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This is a different type of review and film.The film was well done and as good as any about the home life of WW11 thats been made.However the real strength of the film is the "interest to know" that it inspires. Released in 2006 and running a little long at 132 minutes ,director Clint Eastwood tells the backstories of the 6 men who raised the flag during the battle for Iwo Jima in WW11,a costly bloody battle during the island hoping march Japan.I took 1 stars off because it was nothing new just told better than before,and less battle action than you would expect.Sadly the lasting memory of the real life story is the sad ending of " drunken Ira Hayes",immortalized in song by Kinky Friedman and not focused on enough in this movie but that is understandable given the author of the book its based on is the son of another.
However here is why I say it's a different type of film as far as inspiring you to know more.
The movie is based on the first of 3 intensely probing books by author James Bradley who co wrote this first book released in 2000 with Ron Powers. Bradley's father was one of the marines who raised the flag.It's the story of the lives of ordinary men and a attempt to understand them in terms of that,rather then war time achievements.
That inspired a second book called "Fly boys"about a doomed air raid on a neighboring Japanese held island near Iwo Jima in which 9 pilots were shot down and eight were captured by the Japanese and held on the island of Chichi-jima, till they were executed and cannibalized .Oh the 9th pilot picked up by a sub rescue before he could be captured and meet the same fate?George H. W. Bush.
That led to a 3rd book trying to understand how the authors father and the contemporaries of the second book were destined to wind up in such a conflict.That book was called"The Imperial Cruise"which documents the 1905 cruise of SS Manchuria sailing on a diplomatic mission to Japan .Reminds us all of President Theodore Roosevelt's part in brokering the peace between Japan and Russia and the creation of our own empire with the addition of the Hawaiian Islands and the Philippine islands and the eventual clash of cultures with Japan expansion. By far the most controversial of recent historic dissertations.( blames it all on Teddy)
Funny that the bottom line is that a movie inspires you to READ.
Trailer URL follows the pix.
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