Here is Iwo Veterans thought on the movie:
http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/cl-et-flags21oct21,0,3132862.story?coll=cl-moviesHy "Doc" Rabeck, 83, a Navy corpsman who had been in combat in North Africa, Saipan and Tinian before Iwo Jima, was particularly pleased with how "Flags" portrayed the Navy medics who follow Marines into combat.
The lead character, played by Ryan Phillippe, is John "Doc" Bradley, a Navy corpsman who helps raise the flag and is sent home to participate in a bond drive as the War Department seeks to capitalize on the surviving flag-raisers' fame.
"The corpsman [character] was exactly right, the guys on the beach were depending on us," Rabeck said. "You'd hear a scream, 'Corpsman,' and then another scream, 'Corpsman,' and you were on the run again."
Tickets were dispensed to mark the gravely wounded for immediate evacuation. "They gave me 50 tickets. They were gone in the first three hours."
The movie also captured the sense of dread felt by troops as they waited to assault a rocky, heavily fortified island, the veterans agreed.
"We could see it was strictly a suicide mission," Rabeck said. "We knew that most of us wouldn't be coming back."
While some movie-goers might be squeamish at scenes of blood and death, the veterans found them realistic, even vital.
"As we got out of the landing craft, I saw eight dead Marines, right at my feet," said retired Master Sgt. William Behana, 81, who was a 19-year-old private when he landed on Iwo Jima. "Nobody has good memories of Iwo Jima."
And here:
http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-20/1161491226133180.xml&coll=7#continueHere:
http://www.masslive.com/living/republican/index.ssf?/base/living-1/116141658819370.xml&coll=1And what they said:
"Charles E. Allard of South Hadley and Donald F. Withee of West Springfield remember it well.
They were there long enough to recall the horrors of Iwo Jima, brought back larger than life yesterday by Clint Eastwood's movie, which is showing at the Entertainment Cinemas on St. James Avenue and elsewhere.
"It was very hard," said Allard, a Navy veteran who was a medical assistant aboard the hospital ship USS Fayette.
"When you get 100 casualties brought aboard at a time, you see everything," he recalled. "You couldn't do triage. It was all bad. You took care of one after another."
Allard and Withee both gave the 2-hour, 23-minute film a top rating. "
Here:
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Oct-19-Thu-2006/news/10306081.html"Except for an occasional tear and once in a while a chuckle from his raspy voice, Iwo Jima veteran Chet Foulke sat stoically while the movie screen flashed scenes from one of the bloodiest battles in World War II.
Like those in the Marine Corps League who joined the lanky, 84-year-old veteran for a special viewing Tuesday night, Foulke was gripped by what he described as the realistic authenticity of Clint Eastwood's film, "Flags of Our Fathers.""
Sais quite a bit I think
