Flags of our Fathers

Salina and I watched this last weekend. We were both pretty tired and honestly I don't think I got as much out of it as I could have. I didn't get emotionally tuned into the story. I can't imagine the pressure of having the fundraising fate of the war on your shoulders. Still, something was missing in the storytelling.

But there are some amazing depictions of the fleet of naval ships sent to Japan. Hundreds of ships spread for miles through the Pacific. Now, i've previously kind of balked at labelling any generation "the greatest generation", but after some thought, it is a totally amazing thing that these guys did. These Americans pulled themselves out of a great depression and in the course of four years trained millions of soldiers, built huge amounts of military equipment and infrastructure, and defeated two massive imperial forces that had home field advantage and a motivation that was akin to fanatical religion. It is a completely mind boggling achievement. It is too bad that WAR is the only thing that has brought this level of effort out of us. But it is inspiring, and it makes me believe it is really possible for us to do some amazing things, like for instance, change course away from global warming catastrophe.

So, flat on the personal story. But the effects are so well done, and the feats depected by those effects so amazing, that it still had a personal effect on me-- reminding me that we've done great things and hopefully still can.