Flags of our Fathers / Letters from Iwo Jima

[mike c]

I bought this one today, but won't be able to watch it til I finish the discs in the can ... (band of brothers)

I bought it because I'm on a WWII movie marathon.

after Pearl Harbor, I started the Band of Brothers ... also bought The Great Raid today ...

can someone comment on the Action sequences / Sound quality?

 

[majorloser]

Both "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters From Iwo Jima" are excellent films! The picture and sound are reference quality. My only wish was for DTS versions. These films may just be the final push to move me toward one of the HD formats. They're that good!

If you are on a WW2 movie marathon, take a look at "Saints and Soldiers". It's an independent film that won many awards:
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0373283/

 

[mike c]

thanks for the recommendation ... hopefully it's available in hongkong (it's not here), my brother's going to the local HMV there. otherwise, I'd have to amazon it.

 

[Buckeye_Nut]

I bought this one today, but won't be able to watch it til I finish the discs in the can ... (band of brothers)

I bought it because I'm on a WWII movie marathon.

after Pearl Harbor, I started the Band of Brothers ... also bought The Great Raid today ...

can someone comment on the Action sequences / Sound quality?

I own 'Flags', and it was a good movie. In fact, I really liked it and give it 4 stars. As for action sequences? it certainly had it's share, but the movie wasn't really about that kind of stuff. The battle scenes were more or less told in flashback scenes that play a secondary role in the movie.


As for the sympathetic pro-Japanese perspective of Iwo Jima?? (letters) I couldn't give a flying-**** about watching that version.

 

[GlocksRock]

The sound quality on Flags of our Fathers is reference material.

 

[j_garcia]

I found Letters to be the better of the two movies, though they are essentially one story and should ideally be watched together. I wouldn't give Flags of Our Fathers 4 stars, but I did enjoy it a lot. As good as the story is, I just didn't really get into any of the characters.

 

[superstar]

Saints and Soldiers is a good indy flick, I also liked Tae Guk Ky (I'm not sure if that's the correct spelling), a south korean movie about the Korea War, nice plot and good action scenes.

 

[Buckeye_Nut]

Saints and Soldiers is a good indy flick

Yep... agreed. It's amazing what can be accomplished on a shoestring budget. I liked that one too.

My only complaint........ it was either presented in 'fools-screen', or it had 2.0 audio. (I cant remember which)

Hey, I guess you can only ask so much from an indy

I definitely recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it. (which is probably most everyone).....LOL

I'm happy to see that I'm not the only person in this forum who has seen that movie.

 

[superstar]

Also if you don't mind foreign war movies, check out Das Boot and Stalingrad, both german movies about WWII.

Saints and Soldiers was done in budget? wow, it actually feels a part of Band of Brothers mini series...

 

[darien87]

As for the sympathetic pro-Japanese perspective of Iwo Jima?? (letters) I couldn't give a flying-**** about watching that version.

Why does this narrow-minded, Neanderthal opinion not surprise me?

I found Flags to be a decent flick, but a little too drawn out and boring. I would also give the nod to Letters as the better of the 2 flicks.

As for rating picture/sound quality; I would say Letters is outstanding. But then again, I'm talking about the Blu-ray version.

 

[Buckeye_Nut]

Saints and Soldiers was done in budget? wow, it actually feels a part of Band of Brothers mini series...

LOL.... actually........The band of brothers was created from a meager..... $125 million....... budget.

The "Battle of the Bulge" episode alone dwarfed the entire Saints $780,000 budget.


Granted....the BOB series runs for about 10 hours, but $125 million is still big $$$$

 

[mike c]

well, I finished watching:
The Great Raid ...
not bad at all. and I didn't even know it was about the rescue in the Philippines.

Flags of Our Fathers ...
makes you realize how stupid war is ... the war scenes are a bit short (too cut up, instead of a long war scene) but it's still great subwoofer material.

Letters from Iwo Jima ...
i don't think I believe the japs are stupid enough to use the grenades on themselves instead of throwing it at the "enemy". duh. what's the difference with killing yourself and getting killed trying to kill more of the enemy.

