One third raft, two thirds POW, three thirds waste of time

Rating: 1/10 (9 May 2015)

It is a shame that the exceptional story of Louis Zamperini ended up on screen as such a mediocre film. The plot is roughly divided in two parts: the film starts during WWII, when Louis is a bombardier based in the Pacific. A few flashbacks show Louis as a difficult child, who started training as a runner to keep out of trouble and ended up competing at the Berlin Olympic games.
Within some minutes from the beginning, Louis plane crashes and one third of the movie is spent with him and surviving crew members adrift in the ocean for 47 days. Watching young people die of starvation is not particularly amusing. However, it can be assumed that this part drags on for what seems an eternity to give an idea of how those 47 days felt.
The remaining two thirds of the movie are about Louis being fished out by the Japanese and spending the rest of the war as POW, being constantly abused by Watanabe, the sadistic camp's commander. This part seems to drag on even longer and it is developed without any subtlety. Scene after scene Louis is beaten up by Watanabe but manages to retain some dignity. Unfortunately, witnessing the horrific conditions of POW is even less fun than castaways dying of starvation and the whole movie feels like an overlong torture, despite the final five minutes left for the - sort of - upbeat ending