Posted on 01/02/2015 6:16:05 AM PST by KeyLargo
‘Unbroken’ and Billy Graham The movie and the book about Louis Zamperini’s life skimp on the pivotal role of a certain preacher.
By Grant Wacker Jan. 1, 2015
Newspaper headlines agreed. Billy Graham —“heaven’s super salesman,” “the Lord’s top salesman”—knew how to close the deal. If he just read from a telephone book, one associate quipped, people would stand up and commit their lives to Christ.
Louis Zamperini, who died July 2 at age 97, was a case in point. The Olympic distance runner and World War II hero is the subject of Laura Hillenbrand ’s acclaimed 2010 biography, “Unbroken,” and of the new Angelina Jolie-directed movie based on the book.
As Ms. Hillenbrand tells the story, after mechanical problems caused Zamperini’s B-24 Liberator bomber to crash into the Pacific in 1943, the bombardier endured 47 days drifting on a life raft, and then two horrific years in a Japanese prison camp. When he returned to California at the end of the war, Zamperini fell into a maw of nightmares, alcoholism and severe post-traumatic stress, obsessively dreaming of taking revenge on the Japanese.
In 1949 Zamperini’s wife implored him to go with her to Billy Graham’s tent revival in downtown Los Angeles. The second night, Zamperini “walked the sawdust trail”—and publicly professed his newfound faith. He tossed out booze and cigarettes and embraced a lifetime of selfless Christian service, including a trip to Japan to forgive his tormentors.
Though Ms. Hillenbrand recounts Zamperini’s conversion, she doesn’t say much about how it influenced the rest of his life. In the movie “Unbroken,” Billy Graham goes unmentioned, and Zamperini’s redemption narrative is largely reduced to a few title cards flashed before the closing credits. Yet Zamperini himself believed that the religious event was the pivotal moment of his long journey.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Great post. Spot on.
And the book is far more brutal. I take karate from a 65 year old Okinowan man who is awesome and it freaked me out a little bit after I read the book.
Exactly.
I encourage everyone to see the film, and if possible read the book.
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