One of these days Clint Eastwood is going to make a movie about which you can say "gee the only problem with that is it was too short". What are the chances? Probably none. Anyway, there is much to admire in this film, a look at the circumstances surrounding the famous raising of the flag on Iwo Jima photo. In particular the setting of Iwo Jima itself is like no other war film (well, apart from those already set on Iwo Jima) - a lunar like moonscape of dark sand and craggy rocks, a mostly unseen enemy. The battle sequences are scary and very well done.
Where the movie falls down is in terms of its characters. Ryan Philippe basically plays a good guy; Jesse Bradford is a cockier, slightly dumber good guy and Adam Beach is "tragic Indian". You hope Beach's Ira Hayes plot will move you, you want it to move you - but he feels bad, gets drunk, dies tragically... it all feels pro forma. Of the other actors on Iwo Jima only Jamie Bell really makes much of an impression. I don't know why but this movie didn't move me in the way I thought it would. It should have - it's the Battle of Iwo Jima. But I was impressed rather than engrossed.
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