Unbroken

[ashdoc]

This seems to have the makings of a good movie . Unfortunately my girlfriend started feeling unwell and we had to walk out at the interval .

But the first half was good---though the pace of the film is not fast . For those who don't mind relatively slower paced films , it won't be a bad outing .

It shows the real life survival story of an american olympic athlete after his bomber aircraft downs in a dogfight with japanese fighter aircraft .

Survival on a lifeboat with sharks trying encircling it , no food to eat for long ( the fish they kill are raw uncooked meat which is too unpalatable to eat ) , and the classic dilemma of a person stranded at sea---water water all around , not a drop to drink !!

At the end of this ordeal comes the bigger one---of capture and brutal treatment in a japanese prisoner of war camp....

So at the end of all this , does the hero remain unbroken ?? I think the answer may be worth finding out by going again ( this time alone !! ) to the theater and watching the rest of the movie .

The first half is interrupted by flashbacks of the hero's growing up years---childhood experiences of being bullied and beaten , of being punished at school for lack of discipline , of overcoming odds to reach the sporting pinnacle ; only to see dreams thwarted by the coming of war.....landing in a japanese prisoner of war camp instead of the japanese capital Tokyo where the olympics were to be held....

I guess the hero is not the only one whose dreams were thwarted by world war ; indeed a lot of others in other nations suffered worse.....but our hero has the privilege of being an american---that's why a film is made on him....

One the day I would like to see a film on the life of a ukranian peasant whose life was shattered by the war.....but I guess these will be no takers for the film....

I guess there is a lot of japanese savagery towards the prisoners shown in the second half.....the japanese have already protested against it....makes me want to see the second half even more....nothing is better than controversy to attract me to a film:thumb:

 

[alphacentury]

This seems to have the makings of a good movie . Unfortunately my girlfriend started feeling unwell and we had to walk out at the interval .

Dem damn hand cramps . . , I know that feel/pain bro .

 

[ashdoc]

Review

Patriotism is rife in the air in America....films like 'American sniper' ' Against the sun' and 'Unbroken'....

This is a true war story of survival in the midst of all the horrors of world war.....and the hero is a celebrity ; an olympian to boot . His name is Louis Zamperini played in this film by Jack O'Connell .

It is not an action film by any standards , but rather a relatively slow paced film ; maybe that's how a real life war story should be....for the first half is interrupted by flashbacks of the hero's growing up years---childhood experiences of being bullied and beaten , of being punished at school for lack of discipline , of overcoming odds to reach the sporting pinnacle ; only to see dreams thwarted by the coming of war.....landing in a japanese prisoner of war camp instead of the japanese capital Tokyo where the olympics were to be held....

Louis is a bombardier in a warplane that crashes in the Pacific due to faulty spare parts ; a rather ingloriously tepid crash for a person whose warplane has crashed once before due to the hits of enemy fire which is a far more glamorous way of crashing....

But this time his warplane has crashed for the final time , for this time there is no coming back like the last time ; not for a long while anyway....

And he and two other men are stranded at sea in a lifeboat with sharks circling hungrily around , and they have no food to eat except by killing the deadly sharks themselves as bird meat is too unpalatable....and there is the classic dilemma of a person stranded at sea---water water all around , not a drop to drink !!

At the end of this ordeal comes the bigger one---of capture and brutal treatment in a japanese prisoner of war camp....

Not only is Louie beaten repeatedly , he is especially targeted because he is a famous athlete who has the temerity to look at the prison camp's commandant Mutsuhiro Watanabe ( played by Takamasa Ishihara ) in the eye....
And so he is picked for brutal treatment ; and it consists of stripping him naked for being doused with cold water , and regular thwacks on the back by hard bamboo sticks , punches on the nose which leave him bleeding , and the worst is his co prisoners being forced to beat him up on pain of their other comrades to be beaten up....

But Louie gets his revenge when he still manages to look the commandant directly in the eye while being forced to hold up an iron girder , bringing the commandant to tears....
And he also gets the chance to tell his parents by broadcasting on radio Tokyo that he is still alive....

The prisoners are sure that they will be killed if Japan loses the war , but Louis still wants America to win....a true patriot indeed....

Of course , the hero is not the only one whose life was thwarted by world war ; indeed a lot of others in other nations suffered worse.....but our hero has the privilege of being an american---that's why a film is made on him....

One the day I would like to see a film on the life of a poor ukranian peasant whose life was shattered by the war.....but I guess these will be no takers for the film....

The japanese have protested against their depiction in the film , for they have been shown in a negative light .
At the end of such a harrowing experience at their hands , does the hero really remain 'unbroken' as the title suggests ?
Watch the movie for the answers....

The movie has an emotional ending , with shots of american prisoners dancing with joy as they learn that they have won the war and a shot of Louis touching his forehead on the ground on returning to the soil of his beloved America and an old Louis returning to Japan decades later to carry the Olympic torch for the Olympics....

And it was difficult for me not to be affected by this emotion....the emotion went a long way in making me like the film....
Acting by all actors is good , so is music and photography . To be honest , I have seen worse treatments of prisoners in films , but one should remember that those films were fiction while this story is real....

Verdict---Good .