Reviewing Movies

Not since Saving Private Ryan has war been portrayed so graphically onscreen. Even on my 32-inch wide-screen LCD TV this movie is devastatingly gruesome; on the big screen it must be enough to make one lose one’s pop corn. It is about people being used. Three combat soldiers plucked off the line for a PR Junket in America. A picture of six soldiers raising an impromptu flag over Iwo Jima caught the nation’s attention and suddenly their presence to bolster the War Bond drive is critical to the national war effort. That they posed for a re-enactment of the original flag raising and that half their number are already dead was of no importance. The fund drive trumped all and these three were asked to act the part of National Heroes whether or not they felt they deserved that recognition. This movie is about what that cost them.

In the first place surgery that Doc required was postponed so that his recovery would not interfere with the National Tour. No effort is made to give them counseling to deal with the trauma they so recently experienced or time to grieve for the loss of so many buddies. Nor does much effort appear to be made to help them deal with the press or make public speeches. They are thrown to the wolves in venues where alcohol flows like a river and everyone wants to stand them a drink like a groom at a stag party. For men of low rank and humble backgrounds to be suddenly whisked to the White House to meet the president and be fawned over by men of power and high society alike must have been intimidating in the extreme. The nightmarish experience of war and post-traumatic stress syndrome are one thing; but these men were asked to re-enact those experiences over and over and over again. Hero or not, Ira Hayes discovers that there are still bars where Indians are not welcome. All this leads to inevitable results and in Ira Hayes case, an early death.

The movie on DVD comes with no extras, not even cast and crew files. It does sport the requisite previews for future attractions though. The Dreamworks music and proprietary symbols are at stark odds with the material that follows. The jump shots from venue to venue, in the war zone and in America; and the switches in time and place, make one uncomfortable and often confused. If this was the desired affect it succeeded in spades.

To see that film footage shot on Mount Suribachi go here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_the_Flag_on_Iwo_Jima