Inspiring survival story indeed

Rating: 7/10 (12 January 2015)

The movie tells the story of Louie Zamperini, US Olympics track athlete, and his ordeal as a soldier in World War II. The movie starts with his job as an Air Force bombardier on a bomber crew with Phil and Cup, and a bombing mission that really damages their plane. It goes back and forth to flash backs about his childhood as the son of an Italian immigrant family, his introduction and advances in track running, and his first run in the Olympics. The crew gets another mission and replacement men for their fallen comrades, but no new plane. En route, the plane's engines fail and they dive into the ocean. Only three made it out alive from the crash; Louis, Phil and Mac; and they are stranded on the ocean for almost fifty days. They spot two planes flying over them, the first didn't see them while the second is a Japanese that shot at them. When rations thin out, they try to eat everything to survive from raw fish, seagull, to sharks. Then their salvation comes, but it's also a bad news since it's the Japanese, who then puts the into a POW camp in mainland Japan.
The commander of the camp is known as The Bird by the prisoners for he doesn't like the name they call him. The Bird is an erratic behaving corporal who grew up a rich kid and aspiring to be an officer but gets denied by the Japanese military and instead gets stuck in POW camps. He somehow taken a special interest in Louis making him a frequent target of his his does of cruel abuses, especially after he knows that Louis was an Olympic athlete. The Bird gets Louie to run against a Japanese, who wins easily due to Louie getting fatigued and malnourished along his time as a prisoner. The Japanese asked Louis to speak on a radio program, declaring he's alive and treated well by the Japanese. But he denies the second request to do so again as he's requested to say that he is betraying his country to live in Japan. He gets returned to the camp where The Bird makes the other prisoners punch his face once per person.
After that, The Bird personally says to Louis that he sees Louis as a strong man just like he is and he respects that by considering Louis as a friend. One time, The Bird personally comes to tell Louis that he is getting transferred to run another camp and asks Louis to congratulate him, but Louis keeps silent. But the Allies bombs the nearby city so the prisoners get transferred to another camp, which turns out to be a coal mine run by The Bird. The coal mine is located at steep hills so the prisoners have to climb up and down through many flights of stairs. Fatigue and stress weakens many of them that some even fall from the railings as they climb. One day The Bird demands Louis to lift a wooden beam and orders guards to shoot him if he drops it. He lifts it for a long time until The Bird himself gets annoyed by it and beats him severely. Finally the war ends and Louis gets flown home and reunites with his family.
The movie depicts a great true story of a man's survival. I'm quite amazed at this movie because it nicely depicts two survival events in one movie. For me it's like seeing a WWII multi person version of Robert Redford's All Is Lost and a movie like Empire of the Sun, back to back and with the same protagonist. The movie eve complete it's biographical aim with the nice flash backs of Louis' childhood and his track times. The initial sequence of the aerial bombing and subsequent airplane battle is really a good way to start this drama.
The part of the survival at sea is quite realistic as Angelina Jolie nicely directs this part to encompass many aspects of the condition of the sea. We get to see day and night, calm and storm, and also hope and disappointment when the planes fly over the men. One thing that for me feels like it's the least of the possibilities is when the seagull just comfortably lands on the raft. For an instance I laughed at this, and then thought that it might have come to the time when illusions start to take the men's minds away.
The prison camp part is also very nice. It's indeed a nice depiction of how brutal the Japanese can be on the war that I read in an article that some Japanese people actually protested at this film over those brutality depictions. Well, I find the protest really weird since they let it pass just okay with Colin Firth's The Railway Man which also depicts cruel things done by Japanese soldiers in the war.
The acting overall is a great work. It sees Jack O'Connell once again performed very well in portraying the various emotions and needed expressions, although I think that he has to work more on his American accent. Having Domnhall Gleeson also really helps in dramatizing the survival at sea part. It quite strange for me that Jai Courtney only takes a very insignificant part in this movie. Takamasa Ishihara has done very well in embodying the perfect antagonist for this movie. I'm quite sure we'll be seeing more of his acting in coming future.
Unbroken (2014) deserves a strong 7 out of 10 score from me, and a definite recommendation to go and see in the cinemas. A great entertainment depicting an inspiring true story of survival and steadfastness is surely a worthy watch at the movies.