It really is amazing what a great film maker Eastwood has become…that same guy from Spaghetti Westerns and Dirty Harry. Here he portrays the ugly brutality of those 40 days on Iwo Jima and the effects they had on those guys who raised the flag and got themselves famous in the photo. The effect of switching back and forth between the battle scenes and the war fund-raising campaign that was taking advantage of the public’s sympathy with the famous shot is very powerful and sometimes sad. I cannot wait to see the companion movie to this, “Letters From Iwo Jima”.