Only Half the Story Told

Rating: 7/10 (20 January 2015)

I thought Angelina Jolie did a pretty terrific job directing such a tedious plot. Of course she had the best crew, and that helped her achieve a pretty great film. I read the book so I was familiar with Mr. Zamperini's entire story.
However, Jolie only filmed half of Zamperini's story, which made it a downer.
Louis Zamperini's life was indeed HELL after the war ended in Japan, and Louis was released from the POW camps in Japanese territories. Sure, he held it together for almost 3 years while in the camps, struggling with living like an animal, starving to death, living in his own poop and vomit, and enduring the "Bird's" daily beatings. I'm glad that the torture was not depicted as gory as it was in the book. Jolie did a good job and we got the gist.
Then when the war ended and Louis went home to California, he became an angry alcoholic. Who wouldn't? He did meet a wonderful woman whom he married. His alcoholism grew, of course. Who could handle the stuff he went through without self medicating? However, he eventually gave his life to God through a famous evangelist crusade in Los Angeles in the 1950s.
Then Louis went back to Japan to personally forgive most of the Japanese commanders who tortured him during the war. He could not find the "Bird," his most sadistic torturer, as the "Bird" was fleeing all the time, knowing he was a wanted war criminal. This was all left out of the movie. All we got were written words at the end of the movie, that Zamperini gave his life to God and forgave his torturers.
I realize the difficulty in giving an exact account from book to movie. But I thought Jolie did pretty well. The scenes at the POW camps could have been shortened so that the rest of the story could be told.
The second half of the story is going to be told by a famous Christian organization. Unfortunately, it won't be in big budget movie format. It may just be "stills" and not even a movie at all. Maybe someone will come up with the budget so that the rest of this amazing story can be told in movie format.