Saw this movie recently, and thought that while it won't be remembered as a great film, it was certainly above the average.

 

I've researched Iwo Jima before (partly when researching Hell Island and also while planning another novel), so I was particularly interested to see the landings/battle there portrayed on film.

The battle scenes: yes, we've seen all the horror and gore of World War II before in movies like Saving Private Ryan , but it's still done well here and I firmly believe it's healthy for modern teenagers to see realistic representations of what the Greatest Generation went through on their behalf.

But it was the main plot that really hit home with me-about how an awesome photo, that of the famous flag-raising on Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima, a photo of what was really a rather mundane moment becomes a legend.

I thought Clint Eastwood showed great courage to make a film about the complexities of patriotism and waging war in these over-patriotic times. To wage war costs money. The US needed money to finance WWII. So they sent some men from the famous Iwo Jima photo around America on a war-bonds tour, drumming up financial support. Whether one of the men was actually in the photo didn't matter to the government.and this becomes one of the moral questions raised by the film: to fight a just war, must you be totally honest with your citizens? Or does the end justify the means?