There's absolutely nothing wrong with unpredictability. In fact, being unpredictable usually makes a movie worth watching. "Sands of Iwo Jima" IS unpredictable - at least in the sense that the title sets you up to expect a movie that's largely about the Battle of Iwo Jima. That turns out to be not what you get, though. This is really about a squad of US Marines led by Sgt. Stryker (played by John Wayne) and it traces their development into a fighting unit at the Battle of Iwo Jima. Iwo Jima actually takes up little of the movie. Almost the first hour and a half is about the squad itself and about some of its adventures and exploits. There's a fairly long look at the Battle of Tarawa, before Iwo Jima. Some of the lead-in is interesting enough, especially some of the portrayal of the personal tensions within the squad. Stryker has a history with some of the men. He's not liked - especially by Conway (John Agar) and Thomas (Forrest Tucker.) Stryker is battling demons of his own on the home front - a broken family and a 10 year old son he never hears from, which lead him to get drunk whenever he's given leave. Wayne's performance in this was actually pretty good. I'm not his biggest fan, but he did well with this role.
The thing I didn't like in this was too much melodrama. I realize that those who made this were trying to give us insights into the lives of the men, but there was too much of it, at the expense of the war, to be frank. I found that especially the case with Conway, who meets a girl (Adele Mara) while on leave in New Zealand and ends up married to her pretty quickly. I can see how that would happen in wartime, but I really didn't find it an especially noteworthy addition to the story. I also found it strange that when the men were on leave in New Zealand all the girls they met spoke with American accents? (The studio couldn't find someone who sounded at least a bit like a New Zealander, or who could at least pretend?)
Interestingly, I didn't find this to be as much of a flag-waver as I expected it to be. It's just a pretty solid study of this particular squad of Marines. (6/10)
The thing I didn't like in this was too much melodrama. I realize that those who made this were trying to give us insights into the lives of the men, but there was too much of it, at the expense of the war, to be frank. I found that especially the case with Conway, who meets a girl (Adele Mara) while on leave in New Zealand and ends up married to her pretty quickly. I can see how that would happen in wartime, but I really didn't find it an especially noteworthy addition to the story. I also found it strange that when the men were on leave in New Zealand all the girls they met spoke with American accents? (The studio couldn't find someone who sounded at least a bit like a New Zealander, or who could at least pretend?)
Interestingly, I didn't find this to be as much of a flag-waver as I expected it to be. It's just a pretty solid study of this particular squad of Marines. (6/10)