This film is not for very young children, as it is quite intense at times, and it deals with themes that aren’t appropriate for the very young. You see, Louie Zamperini was an Olympian who wound up fighting in World War II. During that time he wound up floating in the ocean for over forty days on a life raft. During this portion of the movie, I thought that was all that the movie would be about, as it lasted a very long time. But the movie goes further into the story, as Zamperini and another soldier are rescued from the ocean… and promptly imprisoned by the Japanese Navy who found them.
This is not the feel good movie that it’s advertised to be. The ads show a lot of Olympics and training, but all of that happens within the first third of the movie. They’re used as flashbacks during that part of the movie, but after the flashbacks stopped, I found myself wishing there were more during the rest of the movie. This is especially true as it feels like we’re watching scene after scene of Zamperini being beaten, either by those running the concentration camp, or a time they forced all of the other prisoners to punch Louis in the face, one by one.
In this paragraph, I’m going to discuss the very end of the movie, so if you’re worried about spoilers, I’d recommend not reading this paragraph. It’s not something I’d usually do in a review of a movie, but I feel like it has to be addressed. This is because the marketing is kind of (sort of) misleading about one of the themes of the movie… the theme of forgiveness. At the end of the movie, text appears on the screen that explains a little bit about what happened in the years to come. One of the revelations is that Zamperini eventually made good on a promise that he made to God earlier in his life, while he was floating on the raft. He returned to Japan and sought out those that tortured him and offered his forgiveness. This is something that I feel was a majorly unfortunate artistic decision on the part of the filmmakers. Why oh why, after what felt like hours of torture and beatings would you stop short of showing this very important moment visually? It’s very difficult not to feel cheated by the movie in this regard. It would have taken the movie from good to great. I was waiting for that moment of forgiveness, and that moment came in text format. Perhaps the filmmakers thought that ending would be too much of a parallel to the ending of Saving Private Ryan, but it would have been different enough. This is, afterall, based on a true story.
Unbroken is a film that is largely based on the ordeals of soldiers in POW camps. Many realities of the brutality of war are on display, and we see soldiers in captivity and their mistreatment. The film is also about the human spirit, and shows Zamperini going through all of this, and coming out of it triumphant, against all odds. The movie is brutal and difficult to watch. It does, however, offer instances of inspiration. There were some times when I wondered where the movie was going, though, as I was finished watching the brutality long before it was finished. I suppose that’s what made the end of the movie that much less impactful than it could have been.
I just feel that it stopped just shy of being the inspirational movie that I wanted it to be. I was expecting greatness, but instead I got “good.”
What really told me a lot about my experience with the movie was when I got home from the movie and saw that there was a behind the scenes documentary on TV. Tom Brokaw was interviewing director Angelina Jolie and Zamperini himself about his life, the movie, and the long road to bringing this movie to the big screen. I found the documentary to be more fulfilling than the film itself, and that made me sad.
I give the movie a 3 out of 5, and I think that’s a fair score for it.
Please also read this review, which reflected my thoughts very well.