Unbroken (film)

The film tells the real story of American athlete Louis Zamperini , who took part in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin . He did not win the final race, but won the favor of Hitler , who invited him to his box. It was assumed that Zamperini will take part in the next Olympic Games , but because of the outbreak of World War II, he was forced to go to the front. His plane crashed over the Pacific Ocean , after which Zamperini, together with two colleagues, spent 47 days drifting on a raft and was captured by the Japanese , where he was tortured and tortured. He returned home only after the war .

In 2010, the author of the book Seabiscuit: An American Legend , based on the movie Favorite , Laura Hillenbrand wrote a biography of Louis Zamperini ^[7] entitled Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption ”(“ Unbroken: A Story of Survival, Fortitude, and Atonement in World War II ”), which became number 1 on the New York Times ^{[8] [9]} bestseller list best documentary books of 2010 according to the magazine " Time " ^[10] .

In January 2011, the Universal Pictures film company acquired the rights to this book ^[11] . Long before that, back in the late 1950s , the company bought the rights to film the autobiography of Zamperini's “Devil at My Heels” (“The Devil Treading My Heels”), co-authored with Helen Itria in 1956 ^[12] . Then Louis was supposed to play Tony Curtis , but it didn’t come to the shooting ^[13] .

The first screenplay for the film was written by Richard Lagravenese and William Nicholson , and Francis Lawrence was to become the director. After Angelina Jolie was chosen, Joel and Ethan Cohen rewrote the script ^[14] . Louis Zamperini himself endorsed the Jolie film, saying: “I know that she will tell this story correctly” ^[15] . Jack O'Connell, a young British actor, was appointed to his role ^[16] , while Japanese singer Miyavi , who managed to learn English for 8 years, was appointed to the role of a Japanese sadist ^[17] .

September 30, 2013 Angelina Jolie confirmed that the film will be filmed in Australia ^[18] . Initially, Walden Media was supposed to finance production on a par with Universal ^[19] , but withdrew from the project before filming, and then was completely replaced by Legendary Pictures ^[3] . Filming began on October 21, 2013 in Australia ^[20] and took place mainly in the states of New South Wales and Queensland ^[21] , as well as at the studios Fox Studios Australia "And" Village Roadshow Studios " ^{[22] [23]} . In particular, for four days the film crew was in the town of Verris Creek in the state of New South Wales ^[24] . The scenes after the plane crash at sea were filmed in the pool of the Roadshow studio in the Gold Coast ^[25] . In total, 65 million US dollars were spent on the production of the film, of which 20 million were allocated by the federal government of Australia and state governments ^[26] . Thanks to this, even before June 30, 2014, financing of film and television production in Australia reached a record 737 million per year, which is 11 percent more compared to the previous year ^[27] .

On February 16, 2014, a three-minute trailer was shown during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi ^[28] . On July 10, the official trailer for the painting was published ^[29] , on November 13 - a new trailer ^[30] . On November 14, Angelina Jolie presented Jack O'Connell with the New Hollywood Award which he dedicated to Zamperini ^[31] .

The world premiere of the film took place on the evening of November 17 at the State Theater Sydney in Australia ^{[23] [32] [33]} . The picture was greeted with warm applause in the presence of Angelina Jolie , Brad Pitt , Jack O'Connell and Miyavi ^{[26] [34] [35]} . The film was released in wide distribution in the USA on December 25 ^[36] , in Australia on January 15 ^[37] . In the Japanese box office, the film may not be popular because of the images of atrocities in Japanese prison camps, and in China , which was occupied by the Japanese empire during the war, it is likely to be received with open arms for the same reason ^{[ 38]} . The reaction to the film did not take long, and on December 9 activists of the nationalist Society for the Distribution of Historical Facts announced that the bullying of Japanese soldiers against American prisoners of war was based solely on racial prejudice, and created a petition on the Change.org website demanding that the film be banned as "immoral", and actor Miyavi to declare persona non grata ^{[39] [40] [41]} .

