Unbroken

Directed  by Angelina jolie 

War/ Drama

Watched earlier this year and again on the 12/9/2029

PARAGRAPH 1 Famous olympic athlete Louie Zamperini starts off as a troubled child, but with some encouragement from his older brother Pete, he joins the 5000m track team and finds a hidden talent for running. He goes on to the olympics then when WW2 starts he enlists in the air force but gets shot down over the pacific.  Eventually after 47 days adrift at sea, he gets found by a Japanese  ship and gets taken to a concentration camp where he is brutally beaten by a guard called the “Bird”

PARAGRAPH 2 A character I found interesting was Mutsuhiro Watanabe (The Bird).  I found him interesting because he was fueled by his jealousy towards his old olympic opponent because he was beaten by Louis in the olympics. The Bird saw similarities between himself and Louie  “You are like me. We are both strong. I saw it in your eyes the first day. I thought, this man will be my friend, but, enemy of Japan.”  he said this because we thought that he and Louie would be friends but would be enemies via the war. The Bird wanted to break Louis and show him that he was weak because Louie bet him in the olympics.

 PARAGRAPH 3 A key message I took from the movie was to never give up and to persevere when faced with adversity.  In the film the character Louis Zamperini showed this by not giving up when they were stuck on the raft for 47 days. He showed this by keeping his fellow soldiers in good morale and doing all he could to keep himself and his friends alive.  Another example is when he was in the coal fields and was made to hold up a giant wooden beam.  He was told that if he dropped the beam that he would be shot.  This situation must have been excruciatingly painful, but he persevered and didn’t give up much to the annoyance of the Bird who wanted him to drop the beam so he would have cause to shoot him. I can relate to this when I was 7 and we were doing a overnight tramp to the paraha valley. It was great on the way in and we did have fun camping, but on the way out we had to walk along numerous steep sand dunes and it was really hard going. We had to get around a headland before the tide came in and blocked our way out. I remember feeling scared that we’d get stranded and I also had sand in my boots which was irrtating. I had to show perseverance even though I wanted to stop and take a break because if I sat on the sand and threw a tantrum then we would be stranded.

 PARAGRAPH 4 There were a number of challenges throughout the film one of the main challenges that the characters faced was survival. They dealt with this when they were on the raft after crashing their plane via rationing their food and staying positive and not giving up. “If I can take it i can make it.” This means that if he can take the challenges then he can make it to the end.

  PARAGRAPH 5 I think that the title of the film is appropriate because even though he is faced with the hardest challenges Louie stays unbroken and never gives up.  Another reason why it is appropriate is because even though the Bird was constantly physically beating him, he stayed strong and didn’t give up.  He remained unbroken both physically and mentally.

 PARAGRAPH 6 I would recommend this movie to people of ages 13+ because there are many scenes that younger viewers would find disturbing.  For example, when Louis and Philip were at the camp on the island there was scene where they were naked and almost starved to death,  I think that this scene could be disturbing to some younger viewers.  Also there are numerous scenes of brutality throughout the film.