The image of the Marines raising the U.S. flag at Iwo Jima is still in the minds of the American public over 60 years later. It has come to represent victory and the cooperation of men towards that goal, but the story behind that photograph and the aftermath for the three survivors who went on a promotional tour to drum up support for war bonds is the story that director Clint Eastwood tells with this film, while also focusing on the brave soldiers who gave their lives in that battle.

Told with an astonishing amount of flashbacks that somehow never get confusing, the story follows a group of Marines to the Battle of Iwo Jima, a ferocious battle that lasted close to 40 days and saw the U.S. lose almost 7,000 men, while the Japanese had close to 21,000 casualties. The momentous flag raising, which is the beginning of the main story of the film, was not what it appeared to be. It was actually the second raising of a flag that day. That didn’t matter to the U.S. government. Once they saw the reaction that the American people had to that picture, they knew they had the image to drive an effort to sell more war bonds, which they felt was necessary if they were to win the war.

To push the drive, they wanted the “heroes” in that picture. They knew who one of the men was and they wanted him to tell them who the others were. Some of the men were already dead and one man didn’t want to be identified, although he later was. The three surviving members of that photo were then toured around the U.S. as the “Heroes of Iwo Jima,” much to their disapproval. The survivors contended that they were not heroes, merely survivors, and all they did that day was help raise a flag marking the Marines’ success at reaching the top of Mount Suribachi. They weren’t even the first group up that day. That didn’t matter to the people back home or to the people in the government trying to jump start flogging war bond sales.

“Flags of Our Fathers” is a powerful film and Eastwood once again stakes his claim to being one of the greatest directors in cinema history. The war scenes are as horrible and terrific as those in “Saving Private Ryan,” though thankfully they relent more than that film, giving the audience breaks with flashes forward to the war bond tour. One can also easily see why certain films get nominated for Best Sound when they view a film like this - the cannon fire shakes the theater and gives one a small sense of what it must have been like hearing those sounds for hours upon hours every day. Eastwood gets great performances from his cast of young actors, especially from the surviving three played by Ryan Philippe, Jesse Bradford and Adam Beach, while also featuring brief appearances from Barry Pepper, Paul Walker and Jamie Bell among others. Beach shines out as Ira Hayes, a man who couldn’t deal with his newfound fame and a case of survivor guilt, and ended up drinking quite a bit during the tour.

The film is well-made and engaging, but what makes it even better is the discussions it raises afterwards. You feel bad for the three guys on the tour, but you know it was necessary to sell more war bonds to provide for the soldiers still fighting the war. You are then left to consider that propaganda, under some circumstances, may be right. The three soldiers on the tour didn’t want to be called heroes, in fact, you are told later that many people who fought in World War II shunned that title, so what defines a hero? Is just doing a dangerous job heroic? Does their survival make them heroes? Are the heroes the ones who gave their lives?

There are no easy answers and Eastwood doesn’t lean one way or the other. It is left up to the viewer to decide. “Flags of Our Fathers” is a film worth viewing, even for younger viewers who will go to this with their parents or grandparents. The war scenes are graphic and disturbing but an older child (12 and up) could likely handle it. There were several families in the audience when I screened the film and I think they had a lot to talk about after the film.

****

login to post comments