Review of Flags of Our Fathers

Of all the guys on the planet whom I would like to end up sitting beside on an airplane to say, Australia, Clint Eastwood is on the short list. He is one talented classy guy, I think everyone agrees with that. All those movies, the Oscars etc etc. He's a good hard working director who takes chances and often pulls it off. We all know that.

However, even Clint dishes out a clunker from time to time and this is one.

The main problem with the film is not the lack of focus in the plot (although that is there), but rather, I think, that Clint has tried to do something that he is not really good at, which is to make a film that is not chronologically linear. He jumps back and forth in time between the battle scenes and the after wards and the result is confusing and off putting. And ultimately, boring. He needed someone like Orson Welles or Stanley Kubrick to shoot this movie. Even Robert Altman. Regrettably, all of those guys are dead.

That being said, after watching it with a friend, we spent some time trying to figure out the message of the film and I think that is worth something, so I give it a six and I will watch Letters from Iwo Jima without prejudice.

And if you figure out the message of the film, let me know.