us the kind of an adventure film one still generally tends to associate with legendary male directors. A Universal Pictures release. Reviewed December 25, 2014.
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