Unfinished

Rating: 3/10 (5 June 2015)

Imagine a remake of The Diary of Anne Frank in which all of the dramatization of Anne's hopes and dreams, her relationship with her family, and her views on life are skimmed over, and the bulk of the film concentrates on her miserable last days at Bergen-Belsen. That's pretty much what this film is like. Based on Laura Hillenbrand's moving biography of the former Olympic runner Louis Zamperini, who spent over a month lost at sea after his plane crashed into the sea during a failed rescue mission during WWII, only to be "rescued" by enemy Japanese soldiers and thrown into a POW camp, where he suffered horrific brutality at the hands of a sadistic officer, this would seem to be a story that would be nearly fool-proof in its potential to honor Mr. Zamperini's courage and spirit, as well as bring audiences to tears. Yet it fails to do so. While the movie documents the desperation of the survivors lost at sea, and the physical torture inflicted upon Japanese POWs during WWII, it loses sight of what made Mr. Zamperini's life story truly remarkable. Those who were fortunate enough to read Ms. Hillenbrand's book are more likely to be irritated by this film in that it stops immediately after Zamperini's return to the U.S. It's his postwar life, including years of post- traumatic stress disorder and alcoholism, which threatened his marriage, his sanity, and his soul, which is fully half the story in the book. His turning to religion and his triumph over alcoholism enable him to save himself, and his decision to forgive his captors, to the point of seeking out the guards who brutalized him and personally express his forgiveness, are a major part of the book and of Zamperini's redemption and triumph over his tragic experiences. Jolie glosses over all of that in this adaptation, relegating it all to a slide show of on-screen text at the end of the film, as if his postwar struggles were little more than an afterthought. Instead, the film concentrates largely on the beatings delivered to Mr. Zamperini in the camp--over and over again, we see scenes of him him being punched and struck with sticks until he's beaten bloody and stunned. But this isn't what made Zamperini's story so remarkable--it's how he was able, after years of anger and bitterness and nightmares, to rise above it and repair his spirit. Too bad Jolie treated this aspect of this great man's life so negligibly.
In a too-short documentary on Louis Zamperini's life that's included on the DVD, some of the details of his later years are filled in--his trip to Japan to meet with and forgive his captors; his meeting with Billy Graham which helped turn his life around; the camp for boys that he helped establish; his enjoyment of skateboarding and skiing which continued into his 80s and 90s; his joy for living in his later years. This bonus feature seems to capture the real Louis Zamperini, as documented in the book, much better than the movie ever does. Jolie mentions that she showed a rough cut of her film to Zamperini as he lay in a hospital bed in his final days. It makes me shudder to think of him watching a blow-by-blow reenactment of his suffering in a POW camp as he lay dying, but nothing depicting his spiritual triumph over adversity. Both Jolie and the movie were "snubbed" for Oscar nominations; it's easy to see why. Mr. Zamperini was a great American hero, not for what he suffered, but for how he survived and ultimately thrived, and he deserved a much better tribute than this.
A year prior to this, another film, The Railway Man, depicted a similar true-life story which was more successful in dramatizing the postwar trauma and eventual redemption of a former POW. That film was more successful in doing justice to its hero. Seek out that film instead. Otherwise, for the real story of Louis Zamperini, read the wonderful book by Laura Hillenbrand.