LOS ANGELES — Forty-seven days wasting away on a bobbing raft in the Pacific Ocean. Two years of torture in Japanese prison camps. Fifty-seven years of life rights languishing in Hollywood. A 400-page epic by Seabiscuit author Laura Hillenbrand. And one international movie star/director.
That's Unbroken in shorthand. The story of Louis Zamperini (played by Jack O'Connell), whose World War II bomber crashed in the ocean in 1943, is astonishing: a reckless child-turned-Olympic athlete-turned soldier who endured shark attacks and unspeakable acts of torture, yet ultimately achieved forgiveness for his most violent captor.
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Hollywood initially jumped at the rights in the 1950s, with Tony Curtis signed on to play him — but the film remained stuck in development. Decades later, Angelina Jolie, bitten by the directing bug after her 2011 debut feature In the Land of Blood and Honey, got wind of the tale. She fell for the story, and Zamperini, her unlikely neighbor in the Hollywood Hills, hard.
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"I remember while we were waiting (for a green light), which seems very sad in retrospect, (Zamperini) sat me down and said, 'Let's not take forever, girl. I'm not 20 years old. I really want to see this one,' " says Jolie, surrounded by O'Connell, Garrett Hedlund (as POW John Fitzgerald) and Japanese rock star-turned-actor Miyavi (who takes on the ruthless guard known as The Bird).
"In some beautiful way, so much of his life was spreading the message of his story. And maybe in some way, that's what he felt — it's the last thing he wanted to make sure happened before he could let go."
Before his death in July at age 97, Jolie showed Zamperini the film in the hospital on her laptop. She says she was careful balancing the wrenching war tale with warm elements from his youth, including his achievements on the track.
"We didn't want to torture the audience, we wanted to help the audience through the experience of the film and help them take the journey with us. But we wanted it to be real and we wanted to pay respect to the men who suffered through this," she says.
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How did Zamperini react to finally seeing his story on screen?
"I spent most of my time watching his eyes," says Jolie. "I was watching this extraordinary person at the end of his life, reflecting on the friends that have all since passed. He was the last one alive. And coming to terms with preparing to leave this life. So really, I just felt honored to be in the room."
'Unbroken' is based on the true story of Olympic athlete Louis Zamperini who survived a near-fatal plane crash in WWII only to be caught by the Japanese navy and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp. VPC