by Chris Guinn

Created on: April 12, 2007   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

Every so often a movie comes along with enough emotional power to move a nation. Flag's of Our Fathers is one such movie. The World War II genera in movie making has done it's best to recreate the times, to allow us the viewer to grasp a better understanding of the horrors our men went through in order to bring us a future where freedom would ring. Many movies, such as Saving Privet Ryan, do this in an amazing way, and Flag of Our Fathers can take the same credit.

We follow the lives of the men who raised the second flag on the island of Iwo Jima. Five Marin officers and a Navy corpsman stood atop the island and put the flag up in order to appease the pres photographers who had accompanied the marines to the ash covered island. The original flag had been taken down and put away by the commanders because they did not want the greedy press or polarities getting the flag they had fought for the right to fly, however the raising of the second flag and the famous photo changed the outcome of the war.

As we see in the movie, the men who survived the onslaught of Japanese troops in battle were sent home due to the amount of publicity the photo had received. Many Americans were tired of the war in the Pacific and the effort at home to raise money to fight was going badly. Then this photo brought hope back to the people and with the efforts of the returning hero's many Americans invested in war bonds bringing in vital funds to the war effort.

But there are two sides to every story. For many years we only saw the good in this heroic epic, but the movie based on the lives of the three survivors was very in depth diving into the personal conflicts each of them faced, and the heartache they endured during this war. We see how disputes were fought over the photo and the kinds of lives the men in that photo led after the war.

The action in the move was amazing; with each passing battle sequence you felt more and more involved with the story. There is a lot of blood and gore portrayed in this film, but you have to remember that this was war, there's going to be blood, guts, sweat, and tears, that's wars true nature. The film was also very accurate, you could obviously tell that the director and actors were very passionate about the story that they portrayed, and in a movie about such an inspiring event, passion is a must.

The only draw back to the entire film was the way flashback sequences skipped around and the vague mention and description of some of the lesser characters, whose names were reoccurring through the film. It did not take all that much away from the overall effect of this movie, but if these aspects had been further clarified then the experience would have been that much better. Flags of our Fathers is a must see movie for anyone wanting a more emotional, in depth story of the World War II era.

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