Saw "Flags of Our Fathers " last evening.
Outstanding movie!!
Anyone else see it yet?
I know the “historical accuracy buffs” will see the “MISTAKE” or “MISTAKES” in this movie as far as trains are concerned.
The movie itself was awesome!
As the movie ended, people started to get up to leave, and some people had tears in their eyes, ALL of those who started to leave STOPPED and watched the entire credits roll with the real pictures of Iwo Jima and the real characters portrayed in the movie.
And as the credits rolled, the theater was totally silent, only the music could be heard.
This movie has a very powerful effect!
GOOD MOVIE!!!
TEN THUMBS UP!!!
I have not seen the movie yet. I have only seen the sneak peaks on tv and online. I plain to very soon and I am sure it will touch home with me because my father and grandfather served for our country. Although I did get to watch the real fotage of the flag raising on tv the other night. It was a touching moment and I am sure the movie is great, I am chomping at the bits to see it. I will repost after I have watched it.
Baker
oh I seen the real footage on the history or discover channel show name was
"Flags of Our Fathers " do a search for it if you have satalight. You might be able to search for it online and find it also.
I hope that it is not filled with Hollywood style action that does not depict what our Fathers went thru in history.
The last big movie I truly enjoyed was Band of Brothers and Saving Pvt Ryan. Those kind of set a bench mark for me.
Im not too concerned with nitpicking accuracy, kind of hard to get the K-BLAMP with shrapnel howling thru the air with just simple K-aboom of sound/light effects.
I am glad that you noticed that the theater was absolutely silent. That means the movie must have been gripping and very good to grab people in that manner in today’s 7 minute TeeVee attention spans.
I hope to watch it when it comes out on DVD. It has been years since we put up with the 10 dollar movie tickets and the 5 dollar drinks in a large room filled with bad mannered people.
Having said that, I must also recall that the movie “Braveheart” had roughly 200 of us roaring in reaction to some of the scenes in that film. Another was “Wargames” way back in the 80’s that made our local mall standing room only in all 20 theaters with thousands standing in line on both decks inside that half mide wide building.
having recently read the book i’ll be interested to see how close to the real story the movie stays . i’m hoping it stays very close , it’s an inyeresting enough story that it doesn’t need much messing around with by hollywood screenwriters . if anyone can keep them in line i guess clint eastwood can [:)]
I’m going in a couple hours to see it. Can’t wait for Clint’s second movie about Iwo Jima “letters from Iwo Jima” This one is from Japanese perspective.
This movie is far more than just special effects, though they do use them.
It’s more about “character” than anything else.
It is GRAPHIC in some scenes, and it does delve into the real horrors of war.
But it also takes a look at how the lives of 3 survivors were effected by the US Military and it’s propaganda machine as these three young Marines are taken from the battlefront, and thrust into the limelight of a War Bond tour, accolladed as heroes, when they knew the real heroes were their buddies who died on Iwo Jima, and those still there.
There was a good review in this mornings paper, and one line says what was worse for these three young soldiers?
Actually being afraid in combat on Iwo Jima, or afraid of facing a million people on Times Square who turned out to see
I am glad that the movies are getting better at showing real war and in real war you take prisoners if covenent, now there were some exceptions but that was the general rule.
The last survivor of the original flag raising, Charles Lindberg, lives in my hometown of Richfield MN. It will be interesting to see if the movie portrays both flag raisings - most people don’t realize the famous picture was taken of the second flag raising on Surabachi, an hour or two after the first, smaller flag went up. Kind of a good analogy for the 20th century - if someone doesn’t get a good pic / movie of something, then it didn’t happen.
It’s an interesting angle. Only a few movies ever seem to deal with the after effects of war. Never underestimate the power of survivor guilt. Although I’m Air Force, I served with the Army (2ACR) on the ground in Baghdad, and there are still times where I’m enjoying myself with friends or family, and I’ll suddenly wonder why it is that I deserve to enjoy this when so many of my brethren can’t. It can be a bit of a nag at times. And that’s without any fame! Fortunately there’s model railroading along with family and friends to keep me sane! Model railroading is theraputic. I spent much of my time deployed planning my next layout.
I was thinking about that. There are two flags at Mt Surabachi and I wonder which one the Movie will focus on.
Pictures are good, but there are alot of reports written about many actions around the world in every war the USA has been in that were just as desperate and “Jest this close” to defeat a few times. Books are FULL of these incidents that dont take away any of the glory images or not.
I would hope that warbirds will fly for a long time to come because no one makes them that way. To hear a Merlin or a Pratt “In the wild” at various power settings is quite the experience.
The movie did bring this very fact of the second flag raising out, and told the story behind it as to why the first flag was taken down and the second flag was raised.
I served in the military for 3 years active, 3 years reserve.
During my active in a country far removed from American shores, I won’t go into detail, but during the early 70’s , myself and several other teams of 2 guys each, actually armed and programmed the weapons of Armageddon in their bunkers, then raised them for flight into enemy territory.
Nike Herciles missiles stood for almost 72 hours awaiting the oreder to launch, fully armed, engines plugged in and ready to fly.
I was scared as hell, along with three hundred of my buddies on that missile site, out in the middle of nowhere. We never did find out what the real story was behind readying them for flight into enemy territory, but when you turn the switches and dials on the side of a warhead and guidance system almost 400 times as powerful as the weapons that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it makes you into a firm believer in a higher power.
I was lucky that I never had to see or fight in a combat zone, but all of us guys on that missile site knew that once those birds left the ground, we were instantly infantry, and our job was to move south and get out of Dodge, hopefully alive, because the other side had our missile site dead in their gunsights also!
And those guns were huge!
They set on rail cars, just across the DMZ, and if they fired , our chances of getting home a
To neuter the American spirit of winning via Political Correctness is wrong and movies such as Flags of Our Fathers, The Patriot and Tombstone illustrate the need to do whatever must be done when it needs to be done.
God, Guns, and Guts, and the Courage and Bravery and Honor of the American Fighting Man has kept America free!!!
DUTY, HONOR , COUNTRY
Regardless of branch of service.
And in honor of the flag of Texas and remberance to the post of conagher
“REMEMBER THE ALAMO” and 136 brave Americans who stood their ground and their beliefs!!!
I was stationed in the USAF on Iwo Jima in 1958-59. I walked every inch of that island. We were still finding an awfully lot of war artifacts like Japanese rifles, pistols, grenades and amunition. Every time the tide changed, a cave might pop open and if you happened to be in the right spot, you could get a glimpse of a dead japanese soldier before he turned to dust. I found about 3 feet of a howitzer barrel sticking out of the side of Mt. Suribachi that no one had stumbled accross yet. The rest of the gun was still buried. The whole year that I was there, the air was so filled with nostalgia, you could cut it with a knife. Now, when I see those historic videos on TV about Iwo, it brings back a lot of memories.
This is an awesome movie,I too give it 10 thumbs up. I’ll forgive Clint for using the BN 1 an F9 in the Movie, The E5 they also use would been around in 1945.
Dave you are so right. I was in vietnam 1968 and still to this day there are certain things that will trigger the bad thoughts. Staying busy all the time and MRR help immensly. Dave