Flags of Our Fathers

Last year I watched Letters from Iwo Jima and I thoroughly enjoyed it. So I was pretty excited to see the its parter, Flags of Our Fathers. Unfortunately, it wasn't worth the wait.

Lemme start with the second film, Letters from Iwo Jima. It was dramatic, introspective, had a unique story and really impressed me with the plot and acting. Flags of Our Fathers was a lot more blockbuster-esque (for lack of a better term. It was more Hollywood.). The CGI wasn't fucking fooling me. I don't have an easy time accepting CGI in general. I much prefer models and things that have mass and occupy space. A CGI battleship in the distance looks like a CGI battleship in the distance. It just does, and it comes across as fake. Kinda ruins the integrity of the film for me. But moreover, I felt like lots of the scenes were filmed on small sets or had really fake lighting. Nothing felt real to me. I know a lot of it was shot in Iceland, but it just FELT fake.

I thought it was certainly interesting. The plot was different. I like the way it unfolded. The editing was good. The pacing was good. There were some emotional parts for sure. But it lacked the tension and depth of Letters from Iwo Jima. That movie was far more engaging to me.

If you haven't already seen them then I would definitely suggest watching them back to back in the right order. Watch Flags of Our Fathers then Letters from Iwo Jima the next day or something. They'd make good companion pieces and you'd go into it knowing that one was for more artistic than the other and you could take the first one without false expectations.

What you really want to watch is the Burmese Harp, though. That's fucking great.

(Someone edited scenes from Burmese Harp to an Opeth track. Weird.)