Flags of Our Fathers & Letters from Iwo Jima

[Robb]

Just saw.


Wow.


Recommended.

[rockymountaindem]

1. I thought they were very good

I kept trying to get this one girl to go see Letters from Iwo Jima with me, but she wouldn't go. I ended up seeing it alone and I was pretty glad for it because that's not really the kind of movie you want to take someone with when you're just getting to know them.

[Aristus]

2. "Letters From Iwo Jima" was an astonishing film.

I think it's long past time someone told the story of Baron Takeichi Nishi. He's the Japanese officer in the film who spoke English to the American prisoner. He admired the United States, had spent time here before the war, and had many friends here, including, as he said, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford.

He was also the gold medalist in equestrian events at the 1932 Olympics.

It's terrible to see such noble men get caught up in such an awful thing as war.

[MonkeyFunk]

3. I've seen Letters from Iwo Jima

and thought it was great. I have Flags of our FAthers on disc, but haven't watched yet.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. My dear Robb...

They were both outstanding...

Heartbreaking...

Highly recommended!

:patriot:

[Swede]

5. Ballad of Ira Hayes - Johnny Cash

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdBZJIuHdck

Ira Hayes,
Ira Hayes

CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war


Gather round me people there's a story I would tell
About a brave young Indian you should remember well
From the land of the Pima Indian
A proud and noble band
Who farmed the Phoenix valley in Arizona land

Down the ditches for a thousand years
The water grew Ira's peoples' crops
'Till the white man stole the water rights
And the sparklin' water stopped

Now Ira's folks were hungry
And their land grew crops of weeds
When war came, Ira volunteered
And forgot the white man's greed

CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war


There they battled up Iwo Jima's hill,
Two hundred and fifty men
But only twenty-seven lived to walk back down again

And when the fight was over
And when Old Glory raised
Among the men who held it high
Was the Indian, Ira Hayes

CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

Ira returned a hero
Celebrated through the land
He was wined and speeched and honored; Everybody shook his hand

But he was just a Pima Indian
No water, no crops, no chance
At home nobody cared what Ira'd done
And when did the Indians dance

CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

Then Ira started drinkin' hard;
Jail was often his home
They'd let him raise the flag and lower it
like you'd throw a dog a bone!

He died drunk one mornin'
Alone in the land he fought to save
Two inches of water in a lonely ditch
Was a grave for Ira Hayes

CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

Yeah, call him drunken Ira Hayes
But his land is just as dry
And his ghost is lyin' thirsty
In the ditch where Ira died