Movie Review: "Unbroken"

"Unbroken": B+.  Unbroken, one of the most eagerly anticipated movies of the year, opened Christmas Day to large audiences.  The movie tells the story of Olympic track athlete Louie Zamperini, who served his country in World War II with the Army Air Corps as a bombardier on a B-24.  The first third of the film establishes "Zam" as a kid with an adventurous spirit who had his share of run-ins with authorities.  Only his older brother, Pete, was able to connect with him.  Being a gifted runner was Louie's ticket off the path of juvenile delinquency.  Although he made the US Olympic team for the Berlin Games in 1936, he had his sights set on the next Olympiad, to be held in Tokyo, as his chance for a medal.  Unfortunately, the war got in the way.  The competitiveness, zeal and physical stamina which Zam drew upon to reach athletic stardom not only served him well as a civilian, but were ingredients necessary to enable him to survive the two major, life-threatening chapters he faced as an airman.

The first of those was a combination of being airborne target practice for the Japanese as Zam and his mates flew overhead in their B-24 bomber, and the multi-week ordeal of being afloat in a rubber raft following a crash in the western Pacific.  For personal reasons, the scenes inside the plane were my favorite sequences in this long (137 minutes) movie.  The B-24's structure and interior architecture were very similar to the B-17s my father flew on eleven bombing missions over Germany.  Like Zam, the Marquis was a bombardier, and as the film correctly shows, when the plane maneuvers near the target its course is actually under the direction of the bombardier, not the pilot or copilot.  (By the way, the only officers on board were those three plus the navigator; the rest of the crew were enlisted men.)  While the bombardier is lining up his sights, the plane is taking on both ground anti-aircraft fire and the enemy's evasive fighter jets.  Inside and outside the plane, lethal bullets and rockets are everywhere.  It is hard to imagine the courage it took for those airmen to risk their lives in that fashion.

The second major life-threatening event was Zam's gut-wrenching experiences as a prisoner of war on the Japanese mainland.  The camp was run by a sadist, Wantanabe (Takamasa Ishihara), derisively referred to by the GIs as "the Bird," who finds out early on that one of the new prisoners is an Olympic athlete.  Of course, that is Zamperini, who thereupon becomes the focus of much of Wantanabe's unwanted attention.  The rules of the Geneva Convention concerning the treatment of POWs is willfully ignored.  Beatings, forced labor and death threats become par for the course.  We never see Wantanabe without his bamboo-wrapped cudgel, and we unsuccessfully hope that he won't use it to strike a prisoner.

The challenge facing director Angelina Jolie is familiar to any filmmaker telling a story to an audience comprised of people who already know the ultimate outcome, if not many of the details.  Even if we did not know whatever happened to Zam, the film's title is, itself, a giveaway.  Thus, Jolie's accomplishment in providing us a gripping account of the almost unbelievable heroic story is all the more extremely impressive.

Equally impressive is the film's editing, a combined effort by director Jolie and editors William Goldenberg and Tim Squyres.  For example, Zam and some of his mates were afloat on the raft for forty-seven days, a length of time almost impossible to fathom -- no pun intended.  During that ordeal they had to withstand hunger, thirst, shark attacks, violent storms and a relentless sun.  The movie stays on this chapter just long enough for us to appreciate the hardship without turning the story into a "lost at sea" marathon.  In a similar vein, Jolie leaves no doubt as to the cruelty inflicted upon Zam by the Bird, but does not go overboard with guts and gore (unlike, say, Quentin Tarantino in 2012's Django Unchained).

The casting for Unbroken is noteworthy for a couple of reasons.  Jack O'Connell, a mostly unknown English actor picked to play Zamperini, hits the mark in every scene.  Fifteen year old newcomer C.J. Valleroy, cast as young Zam, bears an uncanny resemblance to O'Connell.  But Jolie's choice of Ishihara to fill the role of the Bird is generating the most buzz.  In his native Japan, Ishihara is a rock star who goes by the name of Miyavi.  Jolie had to talk him into accepting the part.  His soft sad eyes and smooth voice set us up for a surprise when, as the camp commander, he turns into an inhumane thug.