Saturday, February 13, 2016

Unbroken (PG-13; 2014)


MoViews:  UnBroken          Genres:   Drama          Rating:  PG-13           Runtime: 2 hrs 13 mins
Overall BAGEO Rating: E
Direction:  Angelina Joile   ;   Cinematography:
Screen Play:  Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Richard Lagravanese, William Nicholson   Production Designer: Jon Hutman
Key Actors: Jack O'Connell
Summary:  
An amazing movie based on the real life story of Louis Zamperini who was a potential Olympic runner for the USA, but was destined to participate in a rescue mission during the war against Japanese.  The rescue mission went wrong and he along with two of his colleagues were trapped in a raft in the middle of Pacific Ocean for 47 days.  To make matters worse, he and another man Phil (the third soldier died in the ocean) were captured by Japanese soldiers and forced thro a horrible torture in different prison camps. Zamperini survives all the torture against all odds and returns back to the US and to his family.   It is said (and not in the movie though) that after a few years of recovery from the trauma, Louis becomes a spiritual man and goes back to Japan to his war camps and forgives all the Japanese soldiers who tortured him.   He was supposed to have participated in the Tokyo Olympics which was cancelled , so  he had the honor of running with the torch in Japan in 1998.

The movie is based on the book 'Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption'  by Laura Hillenbrand and directed by the celebrated movie star Angelina Jolie.

Amazing bombing scenes from fighter jet at the beginning.   Fills the screen with sound effects and realistic scenes.    Many  motivating lines in the script including  "Go on living the best you can.  Try to have some fun along the way", ""If you take it, you can make it"".    For me, the scenes in the ocean resembled the Life of Pi movie, but the story takes a drastic turn when they were captured by Japanese.    Ferocious scenes of sudden attacks from sharks.  A very tragic situation of one of their man (Mac) dying and his body respectfully lowered into the ocean.   After sometime even the viewer may start wondering when their difficulty ends when they are caught by Japanese and cruelly tortured (abused?) and even separated. A lot of cruelty in the war camps - can't believe it.    The movie sets for the war scenes are very realistic and elaborate.  Can't believe Japanese were so cruel in their treatment of prisoners.  Amazing scene of all prisoners bathing in the river   An unbelievable true story of survival, resilience and redemption indeed, as the title of the movie says.  In one of the most anguishing scenes, a malnourished and tired Louis Zamperini is ordered by his Japanese commander to lift a huge log of wood as punishment.
Got to know the movie was filmed mostly in the Gold Coast of Australia.  Not in the movie, but it is said that Louis became was suffering from trauma after the return (understandably) and became an alcoholi, but at the insistence of his wife,  started attending the sermons of Billy Graham and became a born-again Christian.  He then went back to Japan after his recovery from the trauma and met his former Japanese soldiers who tortured him and forgave them for their acts.

Other interesting points:

Overall:   An excellent movie based on a true story.  Difficult to watch for kids.                        BAGEO Rating:  E

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