I'm just now getting around to watching Flags of Our Fathers for the first time. It's been a long time coming and naturally I was very pumped to see this. Unfortunately, this isn't the movie that I had envisioned in my head. Once you have seen Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers, the bar is set pretty damn high. Don't get me wrong here, Flags of Our Fathers looks and sounds great and Steven Spielberg is an executive producer, so it's got his touch with Clint Eastwood doing the heavy lifting. My "problem" with the movie is in how it's structured. There's just too much jumping around from different points of view of a few characters. The battle scenes are basically 'flashback' as the main story is about the propaganda in using raising the flag on Iwo Jima to "drum up business" to get the American people to buy war bonds to finance the war.

I will be the first to admit that I didn't know the complete story behind the most famous 'war image' of all time. The story surrounding the lies to dupe the American people is fascinating to watch and I did learn a great deal. But it's just the way they tell the story that it kind of takes away from the actual fight on the Island. I was just never able to dig in because as soon as you start investing in the battle, cut to "present day". Anyway, this is definitely worth a Rent as the story is good and as I said, it feels like a companion piece to SPR. The cast includes Ryan Phillippe, Adam Beach, Paul Walker, Barry Pepper, Robert Patrick and Neal McDonough.