Q: How did Louis actually get into running?

                A: In the movie, Pete begins training Louis after he runs from the police because he was under the bleachers, looking up girls' skirts. It's a funny and quick segue to his track career, but inaccurate. In reality, some girls were arranging a track meet and persuaded him into joining because he "looked like the only boy who could run." He ended up getting last place and hid under the bleachers out of embarrassment. Pete then decided to train him.

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Q: What perspective is being portrayed in the film?

                A: There's clearly one perspective portrayed throughout, Louis Zamperini's perspective. There's a strong bias against the Japanese in this movie, too, one that nationalists said is "incredible" and "immoral", even though there are numerous claims of the POW guards being violent and abusive, plus forensic evidence to back it up.

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Q: Was the movie set, costumes, etc. accurate to the time period? 

                A: Yes. The costumes of the Japanese officers specifically were accurate, and the scene in Berlin was clearly made to highlight the time period, since Nazi flags definitely wouldn't be hanging anywhere today. The outfits worn by the regular people too were very reminiscent of the early 1900s.

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Q: Did Pete actually tell Louis "a moment of pain is worth a lifetime of glory?"

                A: Yes, but Louis recalls it a little different than how it's shown in the movie. Supposedly Pete told him months before, while they were laying in bed. Yet, it still helped him pull through the Olympics all the same.

 

Q: Was any dramatic effect added to the raft scenes?

                A: Not really. The movie depicts almost exactly what Louis describes in his stories. They had little supplies. They lost the provisions box in the crash, only having the two inflatable rafts, chocolate bars, a few half-pints of water, a flare gun, sea dye, fishhooks, and a fishing line. On the first night, however, Francis “Mac” McNamara ate all of the chocolate bars in a panic. Just like in the movie, they used raw bird for fish bait, and ate the raw fish. On day 27, a Japanese plane opens fire at them, completely destroying one of the rafts. As Louie and Phil patch up the remaining one, Mac fends off sharks. Mac also beats a shark that lunges at Louie. Around day 30, Mac dies of malnutrition and they release him into the sea. On day 47, after a storm, a Japanese military ship takes the men aboard.

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Q: How bad were the Japanese POW camps?

                A: Based on Zamperini's accounts documented in Hillenbrand's novel, it was actually worse than seen in the movie. Watanabe carried out many especially cruel acts, such as tying an elderly prisoner to a tree for days. Louis also reports being used as a guinea pig for medical experiments three times. There's many other accounts for the Bird's cruelness, but the movie omits these to keep the focus on Louis.

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Q: Did Louis actually appear on Tokyo Radio?

                A: Yes, he did. His actual message was almost identical to that in the film. "Hello mother and father, relatives and friends. This is your Louie talking. ... I am now interned in the Tokyo prisoners' camp and am being treated as well as can be expected under war time conditions..." He was then sent back and called to return later, unlike in the movie which it happened immediately. In both cases, he refused to read the letter with anti-America propaganda. Also accurate to reality, he was given a big American meal and was able to meet other POWs that were working for the Japanese to spread propaganda. 

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Q: Were there any inaccuracies in how Watanabe was portrayed?

                A: The movie portrays Watanabe's ruthless, sadistic, and terrifying personality perfectly. However, there were some inaccuracies in his actions. In the movie, Louis is forced to race against a Japanese officer to poke fun at his frail state. This was actually before Watanabe and Zamperini met, so it wasn't him who carried out that order as seen in the movie. Another inaccuracy is in the moving scene in which Watanabe orders Zamperini's fellow POWs to punch him in the face in order to teach him respect. This did happen, but there were several other prisoners. This was probably omitted to keep the focus on Louis. 

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Q: Was Louis actually forced to hold the beam above his head?

                A: Yes, but it's a bit different. In the movie, he's punished because he stopped working for a minute. In reality, it was because he visited the doctor without permission. In the movie, Watanabe tells the guard to shoot him if he drops it. In reality, he was only told to hit him with his gun. Inevident in the movie due to the cinematography, Louis held the beam for a total of 37 minutes.

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Q: Are there any other details omitted from the film?

                A: There's many details included in Hillenbrand's novel that didn't make it in the production of Jolie's film, presumably because they didn't move the story along fast enough, they were "uninteresting," they took the focus away from Louis, etc.. In my research, I found Louis met Hitler at the Olympics. Supposedly he caught Hitler's attention, and he was called up to meet him. They shook hands and Hitler said something along the lines of "Ah, you're the boy with the fast finish," in German. An interesting event that was excluded from the film was Zamperini and a dozen other men devised a plan to kill Watanabe. This was never carried out because the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki took place soon after, and Watanabe disappeared.