An astonishing but still undercooked war story that courted widespread controversy gets cast adrift on Netflix

There are some stories that sound so far-fetched and unbelievable that there’s no way they could be anything other than true, with Unbroken making an ambitious attempt to try and do justice to the life and times of Louis Zamperini.

Directed by Angelina Jolie in what was her biggest production behind the camera by far, the $65 million hybrid of biographical drama, survival thriller, and war story was initially pegged as a potential awards season contender, before a surprisingly tepid 52 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes put paid to those lofty ambitions.

There was also plenty of controversy, too, with calls for the film to be banned in Japan – which came along with petitions that racked up tens of thousands of signatures – due to what was perceived by the country as an exaggerated and falsified representation of World War II-era internment camps, not to mention the omission of Zamperini’s alcoholism, PTSD, or religious conversion.

It didn’t prevent Unbroken from hauling in $163 million at the box office, though, with Netflix subscribers the latest to immerse themselves in the extraordinary events after FlixPatrol revealed it to be one of the Top 10 most-watched titles among subscribers in the United States.

The short version is that Zamperini was bullied as a child, only to take up running as a distraction and qualify for the 1936 Olympics, before his plane crashed into the sea at the height of the war, leading to 47 days stranded in the ocean. After that, he was washed ashore on the Marshall Islands and held prisoner after being declared dead by the United States due to going missing in action, which barely even covers the mind-blowing ordeal he went through.