Flags of Our Fathers (Full Screen Edition)
Starring: Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford, Adam Beach, John Benjamin Hickey, John SlatteryDirector: Clint Eastwood
Studio: Dreamworks Video
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Format: Color, Dolby, Full Screen, NTSC
Running Time: 132 minutes
DVD Release: February 6th 2007
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DVD Review
Thematically ambitious and emotionally complex, Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers is an intimate epic with much to say about war and the nature of heroism in America. Based on the non-fiction bestseller by James Bradley (with Ron Powers), and adapted by Million Dollar Baby screenwriter Paul Haggis (Jarhead screenwriter William Broyles Jr. wrote an earlier draft that was abandoned when Eastwood signed on to direct), this isn't so much a conventional war movie as it is a thought-provoking meditation on our collective need for heroes, even at the expense of those we deem heroic. In telling the story of the six men (five Marines, one Navy medic) who raised the American flag of victory on the battle-ravaged Japanese island of Iwo Jima on February 23rd, 1945, Eastwood takes us deep into the horror of war (in painstakingly authentic Iwo Jima battle scenes) while emphasizing how three of the surviving flag-raisers (played by Adam Beach, Ryan Phillippe, and Jesse Bradford) became reluctant celebrities - and resentful pawns in a wartime publicity campaign - after their flag-raising was immortalized by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal in the most famous photograph in military history.
As the surviving flag-raisers reluctantly play their public roles as "the heroes of Iwo Jima" during an exhausting (but clearly necessary) wartime bond rally tour, Flags of Our Fathers evolves into a pointed study of battlefield valor and misplaced idolatry, incorporating subtle comment on the bogus nature of celebrity, the trauma of battle, and the true meaning of heroism in wartime. Wisely avoiding any direct parallels to contemporary history, Eastwood allows us to draw our own conclusions about the Iwo Jima flag-raisers and how their postwar histories (both noble and tragic) simultaneously illustrate the hazards of exploited celebrity and society's genuine need for admirable role models during times of national crisis. Flags of Our Fathers defies the expectations of those seeking a more straightforward war-action drama, but it's richly satisfying, impeccably crafted film that manages to be genuinely patriotic (in celebrating the camaraderie of soldiers in battle) while dramatizing the ultimate futility of war. Eastwood's follow-up film, Letters from Iwo Jima, examines the Iwo Jima conflict from the Japanese perspective. --Jeff Shannon
Beyond Flags of Our Fathers
 Other World War II DVDs |  Essential DVDs by Director Clint Eastwood |  Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley |
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User Reviews
Clint Eastwood's multilayered study of heroism - Rating: 4/5
"Flags of Our Fathers" follows the lives of the men who raised the flag in the famous photograph at Iwo Jima during WWII.
This is not the action packed war movie you might expect, but rather a multilayered exploration of heroism.
The irony of the film is that the three survivors of the flag-raising were not particularly heroic despite being promoted as such - it turns out they were not even the first ones to raise the flag on Mt Suribachi - and yet many of the unheralded soldiers in arms they left behind did perform heroic deeds.
Eastwood is more at home with this subject matter than the "other" Iwo Jima movie he filmed at the same time "Letters from Iwo Jima".
image and reality - Rating: 5/5
In this epic film about the Battle of Iwo Jima, director Clint Eastwood triangulates three different viewpoints about the war. First are the soldiers themselves, normal human beings who resist the notion of being labeled "heroes" and who, in contrast to war sloganeers, know what combat means. These men are bravery and loyalty personified. Then, there is the vantage point of real war in all its vulgarity, degradation, terror, violence, and dehumanization. 70,000 Americans stormed the island and some 6,8000 died. 22,000 Japanese defended their land and 20,000 of them died. Finally, there is the government propaganda machine back home that must manipulate public opinion to send its sons into that meat grinder. Almost every American will recognize the iconic photograph of the six soldiers raising the flag on top of the tiny island of Iwo Jima (by Joe Rosenthal). But very few Americans know the reality behind the image. Eastwood shows how the government manipulated the image, distorted the historical facts, exploited the unwitting soldiers who raised the flag (forced fund raising tours back home), and turned a mundane moment of wartime into a propagandistic farce. The film is based upon the book by James Bradley and Ron Powers, which tells the real story about the flag-raising (Bradley's father was the last survivor of the six soldiers). Eastwood's sequel, Letters from Iwo Jima, tells the story of this battle from the viewpoint of the Japanese.
A globdiferous film - Rating: 1/5
"Flags of Our Fathers" is a globdiferous film of twisted storytelling and bent logics. The essential objection that I would raise against it is its negativism. From professional reviews all the way through the amateur reviews, it is generally conceded that the film adopts a cynical view of heroism.
It may be nothing more than the Director's fiat, but it is sufficient as a theme to find resonance in a host of equally negativistic reviewers who wish to deny the sacrifices of the Marine and Navy personnel who fought the battle, and find some obscure angle from which to hold forth authoritatively and show delight in heaping their scorn and contempt upon those who sacrificed for their fellow combatants and their nation.
Thus far, not a single claim that this film reveals some kind of a TRUTH has been substantiated, and I believe I've challenged each and every reviewer who made that ridiculous claim.
Yet another common contradiction which appears in reviews is that it is suggested that the Marine and Navy personnel engaged in the bond drive were suffering variously from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or Combat Fatigue, alcoholism, and all other manner of diagnosis grounded in the nature of their combat experience. What is peculiar in this regard is that many reviewers still engage in polemics supporting the film's characterization of these men as something other than heroes.
