A Missed Opportunity

Rating: 5/10 (29 December 2014)

First, let it be said that the book "Unbroken" would be a hard act for anyone to follow. This true WWII adventure of Olympic track star Louie Zamperini turned soldier had all the ingredients to be a great film....misspent youth to great athlete to war hero to the crumbling emotional aftermath and finally to redemption. That said there was a one-dimensional quality about the movie version of the great Louie Zamperini. Yes, he survives an unimaginable weeks floating through the shark infested Pacific Ocean and subsequently endures unimaginable barbaric tortures at the hands of a sadistic prison warden nicknamed the "Bird" by the POW's. The scenes of cruelty and inhumanity become redundant because this is all we see. The usually flawless Cohen Brothers didn't finish their story. The movie basically concludes when the war is over and the audience is treated to a paragraph or two of synopsis of Zamperini's remaining 70 plus years. The movie fails to capture, convey, transfuse to the audience the internal turmoil and mental damage Zamperini experienced through two years of torture. The book describes a returning war hero so riddled with guilt and hate for his wartime persecutor that he is obsessed with returning to Japan to murder the "Bird". Besieged with nightmares he drinks heavily. He trains to return to the Olympics but his injured ankle collapses and ends that dream. After he embraces religion at a Billy Graham evangelical gathering and is able to forgive his former torturers, Zamporini shares his journey as a motivational speaker. By the predominant focus on the horrors of war, the film misses the opportunity to shape this wonderful protagonist to the multi faceted person he became. What a pity only part of the meal was served.