Flags and Letters together

Movie reviews will not be a typical feature here at RED STICK RANT because, well, I don't watch too many movies anymore, and I SUCK at writing reviews. But I will make this one exception for my kids. As they will not be here for Father's Day, they got me an early persent - the DVD boxed set of Clint Eastwood's Flags of our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima. I watched both on Memorial Day, and I must say I was left with mixed feelings. I read Flags of our Fathers last year and was taken with the book. Not as much with the DVD. The scenes of the naval armada and the bombardment were incredable - as was all of the CGI work in both films - but I found some of the storytelling heavy-handed at times, even a bit cynical, and it was somewhat disjointed. Letters from Iwo Jima was the more engaging of the two, I think. First, it told a story that most Americans don't really know, and second, it didn't jump back and forth between two story-lines as did Flags. Both films were beautifully photographed. See both.