Unbroken on Christmas?

Nic Cage in 8mm wrote:

Saw it today. Haven't read the book. Quite possibly one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Basically a melodramatic snuff film.

Okay, so what, in your opinion makes a film great? And don't make a list of movies no one has ever heard of like some pseudo intellectual hipster, give me some elements that you look for in a movie that makes it worth watching.

Also, what are some of the elements in this movie that you didn't like? I didn't think the movie was amazing, but it has its strong points and weak points. If this somehow qualifies as the "worst movie of all time", I'd like to hear what satisfies the Letsrun criteria for being a good movie.

I read the book shortly after it came out. It's an amazing story, but I actually found very little said about what the guy was really like. He seemed extremely uni-dimensional and with little depth of introspection. In fact, I found it interesting that the book anecdotally indicated that those who were too introspective and intelligent actually fared terribly in the POW camps. They brooded over how bad things were too much.

Which also points to the fact you can be a relatively simple and uninteresting as a "very good runner"--as much as the Letsrun crowd would like to think that elite and high level runners are some sort of intellectuals of the sporting world, runners can and are just dumb jocks like the rest of sporting society in many instances.

Mcdonnell was absolutely believeable as a POW

The Japanese guy that tortured him was a stretch

What I found interesting was that when Zamperini was a POW soldier who is supposed to be severely underweight, it was then that he looked like a true distance runner.

Not going wrote:

Which also points to the fact you can be a relatively simple and uninteresting as a "very good runner"--as much as the Letsrun crowd would like to think that elite and high level runners are some sort of intellectuals of the sporting world, runners can and are just dumb jocks like the rest of sporting society in many instances.

This is true. Some of the fastest runners in my city are complete and utter LIBTARDS. Great people to train with--very positive and upbeat. However, they completely lack any intellectual capacity on issues beyond choice of shoe, miles per week, and arm warmers.

-Al

Hopkinton wrote:

I loved the book. But the film adaptation by Angelina Jolie will be a cheesy cartoon

The book is phenomenal. No way the detailed historical account can be duplicated on screen and the fact that Jolie has it makes me very skeptical. To all who enojyed this one and have not read Sea Biscuit (same author), I highly recommend.

I read the book. I'll wait until the large crowds thin out a little. I now hate all Japanese.

Never read the book, but was dragged to the movie by my wife, who had. I thought it wasn't bad. The special effects were decent - the old war planes especially. I can't say I was totally moved, though. Some of the dialogue, especially with the older brother, were annoyingly fake. My wife liked the movie. I'd say 3.5/5.

Lovin Mick wrote:

I read the book. I'll wait until the large crowds thin out a little. I now hate all Japanese.

Try Birdman instead. Fabulous 2 hours. Destined for multiple Academy Awards.

I went to see it on Christmas Day. First screening at the local Octoplex. The Variety reviewer was spot-on: "embalmed in its own nobility." My favorite set piece in the film was the opening sequence when that old B-24 Liberator got shot to sh*t in the dog fight with the Japanese Zeros. That was the most realistic depiction I have ever seen of what it must have felt like to be in exactly that situation in WWII. But I think Jolie was far too reverential told her material and towards Zamperini. The story telling was formulaic and the acting choices (Jolie's work, in many instances) too obvious. Yes, Variety reviewer, it never did roar to dramatic life. A disappointment, basically. And the running scenes were poorly done and uninformed.

I'm not saying this because I think Mel Gibson is a great filmmaker (I liked BRAVEHEART, hated the "Christ" movie and that Mayan horror show he made), but imagine if he had gotten his hands on a Japanese prison camp movie... Driving the story through the abuse Zamp suffered is a tremendous dramatic challenge. That's when Jolie's film went dead...

Did the movie have a good depiction of the translucent pig living in his snow cave like a pearl in an oyster?

here is the film:

1. A few minutes of him competing in h.s. and at the 36 Olympics. Since you are a runner, it will look silly to you.

2. 2 hours plus of plane crash/starve/torture/suffer/beating/slave labor etc.

3. War ends. Somehow he didn't die. Skip ahead to 10 seconds of the real Louie Z running with the Olympic torch in Nagano at age 80. the end.

The story of his life after the war should have been told...the Post-traumatic stress, alcoholism, finding his "god," etc. But that would have been way too complicated for a feel-good Hollywood big-budget war movie by creative genius Angelina Jolie.

Saw it today and was saddened and shocked at what our soldiers went through in the Japanese POW Camps. Otherwise, poor lead in to the POW Camp scenes and the ending was worse!

Does the book go into more detail of his life before or after the war?

we tried it was sold out...

Movie Goer wrote:

Saw it today and was saddened and shocked at what our soldiers went through in the Japanese POW Camps. Otherwise, poor lead in to the POW Camp scenes and the ending was worse!

Does the book go into more detail of his life before or after the war?

Yes. Lots of descriptions of his life as a petty thief and punk before the war and then drinking and Jesus/.forgiveness after.