I wrote this review of the movie:

While moviegoers struggle with the authenticity of Selma, a legend of incredible depth of spirit waits for every heart in the true story of an immigrant who couldn’t speak English and learned to win without handouts or learning to walk with haters. The Louis Zampanini wasted by quiet sunstroke, starvation, and dehydration altogether eclipses what most of us will ever know about real trials. Wrecked by this ordeal, he then endures two years of bitter imprisonment at the hands of merciless captors. We see and feel his long presence attacked by guards who strive personally to break him. He will not bend his awesome will to theirs. With wasted walking indignations of every kind, real silence is known in the heart of viewers. We listen and eerily adopt his strength. Perhaps we can model a person such as this.

This story jilts all who want the superhuman. Instead it goes to the heart of what it is to be human, to strive and to rise above the world’s challenges. We are so much more than we think. This story shares that reality.

2015 copyright John Smyth