Clint Eastwood's movie is a major achievement in terms of scale - ranging from extensive physical and CGI battle scenes to sequences in many locations involving large casts, it is a substantial logistical triumph if nothing else.
But it also tells an intimate story of the three survivors of the Iwo Jima flag raising photograph and their reduction to mere PR tools at the same time as showing the combat on Iwo Jima in visceral detail.
In fact, the main flaw in the movie is that it perhaps makes too many visits - to parents of fallen comrades, to the racialism displayed towards Ira Hayes, to the quest by Doc Bradley's son to discover his father's war history - and it doesn't always do this with the greatest of clarity. I wasn't always sure who all the people were in the post-war sequences, or what they were up to.
But there are some wonderful performances (notably Adam Beach as Hayes) and the film always has something worth saying.
But it also tells an intimate story of the three survivors of the Iwo Jima flag raising photograph and their reduction to mere PR tools at the same time as showing the combat on Iwo Jima in visceral detail.
In fact, the main flaw in the movie is that it perhaps makes too many visits - to parents of fallen comrades, to the racialism displayed towards Ira Hayes, to the quest by Doc Bradley's son to discover his father's war history - and it doesn't always do this with the greatest of clarity. I wasn't always sure who all the people were in the post-war sequences, or what they were up to.
But there are some wonderful performances (notably Adam Beach as Hayes) and the film always has something worth saying.