Unbroken: A Path to Redemption 2018

     This film is based on a best selling book by Laura Hillenbrand and it is a sequel to the previous film Unbroken.  WWII has ended and this film is about the peacetime battle by Louis Zamperini to fit into everyday society.  Louis was shot down over the Pacific and he survived 47 days on a raft.  He was captured held fro two years as a prisoner of war in Japanese prison camp.  He was reported as dead to the US Army Air Force and to his family. 

     Louis was a high school track star and he competed in the 1939 Berlin Olympics.   He didn’t finish college but enlisted in the military and he became a bombardier.  He was treated horribly in the prison camp but he was with other military personnel to support him.  Now, he feels really at sea.  The Army asks him to tour, tell his story and sell wart bonds.  He begins to drink, it seems the only way to sleep and forget the terrible memories.  He meets Cynthia in Miami and they marry.  He can’t find a job and his psychological symptoms and drinking intensify.  Nothing begins to change but it gets worse until 1949.  Louis was born January 26, 1917 in Olean, New York.  He died July 2, 2014 in Los Angeles from pneumonia.  His wife Julia Applewhite was born in 1946 and she died in 2001 from cancer.  Their two children were Cissy and Luke.  4* (I really liked this movie)

98 min, Bio directed by Harold Cronk with Samuel Hunt, Merritt Patterson, Bobby Campo, David Sakurai, Vincenzo Amato, Maddalena Ischiale, Gianna Simone, Ali Eagle, Will Graham, Andrew Caldwell, Gary Cole, Bob Gunton, Donald Martin Stark, David De Luise, Scott Subiono.

Note:  Imdb 5.7 out of 10, Roger Ebert 2*, 36% critic 78% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic 39% with 7 critics 4.3 out of 10 with 8 reviews, Chicago Tribune 2* Katie Walsh, Amazon 4.6 out of 10 with 194 reviews, the paperback book published in 2014 has 4.8* out of 5* with 27,807 reviews.

Special Note:  Billy Graham’s grandson Will Graham portrays the Evangelist.  Some of the actors from the first film did not return to this sequel.  Alex Russell or Jack O’Connell as Louis.  The replacements are Bobby Camp as Peter and Samuel Hunt as Louie.  Angelina Jolie was also not involved as director.  Legendary Pictures and Universal Pictures were not distributors. Harold Cronk replaces Jolie and Pure Flix Entertainment was the distributor.  Cronk was also the director of God Bless The Broken Road 2018 and it was released one week earlier than this film.  The budget was estimated at $6 million and the film grossed $6.2 million.