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The film version of Laura Hillenbrand’s bestseller Unbroken, about the life of Louis Zamperini, was the early Oscar favorite last year with director Angelina Jolie talked about as a potential Best Director Oscar winner and star Jack O’Connell as the next big thing. While the film opened to strong box office at year’s end, it was mostly liked, but not loved by the critics. What went wrong?

There was nothing wrong with the film as far it went. O’Connell was terrific as Zamperini, as were Dohmnall Gleeson and Finn Wittrick as his co-survivors on a raft in the Pacific for 47 days before being rescued by a Japanese ship and brought to a Japanese prisoner of war camp. Garrett Hedlund as a fellow prisoner and Jai Courntney as an early casualty of war were also strong in their roles. Miyavi was interesting if not entirely believable as Zamparini’s tormentor. Roger Deakins’ Oscar-nominated cinematography, Alexandre Desplat’s score, the SAG-winning stunt ensemble and the Oscar-nominated sound editing and mixing were all superb. As far as it went it was a fine film, but that’s the problem. It didn’t go far enough. The film spent so much time on the torture scenes that they didn’t have time left for the last third of the book, which represented the remaining seventy years of the protagonist’s life.

The Blu-ray extras fill in the gaps in Zamperini’s story including his epiphany at a Billy Graham crusade that he reluctantly attended in 1949. Prior to that, the Olympic hero and Army Air Force captain had recurring nightmares in which he strangled his Japanese captors, waking up one night with his hands around his wife’s neck. Threatening to leave him unless he attended the Graham crusade, his wife persuaded him to do so. He was about to leave when Graham said something about the power of prayer that caused him to pause. He immediately gave up drinking and smoking and his nightmares stopped. He went to Japan the next year to meet with his former guards and to tell them he forgave them. He then spent the rest of his life doing good works including starting a children’s camp that helped thousands of boys. He returned to Japan again in 1998 shortly before his 81st birthday to run with the torch to the Olympics.

Both O’Connell and Gleeson are stars on the rise. Both had earlier films that opened in the U.S. earlier in 2014, which have been released on DVD.

O’Connell is one of two brothers named Private Peaceful in Pat O’Connor’s film of the World War I novel by Michael Morpurgo, who also wrote War Horse.

The film opens with one of the brothers convicted of cowardice at his court-martial. Which brother is not made clear until the end of the film. Their story is told in flashback by the younger brother, played by George MacKay. O’Connell is the older one. Their nasty sergeant is played by John Lynch who made his screen debut as the star of O’Connor’s 1984 film Cal.

The film touches on many of the themes of War Horse but on a much smaller scale. It’s also highly reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick’s Paths of Glory.

In Starred Up, O’Connell is a 19-year-old street hoodlum incarcerated in a tough prison where the father (Ben Mendolsohn) he hasn’t seen since he was five is also an inmate. Rupert Friend co-stars as a trustee who sees potential in the young punk. It’s a tough go, but the actors, especially the three stars, hold your interest.

Both Private Peaceful and Starred Up are available in the U.S. on standard DVD only.

Dohmnall Gleeson is the son of veteran Irish actor, Brendan Gleeson. He’s had major roles in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Parts 1 and 2, True Grit and his father’s Calvary. In Frank he plays a wannabe musician who joins an eccentric rock band led by an enigmatic singer named “Frank” who wears a fake head he never takes off. Michael Fassbender plays “Frank”. Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Frank’s girl, Clara, who is also one of the band members. The film takes place in Dublin and other parts of Ireland, then shifts to Austin and other parts of Texas. It’s an odd, but strangely compelling film with both Gleeson and Fassbender in top form.

Frank is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Film versions of Stephen Sondheim’s musicals, aside from the two he only wrote the lyrics for (West Side Story and Gypsy) have been largely unsuccessful. Into the Woods, which took 27 years to reach the screen, is better than the film versions of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Tood and Company, but that isn’t saying much.

The problem with the film is that it never really soars. The only song in the score that stands out on its own is “No One Is Alone”. Others, especially “On the Steps of the Palace” and “Agony” play well within the film, but have no life out of context. The characters are not developed. Either we know them from the fairy tales from which they are taken or we don’t know them at all. Worse, some of the characters completely disappear without resolution. Much has been made over Disney’s insisting that Rapunzel not die, but what happens to her? She and her prince completely disappear after they are glimpsed waving from a balcony to Cinderella and her prince as they ride off on their honeymoon.

The all-star cast does well within the limitations of their roles with Oscar nominee Meryl Streep as the witch, James Corden and Blunt as the baker and his wife, Anna Kendrick as Cinderella, Chris Pine as her prince, and Billy Magnussen as Rapunzel’s prince the standouts.

Into the Woods is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

A more satisfying film musical is the Sherman Brothers’ Tom Sawyer from 1973 which has finally been released in widescreen by Shout Factory. Available on standard DVD only, this is the first time since the old laser disc version that this charmer has been released in widescreen. It’s about time!

The third of Peter Jackson’s overly long installments of J.R.R. Tolkien’s slim children’s book, The Hobbit has arrived on Blu-ray and standard DVD. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is easily the worst of the three elongated films that turn the anti-war original into an 8½ hour orgy of violence and mayhem. Several of the actors, though, do manage to turn in excellent performances amidst the CGI turmoil all around them, most notably Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Luke Evans, Lee Pace and, all too briefly, Ian Holm.

This week’s new releases include The Imitation Game and Interstellar.

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