Some lives truly deserve the grandeur of big screen treatment. Olympic track star Louis Zamperini (Jack O’ Connell), whose ascendance was brutally cut short when he ended up in a Japanese prison camp during World War II after a freak accident, is one such real life story that can light up a fiction writer’s imagination. But in actor-turned-director Angelina Jolie’s hands we get a film that is gorgeously mounted but too languid and one note to leave a lasting impact. She starts well but somewhere along the way gets carried away by the greatness of her subject. The title leaves very little obscurity about the personality of the protagonist but Jolie takes it literally and refuses to give us any tangible insight into the inner battles that Zamperini grappled with to emerge as the hero against all odds.
Based on Laura Hillendbrand’s book, the film focuses on the part of long distance runner’s life when he was serving as a bombardier’s in Air Force during the war. After a plane crash over Pacific, he and his two crewmates survived for 47 days on a raft and ultimately ended up in a Japanese prison camp where Zamperini was tortured by the sadistic Japanese guard Watanbe (played by Japanese singer Miyavi).
The film does lip service to Zamperini’s inner strength many times but on the surface it conveniently resorts to usual trappings of fictional tales with technical polish with the repetitive torture sequences leading to a spectacle where an emaciated Zamperini hoists a heavy log of wood to the tune of swelling background score. If four celebrated screenwriters which include talent as diverse as William Nicholson of Gladiator fame and Coen brothers lend such over the top sentimentality where they have to use the symbol of Cross to bring alive the exploits of a real life hero than the effort is not worth it. The story has so much grit and grime in itself that the overt attempt to conform to blockbuster sentimentalism takes the impact away. The individualism is sorely missing and it reduces the film to a well meaning but toothless tribute.
Also the fact that the film limits itself to the prison camp and mentions the events that follow in the life of Zamperini only in the passing makes it look inadequate, for how he forgave his tormentorsand how he found the answers to his inherent darkness in his faith is equally appealing in this day and age when conflict, refugees and prisoners of war are as much a reality as they were in the 1940s., Zamperini’s tale reinforces our faith in human spirit. Only if Jolie had translated her intent into action. She has got good support from the cast though. Jack has infused life into his portrayal of the iconic figure and his physical transformation is noteworthy. MIyavi proves a strong counterpoint and generates raw emotion with ease.
Not bad but not great either.
