SPOILERS AHEAD, if there is such a thing as a "spoiler" here. You read the book, right? But if you haven't seen the movie and want to have your own, fresh reaction, you should read no further.
I won't include all of my thoughts here, but I'll try to get things started by saying I thought it was very good. You know that I was prepared to be disappointed; the trailer made it look saccharine, maybe trying to hard to be inspiring. I was surprised that the trailer was actually misleading. For instance, when The Bird says "Don't look me in the eye," and then Louis does. That was a false edit.
So I was prepared to be disappointed, and I wasn't. I felt the material before the war was rushed - Jolie had to prepare so many of Hillenbrand's themes, and many of them were shoe-horned it.
I didn't object to the life raft scenes, but I felt the high point of the movie was the long third act, the POW material. Of course, I saw some changes that I didn't love. The one thing I missed most was the plot of the prisoners to kill Watanabe.
I'm sure you have strong opinions about when the movie stops telling the story.
I have many more thoughts, but now I invite yours. Please write your thoughts as posts and respond to each other in comments.
