This isn't a review but simply my impressions after seeing the film for the first time. Its more an answer to the question "what did you think?" than anything concrete since I'm still pondering the film and wondering when I'll be able to see it again.<br /><br />I love movies that defy expectations. I love movies that make you agree with every review, good and bad, that you read. I love movies that are almost impossible to classify.<br /><br />Going I knew that Flags of Our Fathers was not a straight forward war film. It is not just the battle of Iwo Jima. Its something more. Its an examination of heroism, propaganda, what people need to believe to win a war, how vets see and speak of the past, how the soldiers see the war and themselves, how parents deal with the death of a child. Its a very complex film. Clint Eastwood has structured it in several layers, like an onion, with flashbacks within flashbacks and within memories. Its never difficult to follow, it just has a great deal going on and it takes a good chunk of the film to begin to understand whats going on and what Eastwood is getting at.<br /><br />To be honest I'm not sure what I think of the film. From a technical stand point its one of the best films of the year. Its a masterpiece of the film makers craft. Its beautifully acted as well. Look for Oscar Nominations come the end of the year. Anything the film wins will be well deserved...<br /><br />...but I'm not sure I "like" the film. The problem is that this film is hard to warm up to. It takes a while before you begin to care about anyone, hell before you even really know who anyone is. Then it takes a while to warm up to them. These are not clichéd characters so you can't instantly drop preconceived notions on to, these are people not ideas. Most people are not what you think they are, and some aren't around long enough to know if you were right or wrong.<br /><br />I think anyone who sees the film will have to, in fairness, see it a second time, maybe more. Its a movie that requires you go through it more than once so that you can see it fresh and peel away some of the layers each time you watch it. The first time you see certain things and the next time, now that you know everyone, you'll see more. Its a Chinese puzzle box of a movie. This doesn't make it a bad movie, it just makes it difficult to say if I liked it or not.<br /><br />I think the only ones who are going to dislike it outright are either those who want a straight forward account of the battle or those who refuse to allow the film to be anything than what they thought it should or would be. I thought I had a handle on it going in after reading about it and still I was surprised by what the film really was up to.<br /><br />Yes its graphic, but in someways the emotional truths the film digs at are much more raw than the blood splattering and the limbs flying. The battle begins almost before we know anyone really so that there is this odd distance at the start. Its almost nameless faces and bodies being torn apart. I know I was kind of unaffected to the early scenes of violence, however later once the film shifts to the tour and we revisit the battle and we have a sense of who these men are the effects are devastating. Though the real power of the film lies in its simple scenes of mere humanity which moved me moved me more than any of the acts of violence.<br /><br />I don't know what else to say other than see this movie, just be prepared to do so more than once.