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OK, just saw the movie and I have very mixed emotions. In all honesty, my husband and I were thinking of leaving about an hour in. He looked at me and asked if I wanted to go. It was Saving Private Ryan again. We know..WAR IS HELL...boys die, they die horribly, painfully. I just couldn't watch it...it was exhausting. But then the personal stories came more prevalent, and that was interesting as I was trying to understand what Eastwood was trying to say.

In true Hollywood style, none of the representatives of Americas institution (besides the warriors) came off looking well. Disappointed in the stereotyped politician, Generals, etc.

Eastwood used alot of the same devices as Saving Private Ryan, down to the dying (aging) central character making sure he was a good Father (or husband in SPR).

As always, the most interesting character is Ira Hayes. I know they made a movie about him starring Tony Curtis, but somehow, I can't believe they could have got that right. (Is there any ethnic character Curtis HASN'T played???)

My dad wrote an article about Ira Hayes for the Saturday Evening Post. Dad considered it one of his best. I'm going to go reread it and if I think it would be interesting for everyone, I'll type it and post it later this weekend. It's long, so it will take awhile for me to type it.

All in all, it was emotionally manipulative,I was crying profusely at the end, and I'm not a crier. The acting was superb. but I'm not quite sure if I think it was good as in good for our Country at war right now. I haven't read this whole thread, I will go back now and see what others thought.

I am not sure how good this movie really is. It's certainly a story worth telling as today's young people don't really know or seem to care about W.W. II.
My take on why the box office on this picture is so low is that this film is about 20 years late in being made.
The key core audience is just not there. They have either died or are too old to go to movies.
I will have to wait until this picture hits DVD to see what Eastwood has done. But from what I have read he spent way too much time on the War Bond drive and not enough on what happened on Iwo Jima.

Saw it this evening with family, including a granddaughter. As other posters have noted, when the movie ended, the audience almost to a person stood and watched the credits and still photos from the actual battle.

Not a sound was heard, but the simple melody from the movie's music track.

God bless our Warriors.