I saw it twice now, wasn't too impressed the first time, but after the second, it was okay.
It moves slow, it is NOT a war movie, it is a story of Doc Bradley mostly and what his experiences were, with a few shots of his son holding the interviews.
I will buy it when it comes out.
It does show Ira Hayes having a breakdown in a fair way.
The action was okay, the language was realistic, not perverse for the sake of swearing all the time like Saving Private Ryan
The flag raising scene was realistic, but they really flubbed the first flag raising and taking down the flag, some pictures show the old flag down just as the new flag went up, but in the movie the old one is carried away first.
The book spoke more of the men who raised the first flag, the movie does show the Marines and Navy reaction to seeing the first flag well, no drama
In fact, I was kind of impressed at how non chalant the flag raisings were caught on screen, not overly dramatized or over acted.
All the conversations of the photographers were right out of their own bios, they got that exact from their memories
I have been hearing stuff about it being vaguely alluding to Iraq; did you get that impression?