Flags of Our Fathers Review
by Mark R. Leeper (mleeper AT optonline DOT net)October 22nd, 2006
FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: A film that I expected to enjoy strikes
me as 132 minutes of little more than diatribe
and violence. This is the story of how the
Marines took Iwo Jima in World War II and
specifically how the picture of planting the flag
was taken and became a classic image. We are told
repeatedly that it made heroes out of the wrong
people. Also it is the story of how the public
fell in love with the famous photograph and how
the United States government exploited that
appeal. The film is stylistically directed and
filmed, but the anger and cynicism of the script,
even if accurate, is just unpleasant. With more
restraint this could have been a much better film.
Rating: 0 (-4 to +4) or 4/10
This is the story of the men who fought on Iwo Jima in the last part of the Pacific War. One of the most famous photographic images of the war was the raising of the American flag on Mount Suribachi. The United States government used that image to sell war bonds and to stir patriotism. This film goes back and forth showing us how terrible the fighting was and showing the story of the three men who were elected heroes for the raising of the flag. They were used on a Bond Tour. It also tells us what happened to these men in later years. The film begins by saying that history can be very wrong in the people it chooses to be designated heroes (and its villains). It then spends the rest of the film making that point repeatedly. We are also told that one picture can win a war. Certainly the film demonstrates that one visual image can have a powerful effect, even if it is a false symbol of victory. None of this is so surprising that it needs so much proof.
I am going to go out on a limb on this one. I have a lot of respect for Clint Eastwood as a film director, and I know that a lot of people are going to like FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS. I had very high expectations, which may not have been entirely fair. Further, my natural opinions are probably little cynical about the military and government, though I have a great deal of respect for the common soldier in the wars we have fought. I agree with the politics of this film all the way. But I think Eastwood could have used a subtitle 43 REASONS *NOT* TO BE PROUD OF THE IWO JIMA IMAGE.
This is a long film and a large part of it is a barrage of attacks on the poor benighted souls who venerate the famous image of raising the flag on Mount Suribachi that was used to rally the American people. I was not alive at that time and I never was all that impressed by the image. In this film we learn among other things: (1) The image we see was not from the real raising of the flag but was merely part of a ploy to keep the original piece of fabric. (2) The people who were supposedly in the picture are not the same set of people identified by the press. (3) The raising of the flag was not at the point of victory on Iwo Jima but actually early in the battle. (4) The people who raised the flag were less heroic and in less danger than the people fighting down below were. (6) The United States government exploited the popularity of the image to earn money for the war. (7) Once the government used the people in the picture, they were more or less discarded. And the list goes could go on.
If our minds were not already numbed by that list of charges, it is by the violent images of the terrifying fighting that was going on in the taking of the island. The realistic and intense horror of warfare was a revelation when we saw it in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and in BAND OF BROTHERS. But both of those films showed the viewer the horrors in a relatively short sequence which then ended, the point being made, and the story continued. [Interestingly, this film and those two were all at least produced by Steven Spielberg.] Perhaps that is not realistic, but it allows the audience to breathe a sigh of relief when it is over. FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS has its horrifying and intense scenes peppered throughout the film and seems forever returning to show us the carnage at unpleasantly close range. The gunfire also was very loud--at least in the theater I attended. This is a darn unpleasant film to watch.
When we are not on the battlefield we see how the government exploited the so-called heroes and then essentially threw them away, all the while using the famous image over and over for its effect. I certainly hope that some of the images Eastwood uses have some basis in fact, like the serving of ice cream molded in the shape of the image and then doused in blood-red strawberry syrup. If that was an invention for the film, it is an egregious one. In any case, I thought this film was 132 minutes of mostly diatribe relieved by only one sequence in which we are told why the War Bond Drive that exploited the flag-raisers was
desperately needed for the war effort. The film also makes some very valid points the maltreatment of Ira Hayes (played by Adam Beach of WINDTALKERS) and Native Americans in general.
Director Clint Eastwood seems to go overboard in using a stylistic color palette. The film always uses muted colors. In the battle scenes they are muted all the way down to a near monochrome. Only objects to be emphasized appear in fuller color. This will usually be the flame of an explosion. Even off the battlefield, sets are under-lit, at times giving a film noir effect. Visually the effects strike me as manipulative and perhaps a bit pretentious. Scenes of the armada of the American forces look as digital as I am sure they had to be.
FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS made many valid points. I cannot fault it on that. But it just makes too much of a muckraking case too well for too much screen time. Less diatribe, less violence, a more restrained color palette manipulation and this could have been a good film. It just overdoes everything that it does. The same case could have been made with a little more finesse and style. Stanley Kubrick's PATHS OF GLORY, for example, is just as cynical and is more powerful. This film makes its points in the first five minutes and then just keeps repeating them with little restraint. I rate FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS a very disappointing 0 on the -4 to +4 scale or 4/10.
Mark R. Leeper
[email protected]
Copyright 2006 Mark R. Leeper
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