Justin Chang of Variety said that “Jolie had previously seen the dehumanization of war in her 2011 little-known directorial debut,“ In the Land of Blood and Honey, ”a confusing but provocative drama about the 1990s in Bosnia and Herzegovina. “Unbroken” offers a similar ruthless list of military misfortunes - dirty conditions, crushing hunger and thirst, overwork, verbal and physical violence, disgusting injuries, ritualized humiliation and hopeless knowledge that only the victory of the Allies will stop the destruction of prisoners. ” He added that “this extraordinary story, a bit embalmed in its own nobility, is told in a respectful, non-exclusive language, which expresses the passionate desire of all those involved to achieve a rare level of impact on the audience” ^[42] . Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter noted that “a great truthful story goes down to a good one in the future.” After the dynamite first half hour, Angelina Jolie’s experimental second release as a director slowly slows down, chronicling the inhuman suffering of Olympic runner Louis Zamperini in Japanese internment camps during the Second World War, and “the absence of excessive bloating of heroism or injection of sentimental clichés will be a strong motive for some see this picture, which has a strong appeal as an amazing survival story ” ^[43] .

Pete Hammond of Deadline , noting that after showing the film “some viewers gave mixed reviews, although most seemed to at least come to admire him,” and “the person next to me complained of torture, but hey, the movie This is called “Unbroken”. Jolie, fortunately, did not try to embellish the violent aspects of history ", making" the film is not primarily about the horrors of war. We have seen them many times. “Unbroken” is about much more. It is not just about the survival of this person, it is about willpower and faith in oneself. The incredible story of Zamperini touched me to tears, at least twice, especially for what exemplary life he led after passing through disgusting conditions of existence ” ^[44] . Scott Mendelssohn from Forbes noted that Jolie “tells a story that, at least on the screen, is not particularly cinematic or frankly subordinates everything in a narrative sense,” but overall “the film is visually magnificent ... and well shot mostly with unknown actors ... “Unbroken” is not a very “bad” film, but it is also not very good ” ^[45] .

Andrew Palver of The Guardian said that in this picture - “exalted with good intentions, and also conceived on an epic scale - there is something a little tedious and primarily striving for security”, largely thanks to “someone it’s a cliché that captures most of the beginning of the film. ” Tim Robie of The Telegraph noted that “this film with a sequence of running from explosions and minutes of rest is the best military adventure drama to date,” as “the saga of American courage and survival” with “to the utmost extruded images of Christian martyrdom” , and in the end, “Jolie made a 137-minute film that forces us to go a little further from the poster myth and O'Connell as a poster boy” ^[47] .

Igor Igritsky from “ Lenta.ru ” said that “the two parts of the picture are opposed to each other: in the first, when the main character is shot down and he hangs on a raft in the Sea of ​​Japan,“ Unbroken “is something between“ Fire Chariots “and“ Outcast “ . The Japanese captivity is more reminiscent of Schindler's List or Twelve Years of Slavery , where the imminent approach of death is felt. True, the ending is predictable, because the viewer already knows that the hero will survive ” ^[48] . At the same time, Gennady Ustiyan noted that “Unbroken” was filmed with such old-fashioned diligence that if you are not a fan of military films about the strength of the human spirit, there is no need to watch it. Jolie seemed to have made a film specially for the awards, but at the recently held Golden Globe he did not receive a single nomination, and this says something ” ^[49] .

• 2014 - Award of the National Council of Film Critics of the USA for the best acting breakthrough (Jack O'Connell), as well as getting into the list of ten best films of the year.
• 2015 - three Oscar nominations : Best Cinematography (Roger Deakins), Best Mixing Sound (John Taylor, Frank Montagno, David Lee), Best Sound Editing (Becky Sullivan, Andrew Decristofaro).
• 2015 - US Film Actors Guild Award for the best work of the stunt ensemble.
• 2015 - Saturn Award for best action movie or adventure film, as well as nomination for best editing (William Goldenberg, Tim Squires).
• 2015 - Nomination for the Empire Award in the category "Best Actor-Debutant" (Jack O'Connell).
• 2015 - Award nomination for the London Film Critics Circle in the category "Best British Actor of the Year" (Jack O'Connell).

• Unbroken . Official site
• Unbroken on the Internet Movie Database  
• Unbroken on allmovie