Trailer here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk1M_HwmFMM
I've just finished reading the book by Laura Hillenbrand, a fascinating tale of a an airmen's experience in the WW2 Pacific theater.
Anyone else read the book or Louis Zamperini's own memoirs?
I read the Hillenbrand bio and am looking forward to seeing the movie. A number of members of my family spent time in Japanese concentration camps. A great uncle (by marriage) died doing slave labor on the Railway of Death. An awful lot of second-tier Japanese war criminals like Zamperini's abuser sure got a free pass thanks to the Cold War.
My friend heartily recommends the book. It's on my list. An unbelievable story.
I always had an interest in Zamperini so I got the book as soon as it appeared. I liked it a lot, though I think Hillerbrand's Seabiscuit is a better book. The story of Zamperini is one of redemption and recovery. I wonder if the film will be as sensitive to his religious experience as the book is.
Did anybody catch that screenplay written by Joel and Ethan Cohen and directed by Angelina Jolie??!!
Stupefied here.
^ No, what's it called?
What immediately spoils the trailer is the computer generated sun, sky, clouds, squadron of Liberators and a Zero coming in at 2 o'clock high. It's so wrong and fake. You can imagine the scenes covering the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot: they'll have more aeroplanes in the sky than fought in the whole of the Pacific and European theatres combined. They might even throw in some alien craft to add to the science fiction ambience that comes with the territory of digital production.
^
It is a shame that movies are becoming so reliant on CGI. I can understand it in some fantasyland futuristic plot, but when it comes to reenacting historical events, it really bothers me. I'd rather see a model battleship or submarine in a wave tank with someone pouring buckets of water over it than some of the over-the-top CGI stuff. I'm sure it would cost a damn fortune to go out and round up a squadron of real warplanes, if you even could muster an entire squadron of the same plane at this point - like some Zeros or Corsairs. Perhaps CGI will one day arrive at the point where you really can't tell it's fake.