[Last Dakotan]

I saw the movie tonight too.

Eastwood really has only two points he spends the movie dwelling on:

1. War is a brutal hell.

2. White people in the 40's were racists.

Some of the old war movie cliches are just too good for him to pass up too, for example, the senior officers are preening, incompetent boobs.

The ridiculous line that the country was going bankrupt or so weary of war that it was on the verge of offering the Japanese peace terms was laughable.

[Hildy]

And did you know that whole part with Ira Hayes walking from AZ to TX to tell that guys parents the truth was a crock? Didn't happen. There were Congressional Hearing from which the truth was extracted. Why did he have to do that? Also, Ira Hayes just didn't retire from the military and do nothing. There were many, many attempts to help him. He was put into rehabs (whatever that meant back then). Many people intervened to help. He and the other two were actually in the movie the SANDS OF IWO JIMA, and the Paramount gave him a job .... something like Indian liaison. A pretty forward thinking dept. at the time to make sure Indians were not depicted poorly in movies. As everything in his life, he screwed it up with his alcoholism.

In those days, they didn't talk about post traumatic stress, which he DEFINITELY had. Contrary to public belief, he was NOT a problem drinker before they brought him back from the war for the Bond tour. He also was the first Indian to be in the elite Paramarines.

His is a fascinating story, so why Eastwood had to embellish it by adding something as far-fetched as that story is beyond me.

Also, the reason the first flag was taken down was because it was TOO SMALL. Not because some politician wanted it. Eastwood added that for effect. NEGATIVE effect. Pisses me off.