I challenge the critical reviews

Rating: 10/10 (5 January 2015)

Just being cautious on the "spoiler" issue. Don't think I have any given how well known the life story is for Zamperini. I'm disappointed in the the many reviews critical of the movie content, or, more accurately, the lack of content. Zam's war experience IS what did not break him. Not the life events before that, and, no, not the struggles he went through afterward, it was the many incredible near death events of crashing in the ocean and ending up in Japanese POW camps.
A movie can be made about his misspent early life and how he was saved from a life of crime then went onto to be an Olympic champion. That story been done many times. It can get old, and has all the predictability decried in some reviews here. Or, a movie can be made about his after-war struggles, how he got religion and saved his family & life as some reviewers are demanding. Oh, wait, that's been done many times and always predictably. You can find decades of those movies, and those are lives that are rather common, can happen to anyone.
But the war events that could have hammered Zmaperini into a miserable unsung death do not happen to just anyone. And those who are hit with such events often break (no disgrace) or die--or both. It was Zamperini's determination and stamina that got him through, an inspirational feat. He was UNBROKEN. That his war experience was bracketed by an inspirational early life and post-war life makes his life story particularly moving and inspirational.
I applaud Jolie for pulling out the key elements and honoring Zamperini with this film. Without beating a drum, she subtly wove in other themes. That warriors are courageous breed; that war is not romantic but demands the best a man can offer; that Japan was not was not a victim of America. But the shining beacon in this film is that a man endured this suffering and torment and came through UNBROKEN.
Our budding young "men" should see this movie.