Friday

Do you remember the other double-bill that came out recently? It was Clint Eastwood's two films on the Battle of Iwo Jima. I had seen one of them, Letters from Iwo Jima, and last night managed to watch the other, Flags of Our Fathers. I hesitate to say which one was better, probably the first. It might be unfair to compare them, though. They show two different sides to the same story, in a way. But the perspectives are not complete. We don't see exactly the same events each time. In fact, I don't think there is much crossover at all. This 'American' version is good with the actual narration of the battle, the problem for me was the inter-cutting with the aftermath when the heroes are back home, and then the present day when they are all old men. It seemed unnecessarily confusing. They should have focused on one time period, and probably one soldier, alone. As it was, the ending went on for far too long as they tried to tell everything that happened in their lives afterwards. The voice-over became irritating, and suddenly patriotic, when it seemed the rest of the movie had been about the pointlessness of patriotism. So, it was good in parts, but contradicted itself in the end. Nonetheless, these two films together are fascinating to watch, and it may have helped if I'd seen them closer together.