War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding

right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its

size, and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Thank you. your host, James Early. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Pacific War on Film.

This is your host, James Early, as always.

And as always, I've got my buddy, Sean McIra with me.

And we are excited to be starting another mini-series within the greater series.

We're going to be doing a mini-series of three different films on the Battle of Iwo Jima.

And they're all very different films.

And they are all, you know, pretty good films at the very least.

They present it from different perspectives.

So this will be a fun miniseries.

I guess I keep coming back to that word, but that's what it is.

Tonight or today, we are going to be discussing the classic 1949 movie Sands of Iwo Jima.

The Duke is back.

So here we go. It's not a very long movie. You know, it's funny,

Sean, I keep seeing different numbers on the length of the film. I'm seeing one hour and 40 minutes

or so. Is that, but I've seen like I also have seen one hour 49 minutes. I guess it depends on

which cut you get, right?

...