3 Arts Entertainment, Jolie Pas, Legendary Pictures,
Garrett Hedlund, Domhnall Gleeson, Jai Courtney, Jack O’Connell, Alex Russell, John D’Leo
Based on the true story of Louis Zamperini (Jack O’Connell) who was a promising young track start headed for the Olympics when WWII broke out. Louis was a bombardier who crashed due to a malfunction and ended up stranded in the ocean for 47 days. When he was rescued it was by the Japanese, and he spent the rest of the war as a prisoner of war forced to work for the Japanese while being starved and severely tortured.
This is directed by Angelina Jolie. I’m not sure why that really ticked a lot of people off, but much of the criticism I feel is anti Angelina flack. There are some problems with this film. The lead actors were not big blockbuster names, but I certainly felt they did a pretty good job playing the roles. There isn’t a lot of criticism of the acting, although it was completely snubbed by the Oscars in almost every category. But I found the movie to be touching and inspiring. Yeah, other people have been lost at see and imprisoned by the enemy, but that’s not the problem. This is based on the true story, so it is what happened, sorry if it’s similar to other people’s experiences. It was interesting that as a young boy, Louis was persecuted for being Italian in the neighborhood and he learned to be tough in a hurry. This prepared him for the resolve he would need to stand up and survive this experience. Perhaps those who read the book found the movie lacking. That’s a common response from a good book. But as a film, I think it was very well done. The action sequences in the war were really well done. The cinematography was really good from the fight scenes to the raft scenes to the years in the POW camp. I thought this was nicely done and well worth watching, and I recommend this film as a really good picture of life in America and the horrors of WWII. This is a good movie, very well done.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
