The image of six soldiers raising the flag at The Battle Of Iwo Jima, fortuitously captured by photographer Joe Rosenthal, turned around the Pacific War for America, reigniting national pride at a time when public opinion was turning against the conflict.

Clint Eastwood's brilliantly directed war opus explores events leading up to the iconic raising of the flag on February 23, 1945, contrasting the fortunes of the three surviving soldiers - 'Doc' Bradley (Phillippe), Rene Gagnon (Bradford) and Ira Hayes (Beach) - as they return home to embrace their new status as media darlings.

They leave behind hundreds of fallen comrades, including the three other flag bearers: Michael Strank (Pepper), Franklin Sousley (Cross) and Harlon Block (Benjamin Walker).

While Doc and Rene willingly front a nationwide tour to raise funds for the war effort, Ira struggles to cope, turning to drink to numb the pain.

"I can't take them calling me a hero,'' sobs Ira. "All I did was try not to get shot. Some of the things I saw or done weren't things to be proud of.'' Adding to Ira's sense of unease, he struggles with the knowledge that Harlon has been misidentified in news reports as another Marine, Hank Hansen (Paul Walker).

Working from Ron Powers and James Bradley's best-selling book, screenwriters William Broyles Jr and Paul Haggis craft an intimate story of enduring friendship and loyalty, eschewing sentimentality and shameless flag-waving.

Action scenes are breathlessly orchestrated, shot on handheld cameras (a la Saving Private Ryan), which place us right in the thick of the bullets and exploding missiles.

Violence is graphic but by no means gratuitous - the fate of one soldier in the caves is conveyed simply yet powerfully by the look of horror on Doc's barely lit face.

Eastwood fuses pyrotechnic-laden spectacle with intense moments of heartbreak, providing the film's elegiac soundtrack himself.