30 Dec Sands of Iwo Jima
Now, nobody knows exactly what they’ve got on this island, but they’ve had forty years to put it there. (Briefing the troops in Sands of Iwo Jima.)
Sands of Iwo Jima, WWII Movie starring John Wayne
(1949) John Wayne (42 years old in this film) was the tough Sergeant who trained a squadron of Marines.
The writers worked hard (too hard) to add a little romance.
The 1st rough action we saw was on Tarawa. It wasn’t until the last 30 minutes that they landed on Iowa Jima. The battle scenes would have been hard to watch in 1949 … some actual combat footage was used.
At the very end, the three living survivors of the historic flag raising on Mount Suribachi actually portrayed themselves. This included navy corpsman John H. Bradley whose son James went on to write Flags of our Fathers in 2000.
Sands of Iwo Jima on amazon.com
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