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        With ace actor Clint Eastwood in the dual role of production and direction the episode of second world war has the touch of an Indian angle. The well-crafted project has the added production support of Steven Spielberg.

        Focus is on the bloodiest battle and the fierce struggle for the island of Iwo Jima, culminating of one of the defining images in history. There is the pleasing sight of five Marines and a Navy corpsman raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi.

        In effect, it was a symbol of victory to a nation that had grown weary of war and made instant heroes of the six American soldiers at the base of the flag. The perished ones had no inkling of being immortalised. Pity is all the more when the surviving ones never saw themselves as heroes - happy to stay on the front with their brothers in arms who were laying their lives without any hysterical strings attached.

        The movie is based on the best selling book by James Bradley with Ron Powers, which chronicled the epic battle and the fate of the flag-bearers.

        Interestingly, Bradley's father was one of the soldiers pictured raising the flag. Some irony that James was in the dark of his father's experience long after the demise.

        Thanks to a perfect cast - the younger guns able to hold fort - Eastwood is able to marshall his resources to war-shaped perfection.