This is a bad sign.
Not necessarily so - I've read some other articles about the film depicting the Japanese as showing very accurately the cruelity and degrading treatment the soldiers endured. I don't see anything wrong with showing what it was like for the Japanese as long as it doesn't try to rewrite Japan's history vis-a-vis WWII in a favorable light.
Wrong, Clint! It is ALL "about winning and losing"!
And, because we won, instead of them, you are free to think such drivel and produce accordingly.
Big time loss of respect here...
When there are no more standards or absolutes, the rape of Nanking becomes no different than the bombing of Berlin. That's where this looks like it's heading. Lately, in recent documentaries about that war, I have caught the occasional whiff of relativism - little things that I can't precisely pinpoint but that leave me with a bad taste in my mouth. Sometimes it's nothing more than a tone of voice or the selection of a particular adjective. Some time ago, the Smithsonian got into all kinds of trouble with their display about the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If my memory serves me, they failed to give proper credit to the prevailing wisdom - at the time, and since - that so many lives (Japanese and American) were spared by the forcing of the surrender. The Japanese were prepared to defend the home islands to the last man, woman and child. I think it matters that they started the whole thing. Call me silly ... Makes me want to go back and reread Ernie Pyle's description of London in flames in December of 1940.
[>snip<
"It's not about winning or losing, but mostly about the interrupted lives of young people. These men deserve to be seen, and heard from."~ eastwood
>snip<]
It would be good if those who wish to destroy America get 'it'.
Most Americans get 'it', to the point where we are unwilling to fight a war 'unfairly'.
Even though we have trillions of dollars worth of war supply, we refuse to just eliminate our enemies. Instead, we hold ourselves back even sacrificing our best young men and women so as not to offend the sensibilities of our enemies.
And so our gallent, innocent young people's lives are destroyed because some 3rd world idiots haven't figured out that war is a lose lose game.
If only they would quit attacking us, we would not have to defend ourselves. Until they stop attacking us we must kill them before they kill us.
"This is a bad sign."
I'm ok with this film JUST AS LONG AS IT TELLS TRUTH AND NOT LIES. Personally, I don't think Clint Eastwood lies as a practice.
In fact, I'd like to see a movie such as this made about the VN Conflict - then the U.S. people could see that our side was victorious in the battles, was winning the war on the ground and the people who gave victory away were the scumball Democrats walking the halls of Congress!
What's next; a movie to explain both sides of the Battan death march?
Just as it was for Watanabe. 'As we went through this film, we realised that until now we haven't really looked at Japan's past. We kind of looked away from it,' he said. 'But we have to look at it and accept the fact that this is what our fathers and grandfathers have done. Accepting the reality is the first step.'
Doesn't sound like a reaction to political correctness to me.