Very, very, gripping!

Rating: 8/10 (17 March 2015)

** my review contains spoiler!!!** I found this movie exceptionally gripping. Angelina has made a brilliant movie. I dunno why some reviewers have spewed out venom in their reviews. perhaps these were the readers of the best selling book on which the movie was based, and they may have felt let down by the movie. The same thing happened with the Hollywood legend "The Godfather"---- Many felt let down by the movie. Guys we must understand that it's not possible to show 400 pages of written text in a two and half hour movie. It's just not possible. Yet we want every scene described in the book be depicted on the screen. its NOT possible and not going to happen. That aside I believe Angelina made an exceptional ,movie on war , the suffering and incredible cruelty of the Japanese officer ( in charge of the POWs) --"the Bird" ( Watanabe)played by newcomer Takamasa Ishihara. The amount of brutality and torture inflicted on Louis Zamperini is shocking, horrifying, sickening, appalling, atrocious, outrageous, shocking, painful, heartbreaking, and even ghastly. Honestly Angelina although the movie and the narrative and the direction are exceptional, the impact was too much too bear. I was exceedingly glad and relieved when the movie was finally over and the POWs released---it was so gripping! However more post release scenes ( of POWs) could have been shown to ease the poor audience's pain and trauma. Seeing brutality of Watanabe on American POWs the audience (like me)simply start hating that Watanabe #$%^ and you want terrible things happen to him (which unfortunately don't. He gets away with all the bad things he does to Zafarelli. That being said we the audience stood up and applauded at the end:)