Somewhat pointless, somewhat 'is that it?', somewhat Stockholm syndrome

Rating: 4/10 (27 December 2014)

This is not a truly bad film, so wont leave you feeling like you just lost two years of your life you will never get back, but you do leave with a sense of "pointless" coming to your mind.
The movie does not have any big hitting names that will instantly grap the attention of cinema goers, but the acting, although not Oscar winning, was probably the best thing of this film by far. You do get little taste of what could become of some of the actors, so ones to look out for in the future, especially the lead.
What lets this film down seems to be the script and direction. Yes the movie may be based on an interesting tale of an Airman and PoW in WW2, but excluding the part of being an Olympian, its really a tale heard many a time from the many grandfathers of my generation who likewise were maltreated PoW to the Japanese.
The movie tries to focus in on the fighting spirit and determination of the human soul, however following a lost at sea fight, it seems it just tries to show these aspects from the various facial expressings during physical beatings. There does not seem any depth to the characters true emotion and feelings, other than a one liner "I want to kill him".
As the film progresses you just instantly know that another beating is coming, and you so eagerly want to just get it over with so you can move on in the hopes that something further will unfold. However as an audience it's like you are just experiencing some sort of Stockholm syndrome and you just come to expect the beatings - feel nothing - and just want to wait for the next one.
As time further progresses the only thing that starts to come to mind are the various ways you feel for the character and how you would like to kill the Japanese camp leader who has obvious spoilt-child / father issues and just wants to make everyone as miserable as he is. You keep wanting something more to happen, thinking "this is the time the camp will be liberated" and wanting to hear the crack of a snipers bullet flying towards Birdman's head, bringing the roar of sound as the karma balance begins in the universe. But nothing! It's like the paper ran out so the last page read "War ends".
The real story here, despite it being a film so keen to show the spirit of humanity, is that NOTHING happens to make amends. The war ends, PoWs return home, suffer PTSD and the only hope of lasting justice in the good vs evil / Kharma balance is that the Birdman hides for a few years only to be later "Let off" scott free in the interest of American / Japan relations! And after all its the beaten up runner who has to do all the forgiving. So you leave the cinema thinking "whats the point!". Its not a bad way to pass 2 hours, but you could better spend your time reading a whole range of accounts from PoWs who had things just as bad, if not worse, but unfortunately did not have the privilege of being a "non-champion, but good participant Olympian"