‘Flags of Our Fathers’ is at once two films. First and foremost, it is a retelling of the story behind the picture taken of the flag raising on top of Iwo Jima, and the propaganda machine that followed. Secondly, it is a retelling of the battle of Iwo Jima, one of the most critical battles of World War II. Both are done very well, and it makes for a good film full of interesting facts, if not a great film.

As far as the first intention of the film, following the propaganda factory behind the picture, it’s not really much more engrossing than a documentary that would air on the History Channel. It’s interesting and all that the flag in the picture wasn’t the first flag that was raised, and that the battle of Iwo Jima had barely begun at that time. Those are very interesting facts by themselves, but drawing them out into a feature-length film doesn’t work very well.

The second intention of retelling the battle is also done rather well, though it’s nothing I haven’t seen before. For a good World War II battle sequence, see ‘Saving Private Ryan.’ Though this film may provide an accurate retelling of the Battle of Iwo Jima, and the confusion that was caused by the Japanese strategy, it never truly reached epic proportions. And for a film that tries to be an epic, it’s too bad that it fell just short.