rra
King Koopa
Posts: 10,145
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Post by rra on Feb 16, 2008 17:06:29 GMT -5
Clint Eastwood's LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA, his "Japanese" companion piece to the American-perspective of the Battle of Iwo Jima in FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS, is on tonight on AMC at 8PM, without commercial interruption*.
What surprised me about JIMA was that while I was incredibly indifferent to FLAGS**, LETTERS was quite a surprise for me. Easily Eastwood's best directorial work since UNFORGIVEN, there is a TORA! TORA! TORA! adversarial combat respect, if not love, for the Imperial Japanese soldiers of WW2.
Of course, I think only Eastwood, pure American masculine icon, could get away with such a project without being called a traitor, appeaser, pussy, etc.
Definately worth seeing for movie buffs, and hey...I doubt AMC will air another total subtitles-film anytime soon.
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA (2006) - ****1/2
*=Though don't be surprised if CGI blood and guts gets censored.
**=Rumors claim that as Eastwood hauled ass to edit IWO JIMA in time for release, scripter/producer Paul Haggis basically edited FLAGS. Figures...
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Post by Non Banjoble Tokens on Feb 16, 2008 21:41:01 GMT -5
Beautiful movie.
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erisi236
Fry's dog Seymour
... enjoys the rich, smooth taste of Camels.
Not good! Not good! Not good!
Posts: 21,904
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Post by erisi236 on Feb 16, 2008 22:34:43 GMT -5
One of the most interesting things about that flick is that you pretty much never see the enemy, the Americans, it's like they're just a force of Nature that these guys will never stop.
It's also kind of interesting that at the start most of the men in charge try to drive home the fact that the Japanese are better because of lack of emotion and total dicipline, but it turns out that they're just as Human as everyone else.
I love that scene were the Commander reads a letter from the dead Americans Mother and all the Men stand and listen, and then later he uses part of the message to encourage his troops to "do what's right, because it's right".
Eastwood is a damn fine Director.
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Post by tankmcquade on Feb 17, 2008 3:13:11 GMT -5
Just saw it, I have not seen Flags of our fathers so now I gotta rent it. Interesting movie overall....
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Post by Koda, Master Crunchyroller on Feb 17, 2008 10:59:47 GMT -5
Letters From Iwo Jima is easily the better of the two Eastwood Iwo Jima films. Flags of Our Fathers could've been a LOT better. Interesting concept of focusing on what happened to the 6 men that lifted the flag on Iwo Jima, but it would've been better if it was the American's view of the battle, leading up to the climatic and iconic lifting of the flag, similar to how all the events of Letters From Iwo Jima lead up to the finding of said letters on Iwo Jima.
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rra
King Koopa
Posts: 10,145
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Post by rra on Feb 17, 2008 11:03:43 GMT -5
Letters From Iwo Jima is easily the better of the two Eastwood Iwo Jima films. Flags of Our Fathers could've been a LOT better. Interesting concept of focusing on what happened to the 6 men that lifted the flag on Iwo Jima, but it would've been better if it was the American's view of the battle, leading up to the climatic and iconic lifting of the flag, similar to how all the events of Letters From Iwo Jima lead up to the finding of said letters on Iwo Jima. Well, that old man bookend with FLAGS just didn't work for me. Of course FLAGS being produced by Spielberg...and the same similar framework he used for SAVING PRIVATE RYAN...I'm not surprised. And really, despite what the media and critics thought, I wasn't shocked that FLAGS flopped in theatres. The advertizing campaign didn't help matters... |
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Post by Aaron E. Dangerously on Feb 17, 2008 11:07:05 GMT -5
That was fantastic.
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W.R
Don Corleone
The Undisputed Wrestlecrap Off-Topic Heavyweight Champion.
