Unbroken: A Survival Story About a Man Who Even Survived Himself
When someone asks you what a movie is about, we usually can reduce the synopsis down to a sentence or two. Ask anyone what the recent movie, Unbroken, is about and you will get something like this, “That’s the movie about the Olympic runner who gets captured and tortured by the Japanese in World War II.”
Obviously, these reductions cannot do justice to the contents of the film and they certainly cannot do justice to the contents of a 473-page book by the same name. I don’t intend to cover the main plot points but I will try to provide the learning moments from the book. Those moments where a truth is presented or a portion of the story perfectly illustrates an aspect of the human condition. This is why we read. We want to learn something new, to gain perspective on the world around us, and maybe be changed in the process. It reminds me of the famous Harry Truman quote, “Not all readers become leaders. But all leaders must be readers.”
I will try to pull out some of the parts of Unbroken, written by Laura Hillenbrand, that fit the criteria above while bringing to light the characteristics that match Truman’s sentiment.
Family First
Louie Zamperini was a wayward youth who was nothing like his older brother, Pete. Hillenbrand states that Louie idolized Pete and for good reason. Pete was everyone’s favorite son and held sway over his younger siblings, teachers, and other classmates. Perhaps Pete’s best quality though was his loyalty to his brother and his determination to see Louie reach his potential, whether that was on the track, at the Torrance school, or within Louie’s own mind. Pete took the project of redeeming his brother’s wayward ways not as a burden but as a responsibility of kinship and brotherhood.
Pete’s devotion to Louie was most evident as the months ticked away after Louie’s plane crashed and the family knew nothing about his welfare. Pete seemed to take the ordeal the worst. When Louie finally arrived home, Pete risked his own position in the Navy and went AWOL so he could spend time welcoming his brother home.
A Surviving Mind
The mental aspect of survival is a fascinating concept. After Louie and two others are left to survive for weeks on a deteriorating life raft, Hillenbrand contrasts the survival techniques of Louie and the pilot, Phil, with that of Mac, the third member of the raft. According to Hillenbrand’s description, Mac’s loss of purpose led to his physical downfall. He was often disengaged from the daily rituals and tasks at hand carried on by Phil and Louie.
Though all three men faced the same hardship, their differing perceptions of it appeared to be shaping their fates. Louie and Phil’s hope displaced their fear and inspired them to work toward their survival, and each success renewed their physical and emotional vigor. Mac’s resignation seemed to paralyze him, and the less he participated in their efforts to survive, the more he slipped…Louie and Phil’s optimism, and Mac’s hopelessness, were becoming self-fulfilling.
In addition, the two older men would quiz each other to keep their minds sharp; they would try to teach each other important things, they would memorize songs and lyrics.
Hillenbrand writes:
…Louie was determined that no matter what happened to their bodies, their minds would stay under their control.
Within a few days of the crash, Louie began peppering the other two with questions on every conceivable subject. Phil took up the challenge, and soon he and Louie turned the raft into a nonstop quiz show.
The world of the mind became their saving grace, even from the ravages of hunger. Here is how the men used their imagination to fend off hunger:
Every conversation meandered back to food. Louie had often boasted to Phil about his mother’s cooking, and at some point, Phil asked Louie to describe how she made a meal. Louie began describing a dish, and all three men found it satisfying, so Louie kept going, telling them about each dish in the greatest possible detail…So began a thrice-daily ritual on the raft…
But it was at the point of starvation that the men’s minds seemed to transform into something that was highly unexpected. Hillenbrand explains:
Given how badly the men’s bodies were faring, it would seem likely that their minds, too, would begin to fail. But more than five weeks into their ordeal, both Louie and Phil were enjoying remarkable precision of mind, and were convinced that they were growing sharper every day…In his head, he could roam anywhere, and he found that his mind was quick and clear, his imagination unfettered and supple. He could stay with a thought for hours, turning it about.
The Transforming Power of Christ
Those of us who have grown up in a church setting or have been Christians for a long time, lose sight of the power of Christ in an individual’s life. After the war, when Louie comes to faith in Jesus through the Billy Graham crusade, his life change wasn’t about cultural allegiances or political preference, or moral choice. His life change was a transformation of the heart that totally overtakes Louie’s existence. He is not just a new Christian, but a new man, to use the language of scripture. This new man is freed from his addiction to alcohol, becomes more loving and caring to his wife, and most surprisingly, is no longer full of revenge, bitterness, and hatred toward his Japanese captors. Just hours before, Louie is plotting efforts to return to Japan to kill the Bird, his pointed enemy. Now, with the power of Christ in his life, he is plotting a return to Japan to offer forgiveness and love. No simple belief system creates that kind of radical altruism; only an encounter with a person, with divinity, accomplishes such change.
Hillenbrand describes Louie’s conversion:
Resting in the shade and the stillness, Louie felt profound peace. When he thought of his history, what resonated with him now was not all that he had suffered but the divine love that he believed had intervened to save him. He was not the worthless, broken, forsaken man that the Bird had striven to make of him. In a single, silent moment, his rage, his fear, his humiliation and helplessness, had fallen away. That morning, he believed, he was a new creation.
One of the first things the new Louie chooses to do is return to Japan with open arms and a forgiving heart:
In Sugamo Prison, as he was told of Watanabe’s (the Bird) fate, all Louie saw was a lost person, a life now beyond redemption. He felt something that he had never felt for his captor before. What a shiver of amazement, he realized it was compassion.
At that moment, something shifted sweetly inside him. It was forgiveness, beautiful and effortless and complete. For Louie Zamperini, the war was over.
Of all the incredible and unfathomable moments in Louie’s life, all of the suffering and near death moments, all of the times he was saved from death and destruction, it is this moment that seems the most unlikely.
