Louis “Louie” Zamperini was indeed broken by his ordeal as a WWII prisoner of war (POW) and was only healed by his acceptance of Jesus Christ as savior, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) proclaims in its documentary response to the film “Unbroken.”
The BGEA documentary, “Louis Zamperini: Captured by Grace,” tells the story of Zamperini’s deliverance from alcoholism, nightmares and undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) suffered after drifting in the Pacific for 47 days and enduring two years of beatings, starvation and hard labor at a POW camp in Japan.
BGEA vice president and associate evangelist Will Graham said the film “Unbroken” ended before telling the most important aspects of Zamperini’s life that were detailed in the bestselling Laura Hillenbrand book, “Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption.”
An incomplete picture
“I think that’s what the remarkable story of ‘Unbroken’ is all about. Louis was not a man that was unbroken, he was actually broken when he came home,” Graham said. “The war had destroyed his life. … It wasn’t until he experienced forgiveness personally that he was able to forgive others. And he served God the rest of his life after that.”
The film “Unbroken” paints an incomplete picture by not including Louis’ decision to follow Christ, Graham said.
“To us that’s one of the most important parts of Louie’s life,” Graham said. “People have a misconception that when Louis came back from the war and he hugged his family, that everything was peachy and rosy, everything looked good. But that’s when actually he was broken the most.
“It was those years after the war, when he had fame, he had everything given to him … but deep down inside he was wrestling with some demons in his life. And it was anger and hatred and he wanted to murder his captors. And so he had nightmares every night, tormented again by his captors, in his dreams that is. We know that’s PTSD but back then they didn’t know what to call it,” Graham said.
“It was because of that that Louie would end up giving his life over to Christ and his life was forever changed. No more nightmares, no more hatred and he was able to go back and tell his captors about Jesus Christ. So if Jesus Christ forgave him, then Jesus Christ could forgive them also.”
Zamperini accepted Christ at a Billy Graham crusade in Los Angeles in 1949. BGEA produced the documentary in hopes that Zamperini’s story would draw others to Christ, the younger Graham said.
“The only purpose” of the documentary is “to tell people about Jesus Christ and that was really at Louie’s heart as well,” Graham said. “He wanted to tell people how Jesus changed his life. We want people to come to know Christ. We want to see people give their life over to Christ just like Louis.” (BP)
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