I’ve been waiting for a while for Letters from Iwo Jima to become available on DVD. Just this morning, I remembered to check Amazon and hooray! There’s even a set that’s got both movies- Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima.
I saw Letters from Iwo Jima in the theater on my 21st birthday (in Las Vegas, no less. Why yes, I am a cool kid), but didn’t see Flags of Our Fathers until a few months later when it came out on DVD.
It’s my humble opinion that Letters from Iwo Jima is a better movie. For one, I think that Letters manages to be an American war movie that takes a somewhat non typical stance. I like that the Japanese weren’t portrayed as evil or as anything more than young guys fighting for their nation. I thought the juxtaposition of the American boys and the Japanese boys was an interesting one and managed to not be overly heavy-handed (at least as far as war movies go).
Flags, otoh, I felt was so over wrought. The flashbacks- eesh.
Especially when they are at the banquet. You know, where they are handing out ice cream sculpted to look like the raising at Suribachi and the guy next to the focus gets strawberry syrup. Naturally, the red flowing over the sculpture made the focus freak out and have yet another flash back).
Another thing that did it for me was that there just seemed to be so much cheese- like how they froze the frame when “the picture” was taken. I suppose I can see why, but I guess I just think it was unnecessary.
I will say that I thought the last few minutes of Flags really saved it for me, but I found it far too drawn out up until that point.
Personally, I find it amazing that Letters was the pet project, while Flags was pushed for the Oscars. I found Letters to be a far superior movie.
So what are your thoughts? Do you have a preference between the two and why?