A disservice to a courageous man

Rating: 3/10 (20 January 2015)

The story of Louie Zamperini deserved a better movie than Unbroken. After an exciting aerial combat sequence and some brief flashbacks showing his troubled youth and eventual participation in the Berlin Olympics, we are treated to looooong scenes of Louie and a couple of fellow airmen adrift at sea. Then looooong scenes of Louie being tortured in the jungle. Then looooong scenes of Louie being tortured in a Japanese POW camp. Then looooong scenes of Louie being tortured in a mining camp. Then the war is over and the movie ends.
Louie apparently suffered emotional distress and other problems when he returned to the States before he turned his life around. Now THAT should have been the focus of the second half of the movie, not a continual series of indignities under the hands of his captors, who were portrayed as no more than standard movie cliché villains. And while the post-war story wasn't told (except for some concluding descriptive titles and photos of the real Louie), the story that WAS told had little story arc other than constant suffering.
A big disappointment.