Emotionally solid, technically marvelous WWII drama...but with a thick layer of masochism

Rating: 6/10 (9 May 2015)

In 1920s California, juvenile delinquent Louis Zamperini shows an early talent for track and field, eventually making it to the 1936 Olympics held in Berlin, but his endurance as an athlete is nothing compared to the physical tortures he endures as a bombardier during WWII. After surviving a plane crash in the ocean and being lost at sea for some 45 days, Zamperini and a comrade are captured by the Japanese, where they are interrogated and brutalized. Director and co-producer Angelina Jolie does a fine job bringing Laura Hillenbrand's non-fiction book "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption" to the screen, with the gripping aerial action at the beginning particularly stunning. However, once Zamperini is blindfolded and led off to a POW camp in Tokyo, the movie becomes a checklist of masochistic horrors, complete with a sadistic Japanese sergeant portrayed in the same hissable manner as the Indians in an old Republic Pictures serial (with Jolie doting on actor Miyavi's smooth, unfeeling face). The entire second-half is an unending series of brutal, degrading humiliations which, though based on a true account, are not at all enlightening, varied or entertaining. We never get to know the victimized men holed up in this camp--they have no personalities--although Jolie and her scenarists are certainly adept at displaying their agonies and suffering. Strictly on a filmmaking level, "Unbroken" is a handsome, serious piece of work with fine performances and deeply-felt emotions at the finish line. **1/2 from ****