Louis In The Movie Unbroken

The 2014 box office hit movie Unbroken directed by Angelina Jolie accurately depicts the events that took place in the life of Louis Zamperini including his childhood, time as a runner in high school and in the Olympics, and the troubles that he occured during his tenure in the United States Military.
Unbroken begins with Louis in his hometown of Olean, New York growing up with a family of Italian Heritage. Although Louis was born in Olean , his family shortly after “moved to California” where he was raised for a “majority of his childhood” (“Louis Zamperini” 1). Very quickly one can come to the conclusion that Louis “had a knack for getting himself into trouble when he was growing up” (“Unbroken vs. True Story of Louis Zamperini and Mutsuhiro Watanabe” 5).. A conception that Louis himself has confirmed is to be true. Despite the trouble that he brings upon himself it is clear early that Louis has a strong, unified family that love each other.
Not much time is spent delving into Louis’ earlier years in the movie, and it quickly accelerates to his time in High School. In high school Louis was introduced to track by his brother Pete, because he thought that “getting Louis involved in the high

school track team would be a good way for him to embrace something other than mischief” (“Unbroken vs. True Story of Louis Zamperini and Mutsuhiro Watanabe” 5). This worked for Louis as in order for him to be successful in running he had to give up things like drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes, two things in which he had formed bad habits with. After breaking the habit Zamperini became very dedicated to track and found great success in it, particularly in long distance runs where he would let his willpower, and endurance shine.
Louis track performance and the breaking of the “world interscholastic record for a mile” (Harris 2) earned him a scholarship at the University of Southern California. In 1936 Zamperini tried out for the United States Olympic team and made it, allowing him to go to Berlin, Germany later that year where he ran in the 5000m race. Although Zamperini “placed eighth” in the event he “broke another record. He ran the final lap in just 56 seconds” (Harris 2) a performance that caught many eyes at the event. One of the people that noticed Zamperini was Adolph Hitler, which leads to one of the only inconsistencies of the book and Louis’ actual life. This occurred when the “politically naive Zamperini asked German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels to take his picture with Adolf Hitler” (“Louis Zamperini 1). Goebbels allows Louis to meet with Adolf, and they even had a short interaction with each other, but this part of his life was chosen to be left out of the movie most likely because of political reasons due to what Hitler went on to do from later that year until his death. Zamperini planned to got to the 1940 Olympics as well, but they were being hosted in Tokyo, Japan and were cancelled altogether due to World War II.
After the olympics were cancelled in 1940 Zamperini was searching for what he wanted to do with the next chapter of his life and he decided to”enlist in the Army Air Corps in late 1941” to join the Air Force, “After training” Zamperini “was sent to Hawaii” (“Louis Zamperini” 2). While deployed in Hawaii Zamperini went on many different kinds of missions, including reconnaissance and rescue. In order to carry out these assortments of tasks Zamperini and his crew would use the most popular plane at the time for the United States Military: The B-24 Bomber.
The B-24 Liberator (the most common “variant” of this plane at the time) comes in varying sizes, but depending on the model the crew is made up of “7 to 10 personnel” (“Consolidated B-24 Liberator Heavy Bomber” 3) which is the amount of members in the crew in the movie. Zamperini’s job on the B-24 was that of the Bombardier which “held the most important job in the flight crew” as the “Liberators were designed with bombing in mind” (“Consolidated B-24 Liberator Heavy Bomber” 4).
Although Louis did not have very much money growing up, the true trials of his life would begin “on May 27, 1943” when he was on a mission to try and rescue a plane that had lost signal in the Pacific Ocean. On this mission they were flying on “a worn B-24 called the Green Hornet” and “crashed after 2 engines failed and exploded as it hit the water” (“Louis Zamperini 2). After the crash only three of the crewmates survive; Pilot Russell “Phil” Phillips, Gunner Francis “Mac” McNamara, and o course Louis. One of the key parts of the movie is when McNamara eats all of the chocolate provisions the night of the crash, and apparently this is true as “in an act of panic … McNamar ate all of the chocolate bars (approximately 6) as the other men slept in the two rafts during the first night. After this the three men spent the next 33 days hunting albatross - a bird that resembles a pelican and lives in the pacific -, avoiding sharks, and even on one occasion dodging a Japanese fighter planes gun fire. On the 33rd day McNamara “eventually succumbed to dehydration and starvation” (“Unbroken vs. True Story of Louis Zamperini and Mutsuhiro Watanabe” 8) and passed away. It took another two weeks for Zamperini and Phillips to be rescued, but unfortunately it was by the Japanese. The point of rescue was near the Marshall Islands meaning that “they had drifted approximately 2,000 miles” and although it slightly differs depending on the source, both men lost about 70-85 pound in the six and a half weeks.
The remaining part of Zamperini’s story is where the majority of Unbroken takes place, in the Japanese POW camps. Louis was taken to “Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands” a place that had been nicknamed “execution island due to the fact that nine marines had already been beheaded there” (“Unbroken vs. True Story of Louis Zamperini and Mutsuhiro Watanabe” 10). Many of the cruelties in the movie accurately depict how Louis described his time there, but he has said that some of it has been toned down due to the public audience that the movie was being displayed to. One of the key differences that Louis has mentioned in the past is that “on three occasions, Louis was injected and used as a guinea pig for medical experiments” and that he was forced to describe “what the injection was doing to his body” (“Unbroken vs. True Story of Louis Zamperini and Mutsuhiro Watanabe” 11).
One of the key characters in the movie is that of Mutsuhiro Watanabe, or more commonly referred to in the movie as “The Bird” was a “Corporal … at the Omori POW camp located on an island in Tokyo Bay” and when he was “transferred to Naoetsu, the most hellish camp in Japan, Louis was eventually transferred there too” (“Unbroken vs.

True Story of Louis Zamperini and Mutsuhiro Watanabe” 11). Zamperini was transferred to this camp, because he refused to participate in Japanese propaganda radio broadcast, which was offered since he was known by the American public from his time in the Berlin Olympics. The premise of the campaign was to convince America that the POW’s were not being mistreated, but due to the abuse that he had faced in the camp Zamperini refused to betray his

word.
Arguably the most well known scene in the movie is that of which Watanabe forces Zamperini to hold a six foot long beam over his head, and commands one of his guards that if Louis drops the beam the he will shoot him with his gun. Louis manages to hold the beam in the air for 37 minutes - a time that even healthy would be impressive - “Watanabe charged Louis and puncehd him in the stomach” which resulted in the beam falling and hitting “Louis in the head, momentarily knocking him out” (“Unbroken vs. True Story of Louis Zamperini and Mutsuhiro Watanabe” 15). This scene probably has the most discrepancies between the real occurrence and the movie in an otherwise historically accurate. The first difference is that in real life, instead of Watanabe telling the guard to shoot Louis if he drops the beam, he tells him to hit him with the hilt of his gun. Due to the weakened state that Zamperini was in this moment it being hit probably would have still seriously hurt him, and it may have even put his body over the limit and killed him, but regardless, it is still much less severe of a punishment than opening fire on him. The other big difference in this scene is after the beam falls in the movie Watanabe continues to punch and kick Louis while he is on the ground and at his weakest, but in the real occurrence, because Louis was knocked out Watanabe did not hit him anymore despite high tempers and frustration.
The movie Unbroken almost perfectly portrays the obstacles that had to be overcome by Louis Zamperini from his childhood all the way until he escapes the POW camp.