Review – The Sands of Iwo Jima

Is that you, John Wayne? Is this me? This has to be the ultimate expression of the United States Marine Corps’ self-image, at least as far as its role in World War Two is concerned. We’ve got all the stock characters and cliché situations: the tough-as-nails sergeant with the heart of gold (played by the Duke himself), the over-educated kid with the chip on his shoulder who nonetheless learns to be a manly man and a team player, the irresponsible guy who learns a hard lesson about the seriousness of war, the Jewish guy (who gets killed), the other ethnic guy (Greek, who also gets killed), and so on. Of course, the movie also features the rampant racism (count the number of times the word “nip” appears) and obnoxious sexism common in pictures of this genre and era. And then of course there’s the ultimate cliché: the raising of the flag at the end of the flick. If you like movies of this general sort, don’t miss this one. Mildly amusing