Unbroken. Rated M (mature themes and violence). 137
minutes. Directed by Angelina Jolie. Screenplay by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen,
Richard LaGravenese and William Nicholson.
Based on the book by Laura Hillenbrand.
Verdict: An incredible story about the power of Faith.
Since the end of hostilities in 1945, writers and filmmakers have turned to World War 2 as a source of rich dramatic material. The treatment of Prisoners of War by their Japanese captors has featured prominently, with The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence (1983), and The Railway Man (2013) just three of the most well-known films to explore the subject. And unless you have been living under a rock for the last decade or so, you will know how gruesome that subject can be.
Verdict: An incredible story about the power of Faith.
Since the end of hostilities in 1945, writers and filmmakers have turned to World War 2 as a source of rich dramatic material. The treatment of Prisoners of War by their Japanese captors has featured prominently, with The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence (1983), and The Railway Man (2013) just three of the most well-known films to explore the subject. And unless you have been living under a rock for the last decade or so, you will know how gruesome that subject can be.
While Jolie, cinematographer Roger Deakins, a quartet of writers and an outstanding ensemble of actors have undeniably made an excellent film, Unbroken struggles to bring any new insight or justification to the essential conflict, which it pursues with relentless, almost breathless, vigour.
Louis Zamperini’s (superbly portrayed by Jack O’Connell) story is an incredible one, and the best of Unbroken is when the film focuses on the extraordinary good fortune that ensured Zamperini’s continued survival against all the odds. It is little wonder that Zamperini made a pact with God to serve Him for the rest of his life if he was to survive the horrors that he endured on a daily basis – a pact Zamperini held to until he died in July last year.
Mutsuhiro Watanabe’s (Takamasa Ishihara) obsession with breaking Zamperini’s body and spirit becomes, simply, incomprehensible, and Unbroken’s bleak, brutal and unforgiving second act becomes harder and harder to watch. And then the reason crystallises. It is not a film about forgiveness in the same way that The Railway Man is. Unbroken, instead, is one of the most perfect films about the power of an unbreakable Faith – especially in oneself – in recent memory.
This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.
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