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Laramie Movie Scope: Unbroken

Amazing story of survival

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by Robert Roten, Film Critic
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December 3, 2014 -- This is an amazing story of survival set in World War II. It is based on the true story of the late Louis Zamperini, an Olympic athlete and survivor of hellish prisoner of war camps in Japan.

This is a very straightforward story, written by the dynamic duo of Joel and Ethan Coen, beginning with Zamperini's childhood and moving straight on through to the end of World War II, with a lot of flashbacks in between. Directed by Angelina Jolie (“In the Land of Blood and Honey”) this is a big budget film that looks great, thanks to great special effects and the work of award-winning cinematographer Roger Deakins.

Louis Zamperini (played by C.J. Valleroy as a child and by Jack O'Connell as an adult) is a kid in trouble, until his older brother gets him on the school track team and he becomes a top international runner, competing in the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936. He plans to compete in the 1940 Tokyo Olympics, but a war gets in the way of that. He gets to Tokyo all right, but not the way he wanted, as a prisoner of war.

Louis is a bombardier in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He goes in harm's way when his plane goes down on a rescue mission due to engine failure. Only three men survive the crash. In one scene, their lifeboat is strafed by an enemy bomber. They jump into the ocean because plane overhead is shooting at them. But the water isn't safe either, because of sharks. The plane also shoots their life raft full of holes.

Finally, the two remaining survivors, Louis and his friend, Russell Allen 'Phil' Phillips (played by Domhnall Gleeson of “About Time”) are rescued, by the Japanese. When Louis wakes up in the life raft and sees they have been found by a Japanese Navy vessel, he says to Phil, “I've got good news and bad news.”

The two men are split up and sent to different POW camps. Louis is sent to a camp run by a war criminal, Mutsushiro Watanabe (played by Takamasa Ishihara) who is known as “The Bird.” The Bird knows about Louis being an Olympic athlete and is determined to break him using severe punishment. He is told by a fellow prisoner that the only way to win this fight is to survive to the end of the war. Survival is victory. I liked the way that Louis is played in this movie. He is a hero, but not totally defiant, and not always strong. He has his weaknesses, and that makes him more believable.

The acting is excellent in the film, especially by Jack O'Connell and Takamasa Ishihara. The relationship between these two characters reminds me a bit of two characters in another film, Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guiness) and Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa). These two characters had a standoff in an award-winning war film, “The Bridge on the River Kwai” (1957). Mutsushiro Watanabe's frustration with the unbroken man, Zamperini, is very similar to Saito's frustration with Colonel Nicholson, who simply will not give in, at least not the way that Saito wants him to.

This film is a bit of a throwback to the war films of yesteryear. One of the few things that is modern about it is the computer graphics used to create vintage aircraft flying in the sky. These effects are very real-looking, by the way, and the effects don't call attention to themselves. This film rates a B.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in digital formats, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

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Copyright © 2014 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.
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Robert Roten can be reached via e-mail at my last name at lariat dot org. [Mailer button: image of letter and envelope]

(If you e-mail me with a question about this or any other movie or review, please mention the name of the movie you are asking the question about, otherwise I may have no way of knowing which film you are referring to)