Review: ‘Unbroken,’ improbable and incomplete
According to the film “Unbroken,” Louis Zamperini had 30 percent of a remarkable life. By the time he was 28, he had competed as an Olympic distance runner, enlisted in the Army Air Force, crashed on a bombing run, survived six weeks on a raft at sea and endured terrible torture in a Japanese prison camp before coming back to the United States.
There director Angelina Jolie leaves him, seven decades before his death last July. We don’t see his alcoholism and post-traumatic stress disorder after coming home, the decay of his marriage, the vengeful hatred that led him to strangle his captors in his nightmares. Nor do we see his conversion to Christianity after a 1949 Billy Graham crusade in Los Angeles, an event he credited with saving his sanity, marriage and perhaps his life. He was able to forgive his tormentors, even going back to Japan to try to do so in person.
Perhaps the filmmakers were afraid his devout faith would consign their movie to the low-attendance ghetto where Christian movies often land. Maybe they felt the story was too long and complex. (In that case, it should have been a miniseries.) Maybe Jolie, who’s not a Christian, couldn’t figure out how to convey what Zamperini went through after faith healed him.
The movie deals with most of these events in a few title cards before the closing credits. We’re left with a handsome, well-paced, conventional portrait of a generic hero.
Four Oscar-nominated screenwriters – Joel and Ethan Coen, Richard LaGravenese and William Nicholson – took a shot at the screenplay, which remains stubbornly bland. Zamperini (Jack O’Connell) starts as a juvenile delinquent, discovers a talent for running, sets a high school record for the mile and is off to Berlin for the Olympics. We see him in the air, in the sea and in two prison camps, where he receives endless sadistic beatings from a camp commander named Watanabe (Japanese pop star Miyavi). Then he comes home to hugs.
The acting passes muster, though I couldn’t decide whether Miyavi’s epicene behavior was his natural demeanor or was meant to imply a suppressed homosexual attraction. O’Connell stays solid, though Garrett Hedlund draws your eye away from him as another prisoner at the camp.
The raft scenes remain the most interesting, as fellow downed fliers Phil (Domhnall Gleeson) and Mac (Finn Wittrock) try to stay hydrated and sane while awaiting rescue. Once we’re in the camp, the movie becomes unbelievable: At one point, every prisoner punches Zamperini in the face without breaking bones or leaving scars. From then on, it’s an endurance contest for both the hero and his audience.
Zamperini does briefly tell God that, if he’s rescued from peril, he’ll dedicate his life to doing what the Lord wants. That comes across as a “no atheists in a foxhole”-type prayer, and his ultimate unseen commitment to his savior seems an afterthought.
P.S. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association will release “Louis Zamperini: Captured by Grace” on Christmas, the same day “Unbroken” opens in theaters. The documentary covers some of the same territory but discusses Zamperini’s faith journey. Details: billygraham.org.