While none of the cast and crew from the movie were present at last night's advance screening of
Unbroken, you certainly wouldn't have known it from the spotlights cutting through the sky outside of the
Newseum.
To be sure,
Comcast-NBCUniversal rolled out the red carpet, both figuratively and literally for the occasion, much to the delight of the some 500 lucky invitees.
A reception held prior to the start of the
Angelina Jolie-directed picture saw a who's who of Washington's creative and legislative powerbrokers digging into a
Wolfgang Puck-catered spread.
House Judiciary
Chairman Bob Goodlatte, Recording Industry Association of America Chairman & CEO
Cary Sherman, and an army of Hill staffers were all spotted milling about, among many others.
Equally well represented at the event were the nation's Armed Services, with active duty personnel and leaders from various veterans groups (
Got Your 6,
Justice For Vets, etc.) all in attendance.
NBC News Special Correspondent and legendary news anchor
Tom Brokaw served as the evening's official host and spoke candidly from the stage, after a brief series of remarks delivered by Comcast Executive Vice President
David Cohen and Comcast Chairman & CEO
Brian Roberts.
Unbroken follows the story of war hero Louie Zamperini (played by
Jack O'Connell), a former Olympian who, along with two other crewmen, survived in a raft for 47 days after a near-fatal plane crash during World War II - only to be caught by the Japanese navy and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp.
Jolie adapted the film from
Laura Hillenbrand's novel of the same name, which spent 180+ weeks on the
New York Times bestseller list.
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Unbroken opens nationwide on Christmas Day.