Posted by
Icarus on Thursday, November 16, 2006 11:14:23 AM
The film has largely come and gone from theaters with barely a whimper (though it will likely garner a great deal of Academy attention come Oscar time). However, I wanted to point out an excellent review of the film by a woman who knows a great deal about storytelling.
Barbara Nicolosi, at her
ChurchoftheMasses blog,
evicerates Clint Eastwood's "Flags of Our Fathers". Here are a few choice quotes:
"... much more egregiously than in Saving Private Ryan, Flags of our Fathers
seems to be trying to make the case that nobody who fights in a war is
a hero. They just end up there on battlefields and then their bodies
get chopped up by the whims of meglomanical politicians and generals.
And they die confused and angry and wondering what the hell we are all
here for anyway?
"This kind of tedious angst absolutely fits from
a generation that decided to rebel against everything in their youth,
and now have nothing in which to believe. But the thing that makes it
my business, is that it absolutely undercuts any fun I might have at
the movies, watching a story where the filmmaker has no coherent point
of view!
...
"I can only surmise that the reason the movie, and the book on which it
is based, spend so much time on non-essentials in this story, is
because they think that politicians conniving to raise money for war
bonds is innately more compelling than watching 5,000 Marines die.
"For
the Watergate generation, however, unmasking dirty politicians is
always what it is about. "See, if we can unmask corruption in the
establishment, maybe nobody will see the rot and inconsistency and
meaninglessness of our own disastrous sexual revolution racked lives.
If we can say that "The Greatest Generation" wasn't really that great,
maybe we can drown out the voices of our kids who hate us for our
selfishness? If we can say that there are no heros, even on a place
like Iwo Jima, then maybe we can rid ourselves of the uneasiness we
feel for our own pampered narcissitic lives?" "
Barbara knows story. When she tells you that you got it wrong, you better listen. Got that Clint?