Unfairly maligned

Rating: 8/10 (8 August 2002)

First of all, most of the armchair historians who criticize this movie based on historical inaccuracies don't know what they are talking about.
Yes, some Japanese did carry katanas and used them on the battlefield. Yes, the US troops did use flamethrowers as depicted in the movie. Yes, there were racists back in the 40's. Yes, contrary to what the military would like to portray, the code-talkers who were guarded thought it was understood that they were to be killed rather than captured (And this is perfectly understandable considering what the Japanese did to POW's, so I don't know why they are protesting it). Yes, the Japanese did insane charges that left them with enormous casualties. Yes, in the real battle the number of Japanese to American casualties was heavily lopsided in favor of the Americans because of said tactics. And yes, contrary to what some have said, there are plenty of American casualties depicted in the movie. How some reviewers missed them, I don't know.
Is the movie 100% accurate? No. Neither is any war movie ever made. The explosions were a bit too much, Joe has a few too many bullets in each clip, and there should have been more air support, but so what? If that sort of thing bothers you enough to take you out of a movie, find a hobby. This movie had good acting and characters I actually cared about, and actually did have character development and a plot. Obviously it didn't work for some people, but it hit the right chords with me.
Is it perfect? Not really. It's pretty damn good, though, and so far it has been the best movie I've seen this year. I thought it was so good that I keep checking in to see how people are responding to it two months after seeing it. It's just unfortunate that people have been burned out on too many recent and well-done war movies to give this one a chance. Hopefully, people will discover how good this movie is on video.