Unbroken movie (spoilers)

SusieBW

I know a lot of you guys read this book and loved it as much as I did.  Who else saw the movie?

I just watched it last weekend, and I thought it was garbage.  I think it hit the highlights of the story, but there was just so much that wasn't there.  Maybe there is just no way to ever possibly do Louie's story justice on film.  I found the book to be absolutely riveting, but the movie just didn't do it.  I don't think it captured the magnitude of what he experienced effectively.  Probably because it didn't include his input as to what was in his head throughout it all the way that the book did.  It probably annoyed the hell out of my husband, but I found myself filling in the gaps for him and adding to the story throughout the whole movie.  He also wasn't impressed with the movie at all, and he never read the book. 

I don't know why I keep letting myself get my hopes up about film adaptations . . .

SnShne322

I was SO disappointed in the movie, and I was so excited to see it.  I saw it opening weekend.  You're absolutely right, it didn't even come close to addressing the atrocities that he experienced.  Especially with The Bird.  I'm not sure this is really the term I'm looking for, but the movie seemed to almost glamorize Louie in the camp.  He had a lot of strong times, but he was also weak, sick, and starving.  Thinking back to the movie when I saw it, the only thing I really remember is when Louie has to hold the beam over his head.  I know that was his triumphant moment, but there were so many times that he was beat down and cheated to get the that moment.  Because they didn't show the other times, that scene didn't feel like it carried the weight it should have.

Now, my only experience with Schindler's List is from the movie, but I felt like what made that movie so amazing has that it didn't shy away from the hard parts.  I'm sure it was glamorized to an extent and we can't ever really get a good scope of what it was really like, but it felt more honest.  I feel like Unbroken skipped over all these parts and these parts were what made Unbroken so phenomenally horrifying and riveting. 

I had to do the same thing with J.  He hadn't read the book, and I had to fill in SO MUCH to give him any sort of depth on the story.

SusieBW

SnShne322 said:

I was SO disappointed in the movie, and I was so excited to see it.  I saw it opening weekend.  You're absolutely right, it didn't even come close to addressing the atrocities that he experienced.  Especially with The Bird.  I'm not sure this is really the term I'm looking for, but the movie seemed to almost glamorize Louie in the camp.  He had a lot of strong times, but he was also weak, sick, and starving.  Thinking back to the movie when I saw it, the only thing I really remember is when Louie has to hold the beam over his head.  I know that was his triumphant moment, but there were so many times that he was beat down and cheated to get the that moment.  Because they didn't show the other times, that scene didn't feel like it carried the weight it should have.

Exactly!  Exactly.  It seemed like the movie just kept showing Louie getting beat and hit and hit and beat, but not all of the more mentally painful things he experienced.  I don't know.  Like I said, I'm not really sure there was any way to make the film ever adequately reflect the power of the book.  But I thought the movie was seriously lacking.

RhymeReason

Just saw it this weekend and I agree with both of you. I get that condensing that book into two hours would be tough but there was just so much that they left out too. Prisoner camps during the war were just awful and they just didn't dive in deep enough into what a powerful survival story this really was.