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‘Unbroken’ an old-fashioned tale of strength, courage, resilience

Universal first tried to tell Louie Zamperini’s incredible life story in 1957, with eventual longtime Las Vegan Tony Curtis in line to portray the Olympian- turned-war hero.

While that version fell apart, in many ways “Unbroken” feels like the very movie the studio would have had in mind at the time.

Aside from some very brief rear nudity and a couple of minor, network TV-friendly swear words, director Angelina Jolie — working from a script by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Richard LaGravenese and William Nicholson — has crafted a surprisingly old-fashioned tale of strength, courage and resilience.

It’s a movie I wish I could have taken my grandparents to see.

Based on Laura Hillenbrand’s wildly popular biography, “Unbroken” concentrates on Zamperini’s celebrated war years with a few flashbacks to his youth, starting with his days as the bullied son of Italian immigrants.

Schoolboy Louie (CJ Valleroy) spends his days drinking liquor from milk bottles he painted white to disguise their contents, committing petty crimes and fleeing from the police. He has to be taught how to run without being chased.

Zamperini (played as an adult by Jack O’Connell) excels at the sport, and he’s soon known as the Torrance Tornado, the fastest high-school runner in American history. The Zamperini family huddles around the radio listening to his blazing final lap in the 5,000 meters at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, a race that was supposed to be his tune-up for the 1940 Games in Tokyo.

World War II canceled those Olympics, but Zamperini never stopped training, even as a bombardier in the Army Air Corps. He interrupts one of his runs for a South Pacific rescue mission aboard a B-24 Liberator that, at that point, was little more than scrap metal.

When the engines blow, pilot Allen “Phil” Phillips (Domhnall Gleeson) ditches the plane in the ocean, and he, Zamperini and tail gunner Francis “Mac” McNamara (Finn Wittrock) are set adrift in two 6-foot inflatable rafts. Storm-tossed and weather-beaten, they survive, barely, with Zamperini lifting their morale with stories of his mother’s gnocchi.

After 47 days at sea, Zamperini relays the approach of the Japanese navy with a somber, “I’ve got good news … and bad news.”

What follows is more than two years of abuse at the hands of merciless prison commander Mutsuhiro Watanabe (Japanese singer Miyavi), known to his prisoners as the Bird. He singles out Zamperini for repeated beatings, including a severe one when they first meet. Zamperini’s spirit remains unbroken. His nose does not.

When Zamperini refuses the chance to live in comfort in exchange for reading scripted propaganda for radio broadcasts, there’s almost a gleam in the eyes of the Bird, who orders each of the dozens of prisoners in the camp to punch Zamperini square in the face.

If its inspirational outcome weren’t so widely known, “Unbroken” would teeter precariously close to torture porn.

It’s a great-looking movie. With 11-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer Roger Deakins behind the camera, it would be news if it weren’t.

And “Unbroken” feels like a series of Academy Award favorites, from the Olympic running of “Chariots of Fire” to the lost-at-sea desperation of “Life of Pi” to the emaciation of “Dallas Buyers Club.”

What it doesn’t feel like, unfortunately, is a complete story.

In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve adored Zamperini for years. The only football I care about is played at his alma mater, the University of Southern California. And one of my fondest memories is of being in the Coliseum to help honor him as part of a near-capacity pregame standing ovation. I’m not ashamed to say I teared up that day, and I cried in July when he died.

As a result, I’m likely more willing than most to forgive some of the movie’s shortcomings. I also was able to fill in some of the holes in the story in ways “Unbroken” does not.

O’Connell does a commendable job as Zamperini, and the movie showcases his heroism at every turn.

A better movie, though, would have taken a few moments to also present him as a man.

Likewise, it would have been nice if his nemesis had been crafted into something more than a stock villain. When he rousts Zamperini out of bed to whip him in the face with a belt, the Bird’s taunt — “Why do you make me hit you?” — reduces him to little more than some random creep of the week in a Lifetime movie.

There’s no denying Zamperini’s story is remarkable.

It’s one of the most amazing you’ll ever hear.

But it’s a shame that, after a nearly six-decade wait, it isn’t more thoroughly told.

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567.

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