Flags of Our Fathers (DVD, 2007, Widescreen)

This movie tells a complex tale of the lives of the military men who hoisted the flag (some of them twice) on the top of Mount Sirabachi during the Battle for Iwo Jima. The story does a magnificent job of putting a hero's tale into the context of it's time. Incredibly, it illustrates the horrors of war, the effects of war on real people over the course of their lives, the power of a mother's love and the propaganda machine perpetuating lies upon the masses by the US government (for good or ill).

The cutting back and forth between the bond tours the flag raisers were sent on following the publication of the famed picture (later imortalized in the famous war memorial in Washington DC)and their war experience and after war lives can be a bit confusing but is well done, nonetheless.

My hat is off to Eastwood, who has crafted a materpiece of the human condition. It's story and timing provides a lesson to every gullible American about the nature of war and the lies that are told to garner support for one. Whether intended or not, this piece could not have arrived on our movie and television screens at a better time in history. I look forward tothe Japanese sequel and completely understand why the Japanese have little part in the telling of this tale.