Invencible (Unbroken)

Esta vez, Angelina aplastó incluso a Clint. Sin el patetismo que esperaba, con el excelente Jack O'Connell en el papel principal, con una historia más sólida. Y no por originalidad, sino por narraciones certeras, limpias y del viejo Hollywood, como las de Edward Zwick o Ron Howard. Parpadeó ante Forrest Gump, eclipsó cuentos de la prisión como La guerra de Hart y parafraseó ligeramente la idea de Cadena perpetua. Por supuesto, es cuestionable hasta dónde habría llegado con un proyecto tan ambicioso sin los guionistas Coen y director de fotografía Deakins. Pero no seamos malos. Es la ex Lara Croft. (16.02.2015)

Unbroken may be an old-school film on the surface (thanks to Deakins’s epic, somewhat kitschy cinematography), but in terms of its narrative, it is an arduously monotonous and unimaginative drama that doesn’t have an expression of its own. O’Connell also lacks expression, as he doesn’t remove the mask of stoicism from his face and doesn’t allow us to fully appreciate his inner struggle, which is crucial to the film’s dramaturgical effectiveness. Like the protagonist of 12 Years a Slave, Zamperini is mostly unable to outwardly fight back due to the external circumstances. Despite the comparable pacification of the main character, however, McQueen’s uncompromising opus did not suffer from the same degree of repetitiveness (to the point that the order in which the scenes are arranged ceases to matter) and did not raise the heretical question of why we should watch the suffering of this particular man. The protagonist of Unbroken is defined in the introduction by only his Italian roots and outstanding physique (in shots of him running, which are strikingly reminiscent of Forrest Gump). I would have liked to know more about the man that I’m supposed to spend an hour with in a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean and more than two hours with in a Japanese POW camp. The malicious attempt to read against the grain also leads to a dead end – I have no interest in torture porn with a PG-13 rating and thus without a single gore scene. Zamperini isn’t much more of a malleable character than his adversary, a sadistic Japanese guard whose portrayal would have been labelled as stereotyping fifty years ago, when the far more complex The Bridge on the River Kwai had its premiere. The film’s credibility and its ability to draw the viewer in are diminished both by its (unintentional?) overdramatisation and by its fear of humour, which, according to the filmmakers, could have perhaps broken the numbing (for both the protagonist and the viewer) chain of pain and suffering. I hoped that at least some adequate comedic exaggeration would reveal the Coen brothers’ creative signature. This is ultimately limited to the Jobian nature of Zamperini’s story, which is underlined by the pro-Christian closing credits just to be sure (the film itself does not in any way develop the religious level, or any other motif for that matter). Besides showing how much more dramatic and psychological potential lies in the story of Zamperini’s life after the war, the authentic epilogue is by far the most impressive part of the film. You can describe yourself as unbroken if you can manage to sit in the cinema for two whole tiresome hours for these last two minutes. Maybe that was the intention. 45% (17.01.2015)

A film that aroused in me only the essential laziness and the feeling that if I ever wanted to see the American version of Story of a Real Man (with a different scale of values and emphasis on individual physical endurance), I would have to watch Unbroken. At its core, a tolerable chain of hard-working and quite skillfully realized scenes, in which de facto order does not matter, neither does causality (perhaps one does not care why Hedlund suddenly cries in an inserted scene), and psychology not at all. Clumsily embedded flashbacks are based on proclamations that could be heard in any Pixar film, and the subsequent dialogues seem as they came from a random generator of catchphrases from war films. The Coen Brothers kind of write it as material for beginners - we teach about filming heroes. 90 minutes of suffering is more and more reminiscent of soft exploitation (can we sympathize with a character who is just a carrier for rags and makeup?), at the end ambitiously crowned with an quest for a kind of Christian myth… or what does episode with the beam actually mean? Who bloody cares? Angelina is instructed, as a protective child she has an elite crew on hand, so Unbroken moves and looks nice (sometimes incongruously nicely and aesthetically thanks to Deakins' camera). It's a bit of a dinosaur tribute to an old school war film without the ability to understand and bring forth anything essential. War screensaver. Matty's comparison with McQueen is entirely appropriate. In fact, I could just symbolically sign my name under his review. [50%] (04.02.2015)

Angelina Jolie surprises with her old-fashioned, consistent direction and a very conscious tone that permeates the entire film. There aren't many highlights, but the standard is maintained throughout. Unfortunately, the pacing (the drive) fails dramatically and doesn't hold consistency. Given the fantastic opening ten minutes, which suitably lure you in, there is a sense of stagnation throughout the rest of this adventure story, which has the basic plot premise of The Shawshank Redemption, but a bit lower in quality. Essentially without sentimentality – thumbs up for that. The women in Hollywood have been balling it up proficiently recently (Bigelow, Jolie). The acting is fine, and Roger Deakins is a safe bet. (16.07.2016)

A strong story, excellently shot and acted. I was (pleasantly) surprised by the large space dedicated to staying in the lifeboat, I was entertained by the credible power of the spirit that emanated from the protagonist from start to finish, and I did not see any unnecessary pathos for even a moment, which I was originally a little worried about. Everything was human, Roger Deakins' camera was beautiful as ever (he did great especially with the aforementioned richly yellow boat on the surface of the blue ocean), Alexander Desplat's music was this time mostly rather inconspicuous, but in a few important moments not to be overlooked, and Angelina Jolie again directed in that Eastwood (and perhaps a little Spielberg) style - clearly, lightly and every now and then with some great shot, such as when the boat arrives in the shadow of a Japanese ship (the ocean again, I know). (22.11.2017)

It is visible that Angelina learned from masters, but it didn't help her much in just shooting something that is terribly typical for Americans. It is a strong story, but personally, I think I would prefer it in a book format. There are big scenes, there are wonderfully harsh scenes, but overall it is just an effort to show how some Americans had a difficult time. Louis's story is captivating and cruelly beautiful, but in this film adaptation, it didn't touch me as much. (01.02.2015)

I had no particular expectations from this movie. But I must just say that however high I might have set the limits of expectation, Unbroken would surely have broken them. This movie was so superb to watch that it ripped me to bits inside. You can see the excellent results of all the hard work that went into this. Acting performances of great bravado, the scenery and the production blended together with each other perfectly. The storyline got me by the heart strings and I will be processing the emotions that the movie left inside me for a long time hence. The wonderful steady rise in tension throughout the movie is reflected in the score I give this, which is a full set of 5*. (12.05.2015)