Saw this Saturday.

I had high expectations with a great book/script to work with and Eastwood directing.

I'm a huge fan of Band of Brothers and was excited to see something about action in the Pacific front.

I left the theater feeling annoyed and a bit empty or detached from this film.

Something about the flashbacks and past and future storylines mingling just didnt' work for me. I enjoyed watching the battle scenes but just as soon as they were getting super intense they cut to the "Bond Drive" future and it undercuts the momentum and it ends up not developing either storyline.

I would've rather watched the documentary "Flags of Iwo Jima".

I'm done with Eastwood as a director. Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby were emotion gutting dramas that I have no need to ever watch again but this one just left me feeling meh which is much worse IMO.

I realize that the story is about the guys that raised the 2nd flag but I think it even fails to develop their characters not to mention give you the sense that 18,000 Americans died in the first 2 weeks of fighting.

Some of the landing scenes were pretty cool though.


Grade: C+

EXACTLY. I was going to start this same thread after seeing it on Saturday. I also thought the end was pretty bad. It felt like they didn't know how to wrap up the story.

Another complaint I have is that you had little context of what was actually going on during the battle, other than casualties. I know the 3 survivors were yanked out pretty quickly, but as the veterans I saw last night said, the battle lasted 35 days—a whole month after the flag went up. You didn't really get a feel for that at all.

It wasn't bad, but nowhere near great either.

Saw this last night. Don't really have much to add to what you guys said, as your critiques are right on target.

I was impressed with Adam Beach as Ira Hayes. He didn't necessarily bowl me over with his acting but I thought he did a pretty good job with what turned out to be the biggest role in the film. Battle scenes were good.

Hopefully Letters from Iwo Jima will be better.

Grade: B-

nice to know. watched the natl geo "iwo jima" spot last nite and became interested in the movie. maybe i'll just wait for vid...

It wasn't god awful but I just felt it was a missed opportunity with such great material to work with.

I'd suggest a matinee. It's still probably better than a lot of the dreck out there.


The Iwo Jima doc was awesome.

I agree with the Derris post directly above, and with Ripple's shout out to the dude that played Ira Hayes.

This movie made Bababooey cry.

My mom says dad was at Iwo Jima. Dad once told me he wasn't. So I don't know who was right. I know he was a frontline radio tent operator in the Pacific Theater from 1940-45, so it's possible.
Dad didn't talk about WW 2 much at all, so I don't really know for sure.

this movie and the title especially comes off far to pretentious for me to ever care about seeing it

I gather the point of the movie, though, was supposed to be the disillusionment that sets in amongst the soldiers after they're rapidly turned into icons following the flag-raising. That's just what I read. Haven't seen the movie yet. So the title is supposed to be bittersweet like Springsteen's "Born In The USA" or Reiner's Born On The Fourth Of July?

The only time my grandfather EVER talked about WWII was the morning after me, mom, dad, and gramps watched Saving Private Ryan.

He told me two stories:

1. He got to the beach in Normandy a couple weeks after it was all over with. He was told that he should at no time EVER look under the huge piles covered by tarps. He said that he looked under them as any curious being would do and regretted it forever. He said one tarp had random body parts and limbs piled about 15-20 feet high. The other had dead bodies. He said he never stopped having nightmares about it.

2. He was talking about how they treated the german prisoners. He told me that overall his experience was that they treated them very very well. But every once in a while they had to transport them from A to B and they would load them in the beds of big trucks. They'd get in the truch but there wouldn't appear to be any more room so they would speed the truck up to about 25 miles per hour and then slam on the brakes and then load the remaining prisoners in back.

WWII films and documentaries seem to be overdone sometimes and they seem to be a dime a dozen. But when I hear stories like that it reminds me that there is a whole generation of people that don't talk about their experiences at all. Vietnam is probably more drastic. I am thankfull I have never had to be in a situation like any of those.

I haven't seen the movie, but have read the book. The book is kind of about how they all felt used for the war effort, while their buddies either died on that godforsaken "island" or kept fighting.

One of my favorite parts is when the author tells of going to study in Japan and his dad's response (from a dad who NEVER talked about being in the war) responded something like: 'Those Gook bastards cut my friend's dick off and shoved it in his mouth, why the fuck would you ever go to that country?!!"

I pretty much hate Eastwood as a director, and gave up after the dreck of Mystic River, so I will probably never see this, though it should be right in my wheelhouse...

Derris -- did you read the book?!