Eastwood double pack

[Skybird]

"Letters from Iwo Jima" and "Flags of our Fathers" has been released on DVD over here. I am wondering if they are worth the investement. Customer feedback and movie critics say Iwo Jima is the better of the two. If you have seen the films at cinema, what is your opinion on both movies?

[Sailor Steve]

I missed Flags Of Our Fathers, but Letters From Iwo Jima in my opinion puts Eastwood up there on the list of Great Directors Of All Time. It's one of the best movies I've ever seen - gripping, exciting, big (great CGI images of the American landings and B-24s bombing Suribachi) and small (as in intimate portraits of the individuals' home lives).

You might want to make sure you know your Japanese WWII history, though; when the the new commander arrives unanounced and everyone is afraid he'll be angry at their having no reception prepared, he says (paraphrasing from memory) "After what happened to Yamamoto, they didn't even tell ME when I was coming!"

As I said, it impressed me as one of the best I've seen. I can't recommend it enough. Two-pack? Even if Flags isn't nearly as good, I think I'll buy it that way.

[ReallyDedPoet]

Have not seen these yet, look and sound very good

RDP

[Heibges]

Probably the two best war movies I have ever seen with the exception of maybe "The Caine Mutiny", "Mister Roberts", and "Biloxi Blues".

[Skybird]

Eastwood is an exceptionel director, some of his works I rank amongst the best movies i know, especially "Million Dollar Baby". "Unforgiven" and "The Bridges of Madison County" - each of these is very special, and in a unique way related to Eastwood's very own style.

So I will start with Iwo Jima first, I heared more good about this one, than about Flags, but probably I will see Flags some time later anyway. My benchmark for war movies is "The thin red line", although that is somewhat unprecise, since Malick alsmost transcended the genre and made a movie that is not typical for it, but goes far beyond it's definition.

If you don't know Red Line, go and get it. One of the best movies ever made, imho. Have seen it many times now, but it still touches the bottom of my soul, and makes it vibrating. sean Penn, George Clooney and John Travolta accepted to work without being payed, so that the movie could be created with the available money - that much trust they had in Malick, and that much they wanted to participate. Judging by the impressive result, they were right. The movie won several movie awards and Oscar nominations, but Spielberg's Private Ryan in that year cleaned all Oscars - undeserved. Red Line is far better than Private Ryan.

[Sailor Steve]

I was very put off by Saving Private Ryan, though I think Schindler's List is one of the all-time greats. I likely won't ever watch it again, but that's for obvious reasons.

[Heibges]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

I missed Flags Of Our Fathers, but Letters From Iwo Jima in my opinion puts Eastwood up there on the list of Great Directors Of All Time. It's one of the best movies I've ever seen - gripping, exciting, big (great CGI images of the American landings and B-24s bombing Suribachi) and small (as in intimate portraits of the individuals' home lives).

You might want to make sure you know your Japanese WWII history, though; when the the new commander arrives unanounced and everyone is afraid he'll be angry at their having no reception prepared, he says (paraphrasing from memory) "After what happened to Yamamoto, they didn't even tell ME when I was coming!"

As I said, it impressed me as one of the best I've seen. I can't recommend it enough. Two-pack? Even if Flags isn't nearly as good, I think I'll buy it that way.

I loved Iwo Jima, although I didn't cry through the entire movie like I did with Flags. I thought one of the main points of the movie was that almost the entire officer corps acted like a bunch of "Himmelreiters", and like Himmelreiter were totally incompetent when it came to professional military knowledge.

And you had captains talking back to generals. In the US Army captains don't talk back to majors. In the Japanese Army it seemed that "bad stuff" happened when officers were around, but in the US Marines "bad stuff" only happened when officers were not around.