“Continuing another holiday tradition: after Christmas shopping. Conveniently there’s now a movie theater at the mall back home. Get dropped off. Grab a Chic-Fil-A (after making a donation to the Human Rights Campaign to counteract that purchase). Scour Hot Topic. Find pants somewhere. Watch a movie. Go home. Pretty much the same every year. This time, the movie was Unbroken.
I’m often turned off by obviously Oscar bait-y movies, and if this was ten or fifteen years ago when Unbroken would have been a shoo-in, I don’t know that I’d have been so excited for it. But now that the film landscape has changed a bit, these sweeping dramatic and emotional movies are welcome as one of many different types of movies that are out there right now. There was no denying that this was going to be incredibly moving and inspiring.
Unbroken is the true story of Louis Zamperini. Raised by Italian immigrants, as a young boy he was perpetually in trouble, until he focused his energy into running track, eventually representing the US in the Olympics. Shortly thereafter, he went to fight in WWII, where his plane crashed into the ocean. He drifted on a raft for over a month, until he was captured by the enemy and held in a Japanese prison camp. Not an easy story to sit through, but his strength and courage was incredible to watch.
I absolutely fell in love with actor Jack O’Connell who played Zamperini. Such fire and charisma. Director Angelina Jolie (yes, her) said she chose him because she saw the same spark of rebellion that was in Zamperini, and it came across on screen quite well. This wasn’t just a guy who sit back and let his hope rule him. No, he was defiant, and he fought back, and he never took anything lying down. That’s what was inspiring. Not that he survied (oh um spoiler?), but how he survived.
But yeah, can I see O’Connell in more things please?
Unbroken – \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/”