Like many others I was looking forward to this film. Not so much as a remake of the battle of Iwo Jima but as a more humanistic examination of the lives of the men who fought and survived it. But what I assumed to be an interesting and thought provoking story, centering around the survivors of Joe Rosenthal's famous Suribachi photo, turned out to be a real let down. I guess my real problem with the film is that it didn't know what it wanted to be; was it a war film or a drama or a commentary on the ugliness of wartime politics or what? It bounced around so much it was at times difficult to watch. The battle scenes were very well done yet no sooner are we drawn in then Eastwood cuts away to another place and we have no idea where we are, why we are here, or who these people are. The characters were all a little two dimensional and wooden. I don't think it's because they're bad actors, I just think Eastwood didn't focus on them very hard. And that's the point. This movie lacks focus. This movie is in fact all over the place. It could have pinpointed any one of dozens of interesting subjects it touched upon yet it seems Clint wanted to cram in as much as he could. The stories of the three men paraded around the country selling war bonds was more of a backdrop, but to what I'm not sure, rather then the centerpiece of this narrative. Truth be told their tale, as told here, was not all that interesting or compelling. What we got was a jumbled, often confusing, poorly implemented story about real people and real events that didn't get the justice they deserved in this one. A real missed opportunity.
Review of Flags of Our Fathers
