Unbroken beats the odds to tell a remarkable story


There’s something almost unbelievable about the life of Louis Zamperini, the USC alumnus whose life story propels Angelina Jolie’s new film Unbroken. His story reads like a series of Oscar-winning movie plots. He rose above adversity to distinguish himself competing in the 1936 Olympic games, recalling Chariots of Fire. His plane was shot down during the second World War and he survived adrift on the Pacific Ocean for 47 days, evoking shades of Life of Pi. Finally, as in Bridge on the River Kwai, he endured two years in a Japanese POW camp, and still emerged with his spirit intact. Seeing the sheer amount of inspirational life events in Zamperini’s story, one isn’t surprised to see that it was adapted into its own film, earning increasing awards buzz by the day. Despite this, the process to get Unbroken made was far from the slam-dunk it looks like now.

Long time coming · The film rights for Louis Zamperini’s autobiography were originally bought by Universal in 1956 but, due to setbacks, the movie based on his life is only coming out this Christmas. Unbroken is directed by Angelina Jolie and stars Jack O’Connell as Zamperini. - Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures

Long time coming · The film rights for Louis Zamperini’s autobiography were originally bought by Universal in 1956 but, due to setbacks, the movie based on his life is only coming out this Christmas. Unbroken is directed by Angelina Jolie and stars Jack O’Connell as Zamperini. – Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures

In fact, studios have been struggling to bring Zamperini’s story to the big screen since 1956. To give a sense of how long the project has been percolating, the actor originally slated to play Zamperini was none other than a pre-Some Like it Hot Tony Curtis. He eventually dropped out of the project to play Antonius in Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus, and the Zamperini project was stashed. Cast aside like countless other scripts, the screenplay laid untouched by studios for four decades. It wasn’t until 1998 when Matthew Baer, the producer of Unbroken, saw a documentary about Zamperini, that the story gained any traction again. “When I first saw the documentary in 1998 that CBS Sports had made, I thought it was such a remarkable story of survival and hope. Especially in seeing the footage of Lou [Zamperini] running the torch into Nagano. And I was so surprised that nobody had told the story before,” Baer said.

But, despite tabbing a young Nicolas Cage in the role and getting the gears churning on this project, it took another 16 years, and several setbacks, for Unbroken to finally become a reality.

It is easy to make the analogy that, to get made, the film had to run a similar gauntlet to Zamperini’s, but the more interesting question is why a story with so many ready-for-film moments was so difficult to get made.

Funnily enough, Baer credits that same wealth of life events as one of the main reasons for the difficulty in getting the film made. “The singular problem in making Lou [Zamperini’s] life into a film is that its such a big story and we had to try a variety of approaches over the years in terms of how long the story goes,” Baer said.

The story went through several rewrites, as Baer and a series of writers struggled to pare the story down into a workable size for a feature film. But, as is often the case, it took until a director with a vision and some clout to finally get the project off of the ground.

In the case of Unbroken, that director was Angelina Jolie. Despite having only directed one other feature film, Jolie brought a vision for the film that impressed Baer. “She had a very clear vision of what she wanted and…[Jolie] has a lot of passion for stories that she wants to tell. Particularly it was what she wanted to do with the script made a great deal of sense and then what her directorial vision was, was included in that,” Baer said. Once Jolie was spearheading the project, everything else seemed to fall into place.

One of the most important pieces of the puzzle was finding an actor to step into Louis Zamperini’s shoes. Eventually, after being noticed for his work on Skins, Jack O’Connell was tabbed as the successor from Curtis and Cage for the role. “Angie [Jolie] felt very strongly he was the right person because he has so much in common with Lou [Zamperini] in terms of independence and strong will,” Baer said. “Specifically you could just tell that his feisty spirit was exactly right for the port.” O’Connell quickly took to the role and has been generating awards buzz for his emotionally charged performance. Baer also credited Jolie for drawing from her considerable acting experience to give O’Connell plenty of guidance as to the nuances of his character. The rest of the cast is filled with young, up-and-coming talent as well. Garrett Hedlund, Domhnall Gleeson and Jai Courtney are all actors on the rise and fill important roles in the film. Baer also highlighted the work of Takamasa Ishihara, who provided a powerful performance as Zamperini’s primary tormentor at the POW camp during the war.

Another crucial piece was the addition of the incomparable Coen brothers, Joel and Ethan, to the team. The brothers, who were connected to the project because they have the same agent as Jolie, joined late in the game and rewrote the script, which had already passed through the hands of several writers. The script given to them was already essentially the finished product, but Baer credits their masterful touch as crucial to the film.

“Joel and Ethan [Coen] did a number of really crucial things in the structure of the script. And then very specifically [they] obviously have such a beautiful feel for dialogue that is concise yet meaningful. So there are loads of examples of small moments that they gave throughout the script.” The Coen brothers are film royalty, and it is a testament to the influence that someone with the connections that Jolie has can bring to a film on top of her directorial talent.

Louis Zamperini’s life story seems made to order for an inspirational film, so much so, that it’s been an almost six-decade struggle to present it believably on the big screen. Finally, with the impressive talent that has come together around the story’s champion Baer, it seems there will finally be a fitting tribute to the man’s unbelievable life.