War films usually tell of action and suspense, or of explosions and missions. Well with this one, there are none of those. There are some explosions but not much enough to be called a war film really. The movie is about the life of Louie Zamperini, a long distance olympian runner who ran at the Berlin Olympics in 1936. He was commissioned into service as a bombardier and crashed and captured over the Marshall Islands by the Japanese. This was his story of his strength and determination to make it alive until the war ends.
The film starts of him creating a back story of how he decided and trained for the olympics. It molded us to his character that with determination he was able to succeed to whatever he focused on. He thought of running, he made sure that he wins. This back story laid the foundation for his character that we understood when we see him stranded in the ocean for more than 45 days until they were "rescued" by the Japanese. His determination to survive hurdled his hunger and thirst while in the little lifeboat they had, well enough to carry him to his next ordeal, the prison camp.
While there, he had undergone new hardships under the prison guards namely under the watchful eye of "the Bird". An english speaking rich Japanese who like to humiliate him in front of others. The Bird sees him as a strong willed prisoner and that he would like to "break" him. Of course Louie would have none of that and continued to ward off all the things thrown at him by the Japanese. His famous line here - "if I can take it, I can make it". The only way for them to win the war is to stay alive till the end.
The movie is a slow moving film, purposely of course, trying to mold you into the hardships and struggle of our hero. We were bored with some parts we admit it, but some of you might like that idea of purposely slowing the story line. The character of the Bird we feel should have been played more, to create a contrast to or similarity with our hero. The Bird mentioned that there were both "strong" thus he felt they would be friends with Zamperini, however we found no part in the film that showed him being "strong" and equal to Zamperini. Except for him shouting, we thought he was weak when he did that.
Anyway, he survived his ordeal in the camps and was alive until the war ended. In the end of the film, he wanted to see the Bird but he was no longer in his room. He left his cane that brought pain and suffering to Zamperini. The last few scenes were of him seeing his family back home and how happy he was to be back.
To cap the movie, they showed the real Louis Zamperini and how he lived his life. He got married and had 2 offsprings. True to his promise that should he survive, he would devote his time for the Lord and became an evangelist. He also forgave his captors, including the Bird, as he deemed the best way to move forward is to forgive. He even went back to Japan to talk to his captors and it was only the Bird who doesn't want to meet him.
The most tear jerker moment in the end is when he again ran for the Olympics, in Japan. He carried the Olympic torch for the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. A place where his last POW camp was near.
A great story of Louis Zamperini's determination and character. A worthy watch if you are into biographies. Zamperini is performed here by Jack O'Cnnell and directed by Angelina Jolie and currently showing on Netflix.
