Gabriella Grimando, staff reporter
There are so many stories that someone could read and say ‘‘this can’t be true’ Well, this is how a lot of people feel about the epic drama Unbroken.
Angelina Jolie produced and directed an epic drama that shows the incredible life of Olympian and war hero Louis “Louie” Zamperini (played by Jack O’connell). Louie, being one of the three crewmen, was stranded on a raft in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, after a near-fatal plane crash in WWII. He was then caught by the Japanese Navy and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp.
“I think the overall message is to keep trying and never give up even if obstacles are thrown your way,” freshman Abe Belsky said.
Jolie began shooting the breath-taking scenes not far off of the coast of Australia, in Moreton Bay. After the plane crash, Zamperini and his fellow airmen-Phil (Domhnall Gleeson) and Mac (Finn Wittrock), miraculously survived a great 47 days in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. With these dedicated actors dieting for months to appear as starved and sick as their characters, this movie was bound to become a stand out.
After Laura Hillenbrand’s very popular book based on this story, “Seabiscuit: An American Legend” was released, Jolie does a great job of bringing the story to the big screen.
“I think Unbroken was a terrible, screwed up movie. I feel as if it was meant to torture the audience as the main character was. I read the book and I loved it. I definitely recommend reading the book, but I absolutely don’t recommend seeing the movie.” Principal, Mrs. Schneider said.
On the other hand, other audience members enjoyed watching the movie that brought to like a real war hero’s story.
“I definitely recommend seeing this movie, if you could handle the brutality. It had a great storyline and great actors, but it was very violent. If you’re someone who can’t handle that, don’t see it,” Belsky said.
After Zamperini and his crew member are ‘rescued’, they’re put into a brutal, Japanese POW camp, with dozens of other soldiers, being imprisoned. From the beginning of his time at the camp, the audience is soon introduced to the “The Bird” (Takamasa Ishihara). “The Bird” automatically had it out for Zamperini, beating him, and treating him knowingly worse than the other prison members.
After about 2 years of persecution, WWII was finally over and the men were sent home to their families. This is a moment of complete relief for not only the characters in the movie, but to the audience watching as well. It was an amazing feeling to see the prisoners happy and anxious to go home.
Unbroken is a movie based on a true story about a former soldier and olympic athlete, Louis Zamperini. Director Angelina Jolie does a stand out job in making the story as impacting to the audience as possible. According to rottentomatoes.com, Unbroken was given a 75% audience score. It is definitely a fan favorite.
