Uninterrupted

Angelina Jolie does justice to the history of Olympic runner-turned-POW in this intense drama WWII

This project of passion for Angelina Jolie shines in every picture with his unwavering love for Louis Zamperini and his courage under fire. Zamperini pneumonia died in July at 97, but not before Jolie showed her a rough cut of the film on his laptop. If you never read Unbroken 2010 bestselling author Lauren Hillenbrand Seabiscuit on the life of Louis, here's a quick overview: High in Torrance, California, the son of Italian immigrants, Louis was a bad boy for the prison or worse until his older brother turned him in the race. He was good at it, competition in track at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin (Hitler remarked). During World War II, he enlisted in the Air Force. When his B-24 went down in the Pacific, Louis survived on a life raft for 47 days until he and other scarification were captured by the Japanese, then starved and tortured for two years in a camp POW.

I could go on, that the book is describing PTSD and alcoholism Louis until Billy Graham helped him find God. But Jolie wisely ends his movie with the war, which still leaves enough material to fill a mini-series or two. Critics accuse him of Hillenbrand to mount blatantly surface tale inspired Louis. Jolie, working from a script polish by no less than the Coen brothers needed to dig deeper, which means that she had to find the right actor to play Louis. His choice, Jack O'Connell, justifies his faith. O'Connell (Favorite Up) is a British dynamo with the instinct of a true actor to get inside the head of a character. On raft with compatriot Phil airmen (Domhnall Gleeson) and Mac (Finn Wittrock), it was Louis who brings a ray of hope while the sharks circle also relentlessly than despair. O'Connell shows us how hard earned that hope is.

In only his second feature film as director, following the tragedy of Bosnia of 2011 the Land of Blood and Honey, Jolie shows remarkable confidence and compassion. She excels in the vicious camp scenes (PG-13 pushed to the limit), in which Louis meeting Watanabe, aka Bird, a sadistic guard whose love / hate for Olympic athlete is terribly perverse. Japanese rock star Miyavi (born Takamasa Ishihara) plays his first role on screen with mesmerizing brilliance, making physical elegance bird striking contrast to the savagery of his inhuman punishment.

Unbroken is beautifully crafted even in its brutality. A sequence near the end of the war, when Louis and prisoners of war were confined to a river waiting to be killed in mass memory is scarring. Jolie has an army of artisans in his corner, including the poet camera Roger Deakins (No Country for Old Men). But it is his vision that gives Unbroken spirit that hovers. In honoring endurance Louis, she trusted.