The true story of the wartime experiences of American Olympic athlete Louis Zamperini, this is he directorial debut of Angelina Jolie.
The raw material is excellent. An immigrant who achieves Olympic glory for his adopted country, survival at sea after a crash landing, and victimisation in a Japanese POW camp by brutal captors. But somehow, Jolie's inexperience results in a story hat drags, and lacks dramatic tension. This is further compounded by an inappropriate title, as by the end Zamperini is broken.
Production values are high, and the cinematography is excellent throughout. But the dialogue is poor, and the editing weak. Throughout, Jolie thinks that she is lingering to great dramatic effect, when she should have moved on.
A two hour twenty running time is appropriate to the story, but Jolie does not know how to either tell a story, or fill the time. On the plus side, the door is still open for someone else to do a proper job on the story.
The raw material is excellent. An immigrant who achieves Olympic glory for his adopted country, survival at sea after a crash landing, and victimisation in a Japanese POW camp by brutal captors. But somehow, Jolie's inexperience results in a story hat drags, and lacks dramatic tension. This is further compounded by an inappropriate title, as by the end Zamperini is broken.
Production values are high, and the cinematography is excellent throughout. But the dialogue is poor, and the editing weak. Throughout, Jolie thinks that she is lingering to great dramatic effect, when she should have moved on.
A two hour twenty running time is appropriate to the story, but Jolie does not know how to either tell a story, or fill the time. On the plus side, the door is still open for someone else to do a proper job on the story.