With the movie Flags of Our Fathers (directed by Clint Eastwood) I’d have to agree with what seems to be the general impression. While extremely well-intended, even earnest, perhaps it’s a little too much so. Honestly, I found it more tedious than anything. As visually compelling as some of the battle scenes are, I probably would have cut them down. Not that my tastes are anyone else’s, but I simply don’t care about battle scenes. I’ve seen Saving Private Ryan, I don’t need to see anymore big battles. Establish the scene then move on.
Of course, I’m not sure where you could move on to … the film is a bit of a muddle, in the story sense – or maybe it’s muddled in the story-telling sense. Various storylines interweave and the film jumps back and forth in time and … and well, it just doesn’t seem to hang together well.
However, although ultimately a dull film, Flags is visually compelling and I really wanted to like it. But it ends up coming across as something finely crafted, so much so the life has been crafted out of it.
2 stars out of 4.
