“Flags of Our Fathers”
Director Clint Eastwood
DreamWorks Pictures
(Out of 5)
Six American soldiers struggle to hoist the heavy pole bearing
an American flag. As the stars and stripes flutter in the breeze,
the moment is immortalized as a snapshot that sends electric shocks
of hope to a nation on the brink of despair.
Few will not recognize the legendary photograph of the soldiers
raising the American flag atop Mount Suribachi on the Japanese
island of Iwo Jima. What many do not know, however, is the
compelling story behind the dynamic display of valor ““ and
the lies, intrigue and tragedy surrounding the men involved.
Director Clint Eastwood and Steven Spielberg co-produced
“Flags of Our Fathers,” bringing life to the tragic
story of the young men who hoisted the flag at the end of World War
II from the best-selling book by James Bradley and Ron Powers.
Bradley’s father, John “Doc” Bradley, was one
of the three surviving flag raisers memorialized in the critical
photograph. “Doc” Bradley (played by Ryan Phillippe,
“Crash”) served as a medic in the U.S. Navy, while the
other survivors, Rene Gagnon (Jesse Bradford,
“Swimfan”) and Ira Hayes (Adam Beach,
“Windtalkers”), were Marines.
The film is told in a series of flashbacks that lead up to a
recreation of the flag planting on a papier-mache mountain in front
of a thunderous crowd in America. The film brilliantly portrays the
lives of the soldiers before and after the release of the pivotal
picture, and follows the lives of the survivors after the war.
Gruesome war scenes show limbs and heads mid-flail and sans
bodies, and shots of grenaded humans are explicit. But behind the
gore and death lies the true tragedy, not of wasted lives, but of
the failure of proper recognition.
In following the survivors and their personal stories,
“Flags of Our Fathers” demystifies the legend
surrounding the picture and tells the true story of its origin and
the men who were in it.
Eastwood delivers another magnificently-helmed film that offers
viewers a harrowing glance at the brutality that is war. Phillippe,
Bradford and Beach excellently portray the naive, young returning
soldiers, fully embodying the confusion surrounding fame and the
strain of living life with memories of fallen comrades.
The supporting cast, including war film veteran Barry Pepper
(“Saving Private Ryan”) and Paul Walker (“The
Fast and the Furious”), provides a realistic backdrop for the
camaraderie and brotherhood that links soldiers to one another.
Moving, heartrending and provoking, “Flags of our
Fathers” is an unforgettable cinematic representation of an
amazing true story.