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.
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.