Let’s not brush over Zamporini’s battle with PTSD and alcoholism. He pulled it together—and probably would have saved many torturous days, weeks, and years had the condition been treated.
He might not have complained, but he did not come out of his experience, shake it off, and move on.
To me, it is that he had to fight it to get by it which was one of the more compelling parts of the book that they left out of the movie.
His reluctance to attend the revival meetings, his waking up straddling his pregnant wife with his hands around her neck...and his eventual return to Japan.
All stunning, but ignored and the movie suffered.
Zamporini didn’t really pull it together, at least on his own. He was basically an alcoholic and losing everything including his wife, who decided to leave him. She then got saved at a Billy Graham crusade in LA. She returned and managed to get Louie to go under protest. He had the classic born again experience & gave his life to Christ. Spent the rest of it working with troubled kids.
The movie ignores this aspect of his life. The book delves into it as you cannot adequately explain the rest of his life without addressing it.