Posted on 12/27/2014 6:33:18 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Great movie!
Do you think the movie could have been made without degenerating into “prison porn” but still be true this man's experience?
I don't plan on seeing the movie. Seriously, I don't think that Zamperini’s story could be told without showing the violence, and if they didn't show it, it wouldn't be his life. The violence would be just too much for me, just listening to the audiobook was almost too much.
“...good reason to believe that the bomb(s) resulted in FEWER Japanese casualties than an invasion would have...”
The two atomic bombs killed something like 150 to 200 thousand. I think the firebombing of Toyko almost 100k died in a few days of that campaign. An invasion would have been far more costly to the Japs.
The invasion plan of Japan was called “Operation Downfall”
excerpt:
“Personnel at the Navy Department estimated that the total losses to America would be between 1.7 and 4 million with 400,000 to 800,000 deaths.
The same department estimated that there would be up to 10 million Japanese casualties.”
I’m not sure what percantage of Jap casualties would end up as deaths. A higher percentage than America I would imagine - so at least 2 million. Or - if they went the way of fighting to the death like they did on Iwo Jima - then closer to 10 million.
And yet the revisionist left calls us barbarians for using the bomb. Disgusting.
Well, I don’t know what “Prison Porn” is.
But the brutal aspects of what this man went through are key to the story.
If they had fed the man three square meals a day, let him sleep in a featherbed and bathe every day, his forgiveness would have been far less dramatic and amazing.
I understand exactly what you mean...my wife and I discussed it when we found out a movie was being made, and both of us thought “Boy, that is going to be tough. It is all worth it in the end, but the getting to the end is pretty grim.
As far as movies go, “Saving Private Ryan” would not have the impact without the opening 30 minutes, just as “Band of Brothers” really needed the scenes from the Battle of The Bulge and D-Day.
I agree it is likely going to be uncomfortable to watch. I have heard some folks say they can’t watch movies like “Blackhawk Down” because of the portrayals of American servicemen being wounded and killed is more than they can take emotionally.
I respect that people feel that way. In this case, I think they have to show it, but...does that make it “Prison Porn”? I don’t think it does. I think it is a key to understanding.
Louie Zamperini’s life may or may not have been changed by the Olympics or being an AAF aircrew.
He might have never gone back to the Olympics, he might have hurt his legs, he might have had a family and got involved with them, and he might have finished the war as AAF crew without ever having spent a moment in a life raft or under the brutal gaze of a Japanese guard, and we would likely know nothing about him.
But...the floating in that raft, being a prisoner under the most brutal of captors, and finding God in a tent with Billy Graham...THOSE are the things that shaped him for the rest of his wonderful life, and MADE him the man he became. I fully understand they may not focus on his religious conversion the way I would want them to, but I do hope someone seeing the movie might read the book and get that message, it it isn’t conveyed correctly in the movie.
To me, that makes the trying worth it.
Yeah...Mel Brooks had his two best in the same year
Convert the grosses to 2014 dollars....its huge
Mebbe it hurted his widdle brain, having to actually think, and whatnot, without explosions and impossible acrobats somersaulting from helicopter doors.
Hey Laz, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Bless your late Mom, she raised a good guy.
Ditto
Pretty remarkable story.
I see strong parallels between this and the book of Job.
David Westheimer, who wrote the novel Von Ryan's Express, wrote a novel called Lighter Than A Feather, a fictionalized treatment of the invasion of Japan.
I read it when I was younger, and was suitably impressed with the appalling aftermath of such an undertaking - particularly amongst the civilian population.
The pious liars can jam it.
http://www.amazon.com/Lighter-Than-Feather-David-Westheimer/dp/1131309553
Quit being a damned victim. That’s the Left’s job.
After reading the book, seeing your comments, and then watching the movie; I don't think you could be more wrong if you tried.
Given that she only had a little over two and a half hours to tell the story. The high points were all there. His delinquent youth, redemption through sports, the air battles, 47 days on a raft, and brutality of his POW experience.
It might have been a better miniseries, but this movie presented it in such a way that some viewers will want to read the book.
Not the kind of attitude I would want with me in a foxhole.
Stanley Kaufman....New Republic... worse
Siskel and Ebert were just low wattage red diaper babies
Its nothing to do with gender
That Point Break chick
And Jodie Foster
And more girls
Have made decent film
Hollywood libtards love anything PC behind the movie....
Read "unbroken" as well. There are a lot of details in the book that didn't make it to the screen.
I think you are wrong
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