funnyman-43105
I know that it is hopeless to think that a movie can possibly live up to that of the original book, but come on Angelina? Really? This was a terrible terrible TERRIBLE adaptation of the story. There is absolutely no character development. You learn a total of two names the whole movie! I can't possibly imagine Zemperini himself would have given this "movie" more than 1 star. There is an obscene amount of development and crucial events left out of this film. All the heart and gut wrenching sections of the book are turned into a sloppy two second portrayal of entire chapters. I honestly think Angelina was sitting there thumbing through the book and thought "oh, we better put this CRUCIAL event into the movie, um. Louie, go stand over there and look dazed, perfect, got it." COME ON! It made me so sad to have read the book and then see this pathetic attempt to relay even a fraction of the story. SO SO SO SO much is left out. If I hadn't read the book I would have been completely lost. The Bird was a complete sociopath, absolute lunatic that I sincerely hope is somewhere very hot right now. This movie showed him as a disgruntled guard that was a little power hungry. COME ON, ANGELINA!!!!!!! At least try to put some depth to him. Did you even read the book?????? At the end of the movie I was so surprised that it was over. I thought this can't possibly be it. There is so much left out. Made me very very very sad to think that this is the movie representation that a great man is remembered by...... agh.....
hunter_kudjo
IMDb reviews are always perplexing, hence why I don't really come here all that often. After watching this movie, however, I had to jump in to clarify what a great movie this is and how to differentiate it from the negative reviews - based on your familiarity with the story. I had never heard of Zamperini's story prior to seeing this. With that in mind, I didn't have nearly a high enough standard to hold the film up to as fans of the book did. That standard is plenty high though, as far as war films go. Would absolutely recommend seeing it if you're not familiar - Zamperini's struggle almost doesn't seem real it's so epic in scope.I've seen quite a few naysayers on here complaining about the lack of character development and overly brutal torture scenes that go on and on. Although I agree the character development could be more dynamic at parts, WAR is WAR! The director Angelina Jolie did not sugarcoat life as a POW - it is quite literally suffering, torture, and death 24/7, particularly in Japanese camps. Anyone asking for "less torture" is doing a serious injustice to the pain our armed forces endured. You SHOULD know their pain, and know it well. Others also said the movie felt "heavily routine" and bland. Again, having never heard of Zamperini, I find it hard to understand what's routine and bland about going to the Olympics, falling out of the sky into shark infested waters for 45 days on a single life boat, surviving not one but two POW camps, and in the end, forgiving your own captors that tortured you. I kept thinking the movie was going to randomly end at any point and Zamperini rescued, but this was delayed in a fantastic way. I get that the book had a lot more aspects of the struggle going for it, but this is 2 hours people. Lots of audiences already find that too long, sadly. Jolie condensed what she could as best she could with the Coen brothers imho. I also liked to trying comparing this to Hacksaw Ridge, another excellent competitor in the selfless war movie genre. Both have fantastic stories and harrowing moments, but HR seemed weirdly more cliché than Unbroken did, to me. HR didn't have enough slow moments to breathe, subtle character moments that show you things off-camera that help set the scene (wide expanse of the Pacific Ocean in unbroken, Macks foreshadowing nervous demeanor). The dialogue at times also seemed heavily Hollywood-ized instead of the more realistic soldier dialogue from Unbroken. There was something more haunting about seeing every one of Zamperinis' friends fall victim to their circumstances than the expected-to- die soldier companions in HR. There are truly some remarkable things in Unbroken that make it an absolute worthwhile film to watch. Anyone saying otherwise is looking a little too deep.
Mohamed Magdy (mmagdy-48366)
This movie is very fantastic thanks for the great performance of Jack O'Connell and Domhnall Gleeson. the writers wrote this movie in very fantastic way that make you cant stand up from your seat for any reason and the director make this movie a real wonderful one. I cant believe this story was real.
