A good movie

Since I really enjoyed 'Letters to Iwo Jima', I was really eager to watch this flick. Together, they make one of the best depiction of war I have ever seen and it is quite impressive when you think that Clint Eastwood had never made a war movie before. I mean, the battle scenes were really horrific and some of the best I have seen, it almost reached the level of the introduction of 'Saving Private Ryan'. Still, I have to admit that this movie was not as successful as 'Letters to Iwo Jima' was. First of all, in my opinion, the young soldiers were rather miscast, they were either too old (like Ryan Philippe and Paul Walker) or just not good enough (like Jesse Bradford, Adam Beach, Joseph Cross and Scott Eastwood). Furthermore, even though the whole story about the raising of the Flag was interesting, it wasn't really spellbinding, especially compared to the battle itself and I wish they just followed the same story used in  'Letters to Iwo Jima' but dealing with the American side this time around. Eventually, even though 'Letters to Iwo Jima' would be nominated for the Academy Award for the Best Picture, this movie would be ignored but I think it was deserved since it wasn't really amazing. Still, it remains a well made war movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Clint Eastwood's work.