Like the extension
of the Nazi regime in Pasolini's infamous Sade
adaptation Salo, or the 120 Days
of Sodom (1975), this hearkens back to the
type of gritty cruelty most
films outside
of Holocaust reenactments tend to sidestep.
Louis Zamperini's story is the
type of sweeping saga that practically begs for a
film adaptation — as Hillenbrand told us herself in an interview, «So much
of his life is spectacular — his races, air combat, a plane crash, his time on the raft — and would translate beautifully to
film.»