Movie Review – Unbroken (2014)
By: Garrett Collins
Starring: Jack O’Connell, Garrett Hedlund, Domhnall Gleeson, Finn Wittrock, Jai Courtney, Alex Russell, Luke Treadaway, and Spencer Lofranco
On paper, Unbroken would seem like a tale we have seen unfold on the big screen at least a hundred times before. Going as far back as 1989, when the Oliver Stone biopic Born on the Fourth of July tried its damnedest to garner Tom Cruise an Oscar, to the most recent Peter Berg actionier from last year Lone Survivor, Hollywood has always tried to prove that their fingers are on the pulses of those of us who like to have our hearts tugged while watching a war movie which is based on fact. As far as me personally, even though I am not a big fan of war films, as long as it is told in a formidable and unpretentious way, I will give any story a chance. So when Unbroken started its hype machine by proclaiming director Angelina Jolie to have turned in an Oscar caliber directing job and the performances also having a legitimate shot at holding some Oscar gold, I walked into the film optimistically reserved. On one end, War Horse was also gathering this kind of hype when it was released a few years ago, and it wasn’t anywhere close to being on par with Spielberg’s usual work. Well I am happy to say that save for a final third that tends to drag its point like a heavy tractor-trailer, Unbroken more or less delivers on its promise and proves to be an excellently told story which balances its dramatic prisoner of war scenes with those of an established biographical narrative beautifully.
Unbroken tells the inspirational story about celebrated athlete-turned-soldier Louis Zamperini, who survived weeks at sea after his plane was shot down over the Pacific during World War II, and then endured a horrific period in a Japanese war camp. Unbroken’s script -which credits the Coen Brothers as two of its contributors- sets up Zamperini’s never say die attitude by showing him push through pain and exhaustion each and every time he crosses the finish line, even while doing so at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. All of this is told through flashback as Jolie introduces Zamperini as the bombardier of a plane which is holding off a Japanese attack. This is where the first of Unbroken’s many surprises hit me, in that Jolie proves herself to be a very formidable action director. While the inside-the-cockpit realism style action scenes are scattered throughout the film’s elongated 137 minute running time, Unbroken nonetheless works as the action drama that War Horse failed so badly at being. There’s even a scene of Zamperini fighting off a shark that had me gripping my seat.
However, there are instances when Unbroken is shown to be inferior, as it starts to fall into a highly predictable three act narrative that more times than naught, seems afraid to play the cards it is obviously holding. On one end, Jolie’s restraint needs to be commended, as it would have been so easy to fall on the ‘let’s show Louis eating maggots to survive’ way of shock storytelling as a way to illustrate just how tough Zamperini had it. Don’t get me wrong. There are plenty of barbaric scenes of brutality. But all of them are played with a PG-13 style quality that really hurts Unbroken’s narrative. Just like her 2011 directorial debut In The Land of Blood & Honey, this restraint proves to be a weakness with Jolie’s storytelling capabilities as opposed to a strength.
As far as performances go, the obvious bit of Oscar bait Unbroken is flashing before our eyes is the performance of O’Connell (Starred Up) as Zamperini. But his starry-eyed realization that he is now in the Hollywood big leagues never really leaves his face, and even as he floats about in the Pacific Ocean, he doesn’t have the presence of say a Tom Hanks, where his lone on-screen persona can make us like him. Surprisingly, the most screen time belongs to Hedlund, who is superb as John Fitzerald. His interactions with O’Connell are definitely the dialogue highlights of the film.
All in all, Unbroken is just the type of movie you would expect to come out that didn’t have hobbits inhabit its depths this holiday season. A chance taken here and there would certainly have enhanced it, and the Coens being credited first tells me that their version of the script had plenty that were ixnayed in later incarnations. Still, this is a hell of a directorial effort by Jolie, and any movie which makes me both tear up and look outside my own self-imposed bubble is certainly a film I can endorse and recommend to others.
7.5 out of 10