Name of film – Unbroken (2014)
Lizard film – 006
Chosen by – Dreyer
Date – September 2017
Director – Angelina Jolie
Starring – Jack O’Connell, Domhnall Gleeson, Miyavi, Garrett Hedlund, Finn Wittrock
Duration – 137 mins
Genre – War, Drama
Summary –
Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie directs and produces Unbroken, an epic drama that follows the incredible life of Olympian and war hero Louis “Louie” Zamperini (Jack O’Connell) who, along with two other crewmen, survived in a raft for 47 days after a near-fatal plane crash in WWII—only to be caught by the Japanese Navy and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp.
JONES’ SCORE & REVIEW
ACTING – 5
DIRECTING – 7
SCORE/AUDIO – 7
CINEMATOGRAPHY – 8
ENTERTAINMENT – 5
TOTAL – 32/50 = 64% **
A film by Angelina Jolie? Interesting choice, what could she offer in her second directed movie (her debut was “In the Land of Blood and Honey”, a flick I’ve also not seen before)? Before watching “Unbroken”, I also discovered that the Coen Brothers had written the screenplay. Wow, I was definitely in for a treat if Hollywood’s most famous brothers (slightly ahead of the Farrelly brothers) were involved. Sadly my initial joys sank quicker than the dead soldier in the ocean. “Unbroken”, like Dreyer’s Tuna Surprise, left me incredibly underwhelmed. Let me try and explain why…
I love war movies as much as Mashiter loves horror films, as much as Hutchinson loves admiring his own stir fry and as much as Foster loves being the centrefold in the University yearbook. On paper, “Unbroken” was right up my street. However, if that was the case, after finally getting to the end of the film (after 4 attempts to watch the last hour without falling asleep), I would want to move house as “Unbroken” didn’t do much for me. I must have seen over 100 films in this genre, but this wouldn’t rate too highly.
The true story about Louis Zamperini spending a harrowing 47 days in a raft with two fellow crewmen before he’s caught by the Japanese navy and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp would prick anyone’s ears up. Definitely sounded like a good watch but it struggled from the off. I put this down to the acting. I felt from the get-go that I was watching a bunch of actors, pretending to be act like soldiers but they didn’t throw themselves into their roles. I felt emotionless and I couldn’t give two hoots about them. Plenty of stunning visual effects and decent sound to enhance the war scenes but come on guys, let me believe in the characters, care about what happens to the group, afterall, I’ve got over 2 hours to join you on your journey.
“I ain’t going to no bar with you, handsome. You confuse all the broads.”
Being a fan of “Life of Pi” and being captivated watching a boy stranded at sea, I knew “Unbroken” would struggle to reach my expectations when it came to the big blue sea chapter. Sadly, I was right and it was a real let down for me and surely should have been a key moment of the story but it wasn’t focused on enough by Jolie and her team. I couldn’t get a grasp of the time scale of feeling these boys were out at sea for 47 days. I couldn’t feel their pain and desperation. I just couldn’t connect. The killing of the sharks was all too easy and it felt I was watching a family feature film for a moment or two. However, when the Japanese starting firing at them and they were surrounded by sharks in the water, it was a brilliant piece of cinematography and it was the highlight of the movie for sure. However, it still couldn’t make up for the failings of bringing the power and emotion of the whole stranded at sea scene. So as their friend dies and is pushed off the raft, the focus quickly shifts to the prisoner of war setting.
The first bit of emotion was when Zamperini, played by Jack O’Connell, reacted to his mate being tortured by the Japanese, but this emotion lasted seconds.
I thought the scene where all the men queued up to batter Zamperini was too Hollywoodish and in real life if all the camp had lamped one man so hard, he simply would have been sent to an early grave.
“Angels said you can ask me all the dumb questions now, because I’ve got all the answers.”