 

[j_garcia]

They were following orders. The scene was to illustrate that they were loyal and that some would follow orders even if it meant suicide, even if they didn't want to. It also pointed to the fact that there were some who shared your point of view - Saigo ran and Shimizu (the Kempeitai) told him to get back and die with the rest of them. Saigo's comment was something to the effect of "We can die here, or we can continue to fight..." and Shimizu realized that he was right.

 

[Buckeye_Nut]

Ya know.... considering the many 1,000s of americans (and allies) who died in the Bataan death march and at the many Japanese death camps scattered throughout the Phillipines and elsewhere.

........... where huge numbers of POWs were worked to death and brutally murdered by the hands of the Japanese, I find it interesting that a US citizen would choose to make a movie that glorifies Japan, and falsely paint them as honorable combatants during WW2. The reality is...... Japanese treatment of POWs was no better than Hitler treatment of the Jewish race.

Oh well, their actions in the Pacific brought about the Atomic bomb and the complete destruction of their empire, so I guess I guess they paid the ultimate price for their actions.

What's next, is Clint going to make a movie to honor and glorify the Nazi's?

 

[Buckeye_Nut]

well, I finished watching:
The Great Raid ...
not bad at all. and I didn't even know it was about the rescue in the Philippines.

I enjoyed the Great Raid too

 

[Buckeye_Nut]

Why does this narrow-minded, Neanderthal opinion not surprise me?

Based on your response, I'm guessing you're on pins and needles hoping for Clint to create a Pro-Hitler motion picture to honor and glorify Nazi war efforts on the big screen

If he can do it for WWII Japan, why not Hitler too?

 

[j_garcia]

Ya know.... considering the many 1,000s of americans (and allies) who died in the Bataan death march and at the many Japanese death camps scattered throughout the Phillipines and elsewhere.

........... where huge numbers of POWs were worked to death and brutally murdered by the hands of the Japanese, I find it interesting that a US citizen would choose to make a movie that glorifies Japan, and falsely paint them as honorable combatants during WW2. The reality is...... Japanese treatment of POWs was no better than Hitler treatment of the Jewish race.

Oh well, their actions in the Pacific brought about the Atomic bomb and the complete destruction of their empire, so I guess I guess they paid the ultimate price for their actions.

What's next, is Clint going to make a movie to honor and glorify the Nazi's?

I'm sure that the treatment of POWs isn't exactly too different in most war situations, regardless of which side or which war; perhaps not to the extent that the Nazis did, but who knows?

It is merely a story, it is not a factual account of what happened. In fact, this movie was not "glorifying" Japan, you would know that if you watched it... It is showing that they were simply there fighting for their country, no different than the US soldiers, and that their soldiers faced the same struggles with combat than ours did; as I am sure is true in all wars. They missed their families and their families missed them, and they basically were told and knew they would not be coming home from this particular deployment.

 

[Buckeye_Nut]

I'm sure that the treatment of POWs isn't exactly too different in most war situations, regardless of which side or which war;

So you think the Americans ran POW MURDER-CAMPS during WW2 or any war since?

OMG.. it only figures you live on the left coast.

It's no wonder the liberals hates america.

I'm speechless.....

 

[Jack Hammer]

WWII was set in a different "world" than what we have now...

Bear in mind that until modern times, actually fairly recently, torturing, murdering, enslaving, and being cruel to POW's was a pretty universal and accepted practice going back several thousand years. This is one of the reasons for the Geneva Convention and it's application for treatment of prisoners of war. Before you get too far down on other countries abuse of prisoners, look into the American civil war and how some of our prisoners (our own peoples) were treated. It wasn't all roses. We, America, have improved over the past century, some countries are still catching up.

Jack

 

[highfihoney]

I'm not going to join a "side" on the prisoner deal but ANYBODY who thinks they can compare the way we treat POW'S to the way most other countries treat POW's needs to go see a head shrink and fast.

It's like comparing an prison in the USA to a prison in Mexico,both are prison's but bet your a$$ if ya gotta be in one you'll be happy to pick the good ole USA prison.