Falls short of the mark...

Rating: 6/10 (1 July 2015)

The story of the remarkable life of Louis Zamperini as treated in Helen Hillenbrand's book Unbroken has been adapted to the screen in this film which shares the same name.
Lamentably whilst this film has many of the trapping of expensive Hollywood productions, it lacks the most vital ingredient, a soul. We get to know very little about the Louis Zamperini, the man. Instead, what we are offered is a larger than life caricature, that focuses on Zamperini's Olympic achievements and his courage when faced with abuse at the hands of the Japanese as a prisoner of war.
What also irritated me about this production, was the attempt to humanize and by extension reform Zamperini's abuser, Mutsuhiro Watanabe. A man occupying US authorities, not unreasonably, classified a war criminal. This film does not show the true extent of Watanabe's abuses (which perhaps is not surprising) but nonetheless showing him in a photo as a boy with his father in no way detracts from or excuses what he did to defenseless, weakened men.
All in all, for me, this film falls short of the mark. Its not dreadful but it would have benefited greatly from taking more time to let us get to know the not just Zamperini but the other men who served alongside him. Six out of ten from me.