Evaluating the direction by Ms Jolie, on the whole, I was pretty impressed. Many more experienced directors have failed to produce films to this standard. If the critics can get a hard on over Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk”, then they should at least get a semi and try to knock one out over Jolie’s attempt. She showed some encouraging directing techniques and obviously had watched previous movies in this genre to see how they had handled the sheer scale of war. Apparently, Sidney Lumet’s “The Hill” (1965) was one of the biggest influences for Jolie and cinematographer, Roger Deakins, when making this movie. I was very impressed by the cinematography although the director has a key role in that aspect of the film too so full credit to Jolie who stamped her mark and should be recognised for this. The aeriel shots were top notch. I applaud the blind fold scene where the viewer shares the vision of the character. I was impressed with the scene where the soldier is pushed from the stairs as we feel his pain and anger. I thought the shadow of the plane over the soldiers was very clever too.
“If the Japs are this bad, we might even win this damn war.”
So what was my beef with this film? Simple answer – the acting. I wasn’t fooled by their attempt to look like soldiers who had been through the mill, or in their case, covered in coal. It was too staged for me. I acknowledge the fact O’Connell and co had dramatically lost weight to look starved (the actors were on 700 calories a day) but just like “Dunkirk” the men weren’t convincing me that they were war-beaten boys. Under the make-up and scruffed up uniform, there were no stand-out acting performances, in fact O’Connell didn’t impress me at all as the leading character, and don’t get me started on the Japanese leader. In real life, this guy is a top rock star in Japan. He had never acted before, and boy, you could tell. More wooden than Pinocchio’s dick, Miyavi wasn’t the right man for the role. If you want a good example of a musician taking the giant leap from recording studio to the big screen, just watch David Bowie in a very similar film titled “Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence” – now that’s how to act and the film outshines this one for sure. Due to the unimpressive acting skills, the on-going bitter relationship between Zamperini and Mutsuhiro Watanabe “The Bird” didn’t do anything for me. What a pity as a key scene like when he was forced to hold a beam over his head should have had me on the edge of my seat feeling nervous but it didn’t click for me. Frustrating as it had the grounds to be a really good piece of work. Pity they didn’t push the budget out and get some big name actors involved. This meant “Unbroken” couldn’t join the likes of “The Bridge on the River Kwai” in the memorable category, more “Tenko” or “Paradise Road”, but at least better than “It Ain’t Half Hot Mum”.
“Look at me, look at me in the eyes. Look at me. Don’t look at me. Don’t look at me!”
Sound and vision wise – I was impressed too, although the slow music was fine, I felt it didn’t match the scene on quite a number of occasions. The score was subtle and not trying to take away the focus from the visual side of things so no prizes would be given out for “Soundtrack of the Year”. I’ll let Mash go into greater discussion about that category as I know that’s more important to him.
“And there he goes, just like that!”
As the conclusion of the film explained, Zamperini had dedicated his life to God after the war and became a born again Christian (does that mean he had two belly buttons?)
While running the Olympic torch in Japan, the real Lous Zamperini runs past the POW camp in Naoetsu, in which he was held the longest, and is liberated from. This is not mentioned in the film while showing the actual clip during the torch relay. As much as the film didn’t do much for me, the real life storyline itself is one I’d like to follow up. I’ve since learnt that the real Mutsuhiro Watanabe refused to meet with Zamperini, however he did agree to be interviewed for a TV program on the occasion of Zamperini’s 1998 run in Tokyo. During the interview Watanabe was unrepentant for beating prisoners, but acknowledged that he was not following official orders but “personal feelings” toward his enemies.
Zamperini passed away in 2014. He was able to watch a rough cut of the film on Angelina Jolie’s laptop while in the hospital before he passed. Let’s hope on his death certificate it didn’t read “bored to death”. I was close to going into a coma as I struggled on throughout the whole feature. I’m afraid this Lizardman dvd won’t be being dusted down any time soon for a second viewing. Oh well, they all can’t be classics!
MASHITER’S SCORE & REVIEW
ACTING – 10
DIRECTING – 9
SCORE/AUDIO – 8
CINEMATOGRAPHY – 9
ENTERTAINMENT – 9
TOTAL – 45/50 = 90% *****
I’ve already posted a review dissing war films but let’s get something straight. I haven’t seen a decent ‘American Civil’ war film yet- ‘The Patriot’ probably the best of a bad bunch. Give me a war film set in or around South-East Asia, to tell you the truth, I haven’t seen a bad one yet. It probably comes down to a lack of respect I have for all things American and a love for the epics like ‘Apocalypse Now’, ‘Deer Hunter’ ‘Full Metal Jacket’ and lesser known movies such as ‘Dead Presidents’. And a morbid fascination with wars involving Japan and Vietnam. Lizard Jones is promising me a harrowing treat in later months. Basically I just want to understand man’s inhumanity to man. So the war films listed above-Loved them all. So what would I make of this?
