I did my civic duty and saw this film because I like war movies, I like what there is to learn at the extremeties of valor and cowardice, where men sacrifice everything for each other and nothing finally comes of it. I expected to have Clint follow this basic pro-war platform informed by a slender draught of cynicism. Everyone is a bit culpable for doing what needs to be done. To be thrust on a stage is as hard as to be thrust into battle. The reactions of public taste are amplified upon you and whatever success or failure you gleen for yourself is not what was promised. This is WWII informed by Vietnam. Another jungle snakepit.
I love Kieslowski. I love him for so many reasons but mainly his tireless regard for the truth. What really needs to be said is what we should spend ourselves saying. Here, Clint Eastwood tries his hand at the various viewpoints that ally around a battle line. A line stretched through depths of mind we may not embrace and are likely not to survive. The great injustices countered and rebutted. The gunfire is all neutral, a mutual excuse for death.
For Clint to do Letters from Iwo Jima as well as Flags of our Fathers was such a calculated gesture on someone's part. I imagine what Clint wanted was the epic effect of one of Kieslowski's trilogy. A broad canvas. I can't say, I haven't seen Letters. It seems interesting to me that the studios felt it was a harder sell to tell the enemy's side in a time of war, to remind the world that war is always hell and is best only done in the most perilous circumstances. These stories are old enough to teach their tales from all sides. Perhaps we learn more from our effects than our causes.
Clint also gets to pass verdict on history. His vision will now forever cloud this country's vision of itself at war. What have we done even for the best of reasons that is worth being proud of? It's the second film that paints the true battle lines. I can't wait to see it.
As it stands, I think this movie gets a little muddled at the end. The pretext for telling the story is plausible but never really comes to life.