Can you see that? They were in combat, and suffered for it by this characterization, but because the film generates such a negative view of these men, the reviewers decide to mimic the film's negativism to deny that these men were heroes or heroic at all; but the same reviewers will claim that the men suffered as a result of their experiences in combat. This contradiction permits the reviewer to argue both ways at once.
The logical dialogue might go like this:
Did the men endure horrific combat? Yes.
Did the horrific combat induce stress and other maladies? Yes
Were the men heroes? NO.
Why weren't the men heroes? Well, because they weren't the original men who raised the flag.
So only the original men who raised the flag were heroes and no other men fighting on the island could be characterized as heroic? Yes.
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There is another issue which comes into play in considering whether this film is respectful of the men who fought in the battle for Iwo Jima. Although it may not be apparent at first. The film and those whose reviews endorse the film, claim that the film abolishes MYTHS regarding heroes and heroism. This is a continuation of the film's negativistic suggestibility.
I would like to indicate that the film industry itself is accountable for the popularization of certain MYTHS concerning heroes and heroism. Film like "RAMBO" and even Eastwood's portrayal of Sgt. Tom Highway in "HEARTBREAK RIDGE" convey an image of the American military that is largely MYTHOLOGICAL, and it capitalizes on this for purposes of profit.
Afterward, "Flags of Our Fathers" is credited with destroying the MYTH of the American heroes fighting on Iwo Jima, including the American heroes who served on the bond drive.
Also, the film never does make it explicit whether the Marine and Navy personnel either WERE or WERE NOT heroes. The film creates a confusing scenario of flashbacks which confuses the chronology and the viewers perception of events. By this standard, interestingly enough, one could call into question whether the film is a great film.
The film also confuses FACT & MYTH by the shifting and some of the worst stereotyping of characters as has ever been presented in films. Several characters serve in this negative stereotyping.
(1) the businessman on the train offering post-war jobs
(2) the manager of the bond drive, who is so easily targeted for public contempt
(3) the tourists approaching Ira Hayes in the farm field to snap a photograph.
This is merely cunning film-makiing, not brilliant film making. There really isn't that much of a distinction between obvious propaganda and "Flags of Our Fathers," the film is so manipulative that it becomes itself, a form of the very type of propaganda effort it purports to expose and condemn.
Finally, I would like to fault the film for the simple fact that it just isn't fun. As a purchase, I'm very disappointed with it for its broken storytelling and its flashbacks.
I find justification for comparisons between "Flags of Our Fathers" and other films. For example, it is clear that "Saving Private Ryan" was an attempt to show great respect for the "citizen soldiers" who participated in the Normandy landings on D-Day, 6 June 1944 and afterward. It showed very carefully, what the men were, and what they did.
In direct contrast, "Flags of Our Fathers" shows many characters as different from what we have historically accepted them to be. The negative stereotyping, the confusing handling of the subject of Heroes and Heroics leaves the viewer with a hollow empty feeling, a cynicism about the self-sacrifice of many American families whose sons never returned, or returned home with injury.
You see, the very nature of heroism, is that it is itself a kind of truth. It isn't a truth merely because it is portrayed in some movie or book, or even with a medal. The men who sacrifice, whether it was Marines in Korea on Pork Chop Hill, or at the Chosin Reservoir, or in South Vietnam, or the Army personnel landing on Normandy on D-Day, or even an American Infantryman fighting at Concord Massachussets during the American Revolution. Self-sacrifice and the shedding of blood is honored in the hearts of those those who saw it as their duty to give of their life to the uttermost, and in the hearts of those who were there to witness.
I am deeply offended in this film. Those men gave all so that Americans would remain free, to enjoy life, to write books and make movies. I just don't think they made the sacrifice in expectation that their own people would turn and and depict them as hypocrits and villains and phonies and liars.
***[They've actually been called all of these in various reviews of this movie on Amazon. Look at that; HYPOCRITS, VILLAINS, PHONIES, and LIARS]***
Furthermore, to present these men as "victims" of prejudices, as though the world had to be perfect before the men made their sacrifices, is also absurd. You see, that is the nature of the genuine hero. He doesn't sacrifice only because the world is perfect and free of prejudice. The Hero sacrifices himself so that the world can become perfect.
Those who expect that the world must be perfect, before giving of themselves or performing a sacrifice, are not actually living. It was Confucius, I believe, who indicated that those who fear death, die a thousand times. --Semper Fidelis, Bruce Bain
Flags of Our Fathers - Rating: 5/5
Very good truth story about soldiers' experince in the Iwo Jima during
World War 2
Great Expectations Unfulfilled - Rating: 1/5
With Clint Eastwood as director and Steven Spielberg as producer I was really expecting to watch a movie that would be on par with Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers, I was severely disappointed!
Let me start by saying that I have the utmost respect for those that fought on the Battle if Iwo Jima, I can't imagine the real horror it must have been to be there.
In telling the story of the "flag", which was probably very accurate I felt that the movie was very disjointed in its bounces between timeframes. From the battle to the fund raising events, back and forth, back and forth I was not able to enjoy any continuity in the story. Just when I was starting to bite my nails in a combat scene it would jump into some stadium full of people and a reenactment of the flag raising. I would slump in my seat and wonder why I had let the tension build up inside only to be let down like this.
Watching a drunken American Indian rant and rave throughout the movie was most disappointing. While that may have been the fact, I didn't find the portrayal anything but depressing, which in many ways was the way that I left the theater, depressed, wondering in whose pocket my $10 would land.
I'm guessing if you read the book and saw the movie you might be very happy with the performance. My expectations far outweighed this movies ability to deliver any type of gripping story, fulfilling battle scenes (as both director and producer have delivered in the past) or feeling that at the end I was a better person for having watched such a sad reel of film.
