"Unbreakable" is adapted from the autobiography of American Olympic athlete and World War II hero Louis Zamperini. But fortunately, Luis Zamperini's life is legendary enough. He has suffered many twists and turns in his life, experienced twists and turns, ups and downs, and full of surprises.
Not to mention the plot of the movie, let's talk about Zamperini in reality first. His life can be roughly divided into four stages. The first stage, before joining the army. As a second-generation Italian immigrant, Zamperini was ridiculed by the children of his neighbors since he was a child, and was constantly ridiculed and harassed. And he is naughty by nature, his academic performance is not very good, and his childhood life is not happy. However, in the end, under the encouragement of his brother, he began to engage in running sports, and continued to win, and finally found a way, which brought him the confidence to keep improving, also exercised his character, and strengthened his belief in life. . In 1934, at the age of 17, Zamperini won the high school student sports mile race in Los Angeles, setting a national high school record, which he held for 20 years (4:21.2). In 1936, at the Olympic 5,000-meter trials at Randall Island, N.Y., he finally nearly crossed the line with world record holder Don Lash and thus qualified for the Olympics. In fact, for many people, being able to participate in the Olympic Games is already a very remarkable achievement. At the Berlin Olympics held in Germany in the same year, Zamperini finished eighth in the 5,000-meter race (Don Rush only finished 13th), but he was the fastest in the best sprint, giving people were impressed. When Hitler, the German head of state, held the hand of Zamperini when he met the Olympians, the leader who had not yet started a war also said, "Ah, you are the young man who sprints very fast." It was too successful. At his age, he wanted to make a big breakthrough in the next Olympic Games, but World War II blocked the holding of the Olympic Games. The Olympic Games originally scheduled to be held in Tokyo in 1940 were interrupted. However, when it comes to results, in 1938, Zamperini also set a national college student mile record of 4:8.3, and maintained this record for 15 years. As an athlete, Zamperini would have had a chance to achieve even more had it not been for the war. But with the outbreak of World War II, especially the Battle of Pearl Harbor, he terminated his sports career and joined the army without hesitation, becoming a bombardier in the United States Army Air Forces.
This opened the second phase of his storied journey as a WWII fighter. Since joining the army in 1941, Zamperini has been involved in the American and Japanese island battles in the Pacific and has participated in several missions. After the Battle of Midway in June 1942, the strategic positions of the United States and Japan in the Pacific Ocean have been reversed. In this case, the U.S. military, including Zamperini, as a whole entered the war with a happy mood. However, given the technology of the time, there was also a huge danger in staying in a bomber to fight. Finally, his fate took a huge turn. In May 1943, Zamperini was on a seemingly very rescue mission without any interference from enemy aircraft, but Zamperini's aircraft engine itself had a problem and eventually disintegrated. The 11 crew members were thrown into the vast Pacific Ocean. After some struggle, only three people survived. They climbed into a lifeboat thrown out of the engine room, but there were only a few bars of chocolate, a few screwdrivers and pliers. In the days that followed, just like "The Fantastic Drifting of Young Pi", the three had to spend long days in the boundless Pacific Ocean, fighting with sharks, drinking rainwater, eating seabird meat, fishing... Perseverance until the first For 33 days, one of them died. After that, Zamperini and the others persisted for another 14 days, and finally drifted to the Marshall Islands near Australia. Zamperini and pilot Phillips were finally rescued. The 47 days at sea formed the second legendary stage of Zamperini's life. This segment alone is enough to make a great movie story.
But the second stage and the third stage are consecutive, because it was not their friends who rescued them from the sea, but their opponents in the war, the Japanese, and it was the Japanese military who rescued them. Just after passing through purgatory at sea, he was quickly thrown into hell under the Japanese bayonet. Zamperini was brought to the Japanese mainland by the Japanese army and was held in two prisoner-of-war camps in Tokyo, Omori and Naoetsu. Unfortunately, both times the person in charge of guarding Zamperini was a guy named Mutsuhiro Watanabe, nicknamed "Birdman". Too wishful, so I put all the nameless fire in my heart on the American prisoners of war, especially Zamperini. When he knew that Zamperini was once an Olympian, he used him as a benchmark and tortured him even more. Watanabe forced him to promote anti-American slogans on the radio. After being rejected, Watanabe resorted to all kinds of inhuman methods to mutilate Zamperini, slapping him with a belt buckle, forcing him to do push-ups on a pile of feces, forcing all prisoners of war to slap him, punishing him in the hot sun, and so on. The Japanese have never admitted the extreme torture of prisoners of war, but a simple example can debunk the lie. It can be seen from the bodies of American Lieutenant General Wainwright and British Lieutenant General Paschwal that they were both released from prisoner-of-war camps and then participated in the surrender ceremony of the Japanese army on September 2, 1945, which was also in At this ceremony, the world saw their frail bodies that had been abused. In particular, Lieutenant General Winterley saw with his own eyes that Japanese soldiers beat British Major General Baker to death just because he refused to bow to him when he was in a prisoner-of-war camp in Taiwan. As Zamperini, whose rank is much lower than theirs, the torment was no less than them, or even worse. However, Zamperini forbearance, his biggest belief is to persist in living. He had survived such hard days at sea, and he could also endure the days in the prisoner of war camp. Although he wanted to give up many times, and even wanted to fight directly with the Japanese, his faith still allowed him to persevere. Finally, until the day of victory.
