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Nearly 900 African-Americans fought on the Japanese island but not one appears in Clint Eastwood's Oscar-tipped film
Well, I share some of your disapproval. I had some real problems with Ryan, but I thought, overall, it was respectful. Sometimes you have to guard against over-analyzing. How did most people feel after seeing the Spielberg film? Anti-American? I don't think so. I dislike the "only fighting for my buddies" meme, going back to The Big Red One, circa 1981. But I also loved that movie.
Hollywood tries to portray individual emotions, the human drama. When they try to portray history, they tend to be one-dimensional. The great artists portray events through the individuals who act them out. I have not seen this movie yet, and cannot say whether it succeeds, but I think Eastwood is a real American, so I still want to see it. I'll be the first to post a correction if the movie stinks.
As far as the no-Blacks criticism, the armed forces were still segregated then. If the movie follows a particular unit (which I think it does) you would expect to see only one race, no?
Yes. Precisely.
A segregated Marine unit storming Iwo Jima would be a ludicrous rewriting of history.