Posts: 1,909
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Post by W.R on Feb 18, 2008 2:52:01 GMT -5
Clint Eastwood's LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA, his "Japanese" companion piece to the American-perspective of the Battle of Iwo Jima in FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS, is on tonight on AMC at 8PM, without commercial interruption*. What surprised me about JIMA was that while I was incredibly indifferent to FLAGS**, LETTERS was quite a surprise for me. Easily Eastwood's best directorial work since UNFORGIVEN, there is a TORA! TORA! TORA! adversarial combat respect, if not love, for the Imperial Japanese soldiers of WW2. Of course, I think only Eastwood, pure American masculine icon, could get away with such a project without being called a traitor, appeaser, pussy, etc. Definately worth seeing for movie buffs, and hey...I doubt AMC will air another total subtitles-film anytime soon. LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA (2006) - ****1/2*=Though don't be surprised if CGI blood and guts gets censored. **=Rumors claim that as Eastwood hauled ass to edit IWO JIMA in time for release, scripter/producer Paul Haggis basically edited FLAGS. Figures... Speaking of paul haggis, crash is easily the biggest piece of shit I have ever seen. I kept asking myself "This really won an oscar?". Brokeback Mountain is easily the better between the two movies. |
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rra
King Koopa
Posts: 10,145
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Post by rra on Feb 18, 2008 2:57:39 GMT -5
Clint Eastwood's LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA, his "Japanese" companion piece to the American-perspective of the Battle of Iwo Jima in FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS, is on tonight on AMC at 8PM, without commercial interruption*. What surprised me about JIMA was that while I was incredibly indifferent to FLAGS**, LETTERS was quite a surprise for me. Easily Eastwood's best directorial work since UNFORGIVEN, there is a TORA! TORA! TORA! adversarial combat respect, if not love, for the Imperial Japanese soldiers of WW2. Of course, I think only Eastwood, pure American masculine icon, could get away with such a project without being called a traitor, appeaser, pussy, etc. Definately worth seeing for movie buffs, and hey...I doubt AMC will air another total subtitles-film anytime soon. LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA (2006) - ****1/2*=Though don't be surprised if CGI blood and guts gets censored. **=Rumors claim that as Eastwood hauled ass to edit IWO JIMA in time for release, scripter/producer Paul Haggis basically edited FLAGS. Figures... Speaking of paul haggis, crash is easily the biggest piece of crap I have ever seen. I kept asking myself "This really won an oscar?". Brokeback Mountain is easily the better between the two movies. And I totally agree with you. Hollywood, even when it pats itself on the back for its "diversity" and "tolerance," is still as petty and bitter with its politics as the rest of America. That's the only way I can understand why BM lost to CRASH. |
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W.R
Don Corleone
The Undisputed Wrestlecrap Off-Topic Heavyweight Champion.
Posts: 1,909
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Post by W.R on Feb 18, 2008 3:20:15 GMT -5
Speaking of paul haggis, crash is easily the biggest piece of crap I have ever seen. I kept asking myself "This really won an oscar?". Brokeback Mountain is easily the better between the two movies. And I totally agree with you. Hollywood, even when it pats itself on the back for its "diversity" and "tolerance," is still as petty and bitter with its politics as the rest of America. That's the only way I can understand why BM lost to CRASH. Hollywood is like never never land, things are more open there then in middle town USA. The hypocrisy of the whole thing about gays and acceptance is that it's alright for priests to doodle little boys and nothing is made of it and then that gets swept under the rug but when gays want to marry it's frowned upon by the church and middle town USA because of the bible. You get what I am saying? God forbid, someone makes an excellent movie about two gays and people not liking it because it's about gays...people should really look at the bigger picture. It's a piece of cinematic art that should've been awarded but because of certain things it played second fiddle to a movie I could've caught at lifetime or school about racism. Come on USA, we are in last place in the race of acceptance. Though I do like matt dillon and if they ever make a bio-pic about rod serling he should...no no screw that needs to play the role of rod. Paul Haggis is a hack, I remember cringing just hearing on a fictious tv show entourage that he was do a movie about pablo escobar. The people behind city of god need to be the ones to make that escobar movie. South Americans have a whole different perspective on him then we do. |
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rra
King Koopa
Posts: 10,145
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Post by rra on Feb 18, 2008 3:45:25 GMT -5
And I totally agree with you. Hollywood, even when it pats itself on the back for its "diversity" and "tolerance," is still as petty and bitter with its politics as the rest of America. That's the only way I can understand why BM lost to CRASH. Hollywood is like never never land, things are more open there then in middle town USA. The hypocrisy of the whole thing about gays and acceptance is that it's alright for priests to doodle little boys and nothing is made of it and then that gets swept under the rug but when gays want to marry it's frowned upon by the church and middle town USA because of the bible. You get what I am saying? God forbid, someone makes an excellent movie about two gays and people not liking it because it's about gays...people should really look at the bigger picture. It's a piece of cinematic art that should've been awarded but because of certain things it played second fiddle to a movie I could've caught at lifetime or school about racism. Come on USA, we are in last place in the race of acceptance. Though I do like matt dillon and if they ever make a bio-pic about rod serling he should...no no screw that needs to play the role of rod. Paul Haggis is a hack, I remember cringing just hearing on a fictious tv show entourage that he was do a movie about pablo escobar. The people behind city of god need to be the ones to make that escobar movie. South Americans have a whole different perspective on him then we do. Thing is, you can see that gay-prejudice before 2005. Take 2001. Sir Ian McKellen was the shoe-in favorite to win the Supporting Actor Oscar for FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING....only he loses in an upset to Jim Broadbent for IRIS. Now mind you, Broadbent is great, and while I've never seen IRIS, I wouldn't be shocked if I ever do see it that one could argue that he did deserve it. He aint a Haggis. But when the Las Vegas betmakers' favorite loses, and he happened to be an open homosexual......to quote Roger Waters, "Paranoid Eyes" see alot. As for Haggis, what you expect from a former writer/producer of WALKER: TEXAS RANGER? Oh, and speaking of which, he's turning CRASH into a TV series.  |
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