Well what an amazing start to the film and probably the most realistic plane battle I’ve witnessed on the big screen. Even beating Steve Martin’s epic tussle with a snoring John Candy in Planes, Trains…Edge of the seat stuff. The film then shifted nicely to the lead actor’s childhood, a tough upbringing but signs of a man who will really cut it with the best of them in later life.
Angelina Jolie directed the film-can you imagine that behind the camera watching your every move? I’d still purposefully be acting out scene 1.
The lead actor, Jack O’Connell, got me frantically searching for where I’d seen him before. Well he’s played Bobby Charlton in a United film apparently but I first watched him in a film called ‘Eden Lake’, where he played a thug intent on sabotaging a couples break in the countryside. I’ve also seen him in one of my favourite films of the last ten years, ‘Harry Brown’. I’ll look forward to watching it back and spotting him. He was also that annoying git in Skins…in this he was Oscar worthy. Absolutely brilliant.
Imagine my delight when the plane hits the ocean a little later into the film. Could lizard Dreyer finally be providing some teeth action via some sharks? Oh yes indeed. Bit of shark trivia from a semi-expert here-the sharks would have been attracted to the yellow colour of the lifeboat; a huge mistake by the American military as scientific tests by marine biologists later proved. I divulge. Are you still with me?
The film is beautifully shot. Full credit to Jolie. Every scene gives an amazing nod to realism – you can almost feel you’re with them in the plane, in the lifeboat. Some war films, like ‘Deer Hunter’ for example, plod along in parts but you are drawn to the acting talent on offer, watching each face for even the slightest movement. The actors in this do such a fine job but the story carries along at a brisk pace before Jolting into action several times with severe force. The scene with the storm is harrowing. The scene when raindrops fall from the sky on dehydrated men – beautiful. The scene where the plane turns around and they discover it’s an enemy plane is so original-a stray bullet hitting a shark, the bullets perforating the dingy. And it is all perfectly captured on camera. The moment before imminent execution….Beautifully so. There are also excruciating scenes-you can feel the soldiers physical weakness as he is asked to lift the plank and keep it up in the air or face being shot. Nightmarish stuff. And utterly exhilarating as he lifts it above his head and crushes the cruel Japanese officers cruel intentions.
I quite liked the score too. Again, as Lizard Jones points out ‘less is more’ and it was used sparingly. So during the storm in the ocean scene, the howling weather does the job perfectly. As John Lennon once said, the most powerful part in a piece of music is silence. He also said, ‘I am the walrus, I am the egg-man’ so I suppose his opinion doesn’t really count.
The brutal regime of the Japanese POW camp was also well captured. War films are brutal-they’ve got to be-but it felt like Jolie was trying to win the award for most masochistic war scene ever when the soldiers were queuing up to punch him. As far as your war villains go though, the Japanese commander in charge of the camp, ‘The Bird’, was brutal, complexed and utterly brilliant. Eager to belittle Zamperini at every opportunity but awestruck and jealous of him. Perfectly cast, well acted and well scripted.
War films can often lose their way, self pontificating over scenes of battle and violence. Full Metal Jacket for example. Amazing film-utterly awful ending. Many don’t need a ‘finale’ as the message is usually ‘war goes on’. But this film ended superbly…if you remove the god awful Chris Martin’s voice from the end credits. The prisoners were free and linking the main character to the real character was a nice touch.
Definitely in my top three war films-I thought it was excellent and what a talent Jolie is. We knew that though didn’t we and so did Pitt-the lucky get. Great choice Lizard Dreyer-loved it pal.
ACTING 75%
DIRECTING 80%
SCORE/AUDIO 75%
CINEMATOGRAPHY 85%
ENTERTAINMENT 70%
TOTAL SCORE 77%
(RJ – 64% MM – 90%)
*** LIZARDMAN RATING OF 3 STARS ***
Lizardman Film Club 