Clint Eastwood’s Flags of our Fathers is released this weekend (in the U.S. anyway), the first of two movies from him focusing on the Battle of Iwo Jima, a pivotal moment in the Second World War. Some tidbits from critics reviews around the web…

“Flags of Our Fathers is a film of awesome power and blistering provocation”. – Peter Travers – Rolling Stone

“An American masterpiece. It is a searing and powerful work from a 76-year-old artist who remains at the top of his game”. – Richard Roeper – Chicago Sun Times

“Brilliantly conceived, articulately written, sensitively acted, filled with deeply
penetrating emotions and breathtaking action, it is the greatest cinematic canvas of war since Saving Private Ryan”. – Rex Reed – New York Observer

“Viewers expecting a traditional ‘war movie’ might be surprised… But while the film is thoughtful and masterfully made, it ultimately doesn’t have the impact it could have had”. – James Sanford – Kalamazoo Gazette

“A rambling mess of random war images mixed with sentimental recollections…delivers a geeneric retelling of events, sampling liberally from other sources without offering anything new”. – Edward Douglas – Comingsoon.net

The movie currently scores a 76% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes with 89 out of 177 giving it a thumbs up! Most criticisms stem from the forced heavy handed propaganda that Eastwood is provoking with his film but other critics are praising this as still being resonant with the current times.

Still most critics enjoy the flick but they aren’t going insane over it like they were with Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby or even Scorsese’s The Departed. Maybe this won’t be Oscar material after all?

source – rotten tomatoes