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Unbroken (2014)
The non-fiction novel Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption is an incredibly riveting, moving biography of Olympian and prisoner-of-war Louis Zamperini that I believe is an important book to read. Naturally, a movie based on the book was inevitable; the film adaptation does do its subject justice, even if it's only sporadically compelling. Unbroken is a bio-pic about the life of Louie Zamperini in World War II, whose bomber plane was shot down, and he was forced to survive on a raft for 47 days. He was then captured by the Japanese and placed in various camps for over two years, where he was severely abused until he was rescued at the end of the war. There are a lot of great things about Unbroken: the spectacular cinematography, breakout performances from the entire cast, an explosive opening act and some genuinely moving scenes throughout the rest of the film. Angelina Jolie directs the film in a surprisingly graceful way. Despite some obviously unpleasant war scenes present in the film, Unbroken is a beautiful movie to look at. An opportunity that the film misses, however, is the effects of the war on Louie. His battle with alcoholism and PTSD is never mentioned in the film, and although it would have made the movie longer than it already is (137 minutes), there should have been an emphasis on those ideas. Even if it doesn't resonate as strongly as it should, Unbroken is compelling enough to do justice to its subject matter and a must-watch if yo're a fan of World War II movies.
8/10
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