Flags of Our Fathers (2006)

Beautiful!

This is not a movie to entertain a bunch of blood thirsty action movie goers. If you find yourself getting bored because a lack of action or confused and disconnected because of the flashbacks then this movie is clearly above your intelectual level. It is almost like the movie isn't designed to entertain. Instead, it is more of a hommage to the thousands of veterans who were wounded or killed. This is an absolute masterpiece for anyone who is interested in WWII history. This is definitely one of the best movies I have ever seen. Thank you Clint Eastwood. September 26, 2008

I cracked it

I WAS CLEANING IT, WHEN I ACCIDENTLY CRACKED IT. I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE ANOTHER FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS PLEASE. THANKS SO MUCH. August 31, 2008

2nd to Saving Private Ryan

This flick is right up there with Saving Private Ryan as far as WW2 movies are concerned. Maybe the gore wasnt on the same level as SPR but the story was great. I am a Soilder my self and I was really touched and satisfied of the portrayal of the Corps, I realize this film has been uncarefully scrutinized by the likes of Mr Bruce Bains but I completely feel that his negative reviews are flawed and biased. This movie is a wonderful Eastwood masterpiece. It deserves 5 stars. The following is for Mr Bruce,

Bruce Bain you are defeating your purpose, you try to come across as some Intelectual Jarhead who is trying to educate the ignorant public. Well having said that you really portray yourself as some pompous leftwing narcissictic elitist scum of the earth that is probally in love with his so called writing abilities. Your message is so uncompelling and painful to read, you should try to be an editor for childrens books instead of dedicating your slimy fingers to contradict anyone and anything. Please quit hiding behind that you are or were a Marine, there are good and bad, smart and stupid, strong and weak, in every faction of society not excluding the Devil Dog society, you just happen to fall into the ladder category assuming you are who you say you are. But who cares? Probally just yourself, now go ahead and over analyze my comment and scrutinize every little character that I have written I will not be waiting for your egotistical response. Hooooahhhh!!!!!!!!!!
July 14, 2008

Flags of Our Fathers

Excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. I like WWII movies since I have a connection to that era. Very well done. July 2, 2008

Worthy effort, scattershot result

This is one of those movies of which each of the ingredients makes your mouth water, yet the sum of the parts leaves a slightly flat taste.
First of all, lets say, this is a film worth watching, with an interesting message, great cinematography and terrific acting. However, the decision to straddle two types of story weakens the stories impact, and the end result feels just a little too unfocussed to really work well.
The story follows 3 of the surviving men of the famous photo of raising the flag on Iwo Jima. The photo becomes an iconic image of victory, and the government seizes the opportunity to use the survivors to tour the US exhorting the public to buy War Bonds. To understand the film a little better, it is necessary to go in realizing that this is not a historical dramatization of the Battle of Iwo Jima in the traditional war movie sense, although scenes from that conflict are brutally realistically portrayed, in true post-Ryan terms. It really only shows those war scenes as scattered flashbacks of the veterans as they are paraded around America to help sell the war. In using the flashbacks to show the battle, we are being led to understand not what the moment of war itself is like, but how the memories of certain moments within a war can stay with you and haunt you, or in the case of Ira Hayes, drive you to drink. It's a different way of looking at the horror of war than we usually get - however the effect of that is weakened by layering another level of flashbacks to the same events, viewed as the son of one of the men interviews his fathers friends to find out more about what happened to him. It's an unnecessary complication which weakens the movie. A second theme is the obvious one about the role of propaganda - how the act of allowing a lie to sell the truth becomes its own form of corruption.
And so, we go bouncing between these two central ideas as we see how the 3 survivors react differently to their new found `fame'. The leads are all fine, and the cinematography as we have come to expect in an Eastwood movie is great - but the end result feels like it has just a little too much baggage to work efficiently - but flawed as it is, it is still worth a look.
June 29, 2008

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