After that, it was the fourth stage of Zamperini's life. Until his death on July 2, 2014, Zamperini lived a peaceful life for a long time after the war. Still, in his 80s and 90s, he still loved sports, skiing, running, mountaineering and skateboarding, and became a celebrity in the speaking circle. This way of life and attitude towards life is already worthy of many future generations to learn. But it rose to the plot of the movie, and it was not fully explored because of the lack of enough dramatic points.
"Unbreakable" focuses on the two major centers of "floating at sea" and "life in a prisoner of war camp", especially the latter, which has become the most important part of the film. It is also these two parts, especially the paragraph "Life in a Prisoner of War Camp" that conveys a new concept to the Chinese audience, which is very noteworthy.
Regarding the prisoners, we Chinese have always advocated perseverance and perseverance. A typical example is Su Wu, who went through hardships and remained unyielding as a prisoner for 19 years, and finally became one of the 11 heroes of the Qilin Pavilion in the Han Dynasty. It doesn't matter how much Su Wu has established to open up the frontier and stand up to the attack, and being able to persist for 19 years without any change is enough to fully reflect the strong centripetal force of the Han Dynasty. From this point alone, it is already the biggest hero. Others are like Guan Yu, who lives in Cao Ying and has a heart in Han. Although he has treasonous in his behavior, he has not been sentenced in his heart. It can be regarded as a kind of loyalty and respected by future generations. On the other hand, like Lu Bu, he was criticized because he was a servant of the three surnames. This view was not until the Qing Dynasty, when Wu Sangui and Qian Qianyi were criticized by later generations for their apostasy. This view of integrity is no different from Zamperini's insistence in the POW camp.
However, in recent decades, the traditional view has been somewhat different. For the Communist Party, as long as you have been in prison, whether you surrender or not, you will not be a hero. Ye Ting died early, otherwise I really don't know what would have happened during the Cultural Revolution. As for Liu Shaoqi, because he was arrested in 1929, he became a "scab and traitor", and then he was killed, which made people sigh. Others, of all those who had contact with the Kuomintang, almost none of them retreated completely. Those without blemishes were frightened to sweat a few times, and only those with blemishes were stripped of several layers of skin. In the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, a large number of soldiers who were captured by the Americans and returned to China were basically not reused, and they were discriminated against. A group of soldiers asked to be sent to Taiwan and did not dare to return to China at all. And Fu Zuoyi, Dong Qiwu, etc. who surrendered, later regretted it, felt sorry for their subordinates, and should not join the common.
As long as you are stained, you are no longer a hero. This view has poisoned too many people. Even now, if you want to destroy a person, you have to start with personal attacks. Like Xue Manzi, who used to be a big V on the Internet, he was full of positive energy. There are also corrupt officials who were all righteous when they were in Taiwan, as if they were always the incarnation of correctness, but once they fell, they immediately turned into scumbags. This kind of propaganda, which is either good or bad, makes people feel funny when you think about it, but it doesn't work well.
So, taking a closer look at "Unbreakable" does have a lot of benefits. A person like Zamperini, who has been in a prison camp for many years, becomes a hero once he comes out, and still enjoys the praise from the country and the people. A tainted hero is also a hero. Such a view of identity is too profound. In fact, this is not a universal value. Its connotation is that everyone can be called influence. Because no one is perfect, and heroes are also human beings, heroes may have shortcomings, and there are very few heroes without shortcomings. But in our value pedigree, since it is a positive image, it means that there must be no shortcomings. Even if there are, it must be artificially erased, and a false image of a false big empty is artificially created. Because of this, our heroic images often lack enough charisma to move people's hearts. They may also be moved under strong publicity, but they are often moved and moved, so do what you should do. Because the image of these heroes is too far away from us, we can only look up. The heroes of the West give people the feeling that they are by our side, and we can become them, so they have a stronger ability to inspire. I think, interpreting "Unbreakable" from this perspective, the harvest should be greater.
The point of the hanging track is that such a heroic image cannot be photographed by ourselves. Even if the script can be written, it will be passed in the review. Excellent values, you can't get it yourself, you can only get it from the works of other countries, it's really a bit speechless. On the one hand, it is said to resist Western values; Forget it, let's not talk about it.
View more about Unbroken reviews
