War, what is it good for? About four hours viewing.

December 6, 2007 7:14 PM

Do I watch Flags of our Fathers or Letters from Iwo Jima first? Also, Should I watch one after the other, or allow time to ponder?
posted by oxford blue to Grab Bag (22 answers total)

Best answer: i have only seen letters from iwo jima, and thought it was amazing. i didn't feel i missed anything by not seeing the other movie.

since i hear "letters" is the better of the two, you might want to watch "flags" first, then "letters."
posted by thinkingwoman at 7:18 PM on December 6, 2007

i have only seen letters from iwo jima, and thought it was amazing. i didn't feel i missed anything by not seeing the other movie.

Seconded.
posted by chrisamiller at 7:55 PM on December 6, 2007

Fourth-ed.
posted by inconsequentialist at 8:06 PM on December 6, 2007

fifthed. sounds like you may want to just skip "flags". everyone else apparently did.
posted by jimw at 8:09 PM on December 6, 2007

I saw both and felt Flags was nothing special. I am so over WWII films. OK fine, you're all heroes, you were the greatest generation, blah blah blah...we get it. Enough is enough already.

Letters was much better.
posted by HotPatatta at 8:13 PM on December 6, 2007

Sixth'ed
posted by Camel of Space at 8:20 PM on December 6, 2007

Best answer: See them both, Flags of our Fathers first, Letters from Iwo Jima second. Allow a little bit of time in between, as the director intended. Agreed, you don't need to see one to appreciate the other, but there are nuances to be gained by seeing both films.
posted by bwanabetty at 8:29 PM on December 6, 2007

OK fine, you're all heroes, you were the greatest generation, blah blah blah...we get it. Enough is enough already.


Yeah. World War Two was so yesterday.
posted by Neiltupper at 8:43 PM on December 6, 2007 [1 favorite]

One of the things that made Letters so amazing was that it put a different twist on a very familiar story ingrained into the American subconscience. Just seemed like it was more powerful to watch the Japanese perspective after I got the more traditional, familiar American version. Both movies stand on their own and both are good, but I preferred Letters. But I was glad I saw Flags first.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 9:08 PM on December 6, 2007

My vote is to watch "Letters" first, then "Flags."

When watching both films I could not help but wonder what I would have done if I had been thrust into such a situation. It's by an accident of birth that I wasn't born in a time that would have called me to war. I had the same reaction after having watched the recent Ken Burn's documentary series The War and the HBO series Band of Brothers.
posted by ericb at 9:22 PM on December 6, 2007

Best answer: I've seen both, and liked "Letters" better. But, they are both great films and both worth watching. In fact, each film benefits from the other - that was the whole point of making two of them and what sets this meditation on war apart from all the others. I don't want to give anything away, but the events depicted in the second movie really take on a different shade once you've seen them in the first movie. Anyway, I recommend watching both and in the order they were made: "Flags" first, "Letters" second.

As for time between them, they are both kind of heavy and long, so you might need a bit of a break between them. On the other hand, the more you remember from the first, the more you'll appreciate the second, so don't wait too long.
posted by epimorph at 9:26 PM on December 6, 2007

I would skip watching Letters completely. It's not a very interesting film
posted by dydecker at 12:30 AM on December 7, 2007

Flags, then Letters. Or skip Flags.

Flags is weaker, suffers from poor CG at times, and I personally find the issues addressed in the second film to be much more compelling and more useful for people to understand. The issues of Flags are mostly personal (a bit about propaganda, but not so much), where the issues of Letters are more universal to those engaged in combat.
posted by beerbajay at 2:11 AM on December 7, 2007

I watched Flags first Letters a day or so later (I think they are a bit too long and intense to watch back to back, but as they are strongly linked - even showing specific events from each sides point of view you would not want to leave too long a gap). Letters is by far the better film but I think I got more out of it from watching Flags first, probably because not being American I didn't know the full details of the conflict that well before...
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:28 AM on December 7, 2007

I'm so glad you asked this question. Flags just arrvied in my netflix, and I've been sitting on Letters for a week so I could watch both at once. Woo for intuitive internet people!
posted by phredgreen at 3:47 AM on December 7, 2007

Letters is, hands down, the better film, both cinematically and acting wise.

Be prepared to feel awkward while watching Letters. Because of the role reversal posed by Eastwood, we spend the first hour watching the Japanese soldiers develop into real people with lives and families and fears, etc. When the Americans attack, you genuinely find yourself rooting against the American forces, which, for me, felt odd as my grandfather was one of those very soldiers. And, as the canon of WWII film generally portrays America as the hero, the different view point feels a little foreign (pardon the pun.)

I acutally wouldn't even bother watching Flags. I thought it was boring and didn't have the same emotional punch as Letters.
posted by santojulieta at 4:07 AM on December 7, 2007

Letters is about the lives, hopes, and experiences of the Japanese that were transplanted from their normal civilian lives and prepared to be (mostly) wiped out. Flags is about the Americans who came back and faced survivors' guilt, public misunderstanding of what the battle/war was like and about, and being thrust into a propaganda campaign with managers who concerned themselves only with the macro-level. The matter of who raised what is central to the duplicity they feel.

Watch letters, then flags. Flags starts out where Letters ends. Letters concerns itself with what happened before the battle, and Flags what happened afterwards.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 4:53 AM on December 7, 2007

Watch Flags of Our Fathers first, then Letters from Iwo Jima the next day or so. Watching both of them is interesting because they complement each other. You don't see many Japanese in Flags of Our Fathers, and you don't see many Americans in Letters from Iwo Jima, which is strange and eery and gives you a little bit of the feeling of what the battle was like. Also, there are a couple of incidents that are depicted in both movies, and one in particular is a mystery in Flags of Our Fathers that's revealed in Letters from Iwo Jima.

Letters from Iwo Jima is a better movie than Flags of Our Fathers, but I think the two combined would be a richer experience than watching just Letters from Iwo Jima. (I don't even think Flags of Our Fathers is a bad movie, it's just more conventional.)
posted by kirkaracha at 7:46 AM on December 7, 2007

I actually watched Letters, then Flags; I thought it worked well that way, because it made me see Flags in a different light. My wife and I both agreed with the consensus that Letters was better, in part for the novelty of seeing a WWII movie from the Japanese point of view. Both were definitely worth watching, though.
posted by TedW at 9:02 AM on December 7, 2007

Oh, and after you watch Flags of Our Fathers, be sure and play The Ballad of Ira Hayes.
posted by TedW at 9:05 AM on December 7, 2007

Recognize that both are tendentious, albeit in different ways. For the perspective of two who were there (unlike Eastwood and Spielberg), read Goodbye, Darkness and With The Old Breed while you're at it.
posted by IndigoJones at 9:29 AM on December 7, 2007

"I saw both and felt Flags was nothing special. I am so over WWII films. OK fine, you're all heroes, you were the greatest generation, blah blah blah...we get it. Enough is enough already."

Obviously needs a history lesson taught somewheres outside a liberal college...
posted by fox_terrier_guy at 6:19 PM on December 8, 2007