User reviews

WWII in HD: Glory and Guts (2009)

**** (out of 4)

The eighth film in the series focuses in on the battle at Iwo Jima where the death numbers are quite mind blowing. Overly 24,000 American soldiers are killed or wounded with only one-thousand of 23,000 soldiers making it off the island. Also told here is the story of a soldier whose first action in battle finds himself separated from his troops and he comes across a German soldier and must slice his throat. The way this story is told and all the details are very haunting and the way this soldier tells the story is pretty unbelievable as you can tell he's still haunted by the events. This episode is one again a masterpiece and it's rather amazing at how much impact these stories have even though this entire battle is pretty well known thanks to countless movies including Clint Eastwood's FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS and LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA. The flag raising at Iwo Jima is talked about in detail here including the three survivors trip and tour across America, which ended up earning more money for war bonds than any other tour. Once again we're shown several graphic scenes with dead soldiers being buried together and other scene of men being blown apart. The story of a man's arms and legs being found fifty-feet away from his body is quite shocking as are other stories about parts being at places you wouldn't expect.