GREENLIGHT #86: Flags of Our Fathers (with "Sands of Iwo Jima" and "Coming Home")

Ann and Les certainly respect Flags of Our Fathers (2006) but they weren't overwhelmed by it. The movie tells the story of three of the guys who raised that famous flag on Iwo Jima in World War II and then were brought home by the military to be poster boys for the war. Clint Eastwood directed it and it's quite moving but just not up to being great. In particular, Ann thought it was so heavy that it eventually numbed you. Les, too, wanted to know more about the guys so he could care about them indvidually rather than just because of this one tragic part of their lives. They both agreed that although the three guys played by Ryan Phillipe, Jesse Bradford, and Adam Beach were good, they just didn't have the star power to draw us into the story. For their GREENLIGHT Rentals, Les recommends the quintessential film about this episode in American military history called Sands of Iwo Jima (1949.) It features the Duke, John Wayne, and is directed by the master of manly films, Allan Dwan. Ann recommends a film about the personal aftermath of yet another American war, the Vietnam War. A paraplegic Jon Voight competes with a mentally wounded Bruce Dern for the attentions of a confused Jane Fonda . It's a Hal Ashby film called Coming Home (1978.)
RUNNING TIME: 14:59

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