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Flags of Our Fathers

The first part of Clint Eastwood's two film series on Iwo Jima shares the story of the soldiers involved in the flag raising famously depicted by photographer Joe Rosenthal. Eastwood weaves in between flashbacks within flashbacks, all from various characters' points of view, resulting in an intricate film that unfortunately drags on at moments. Although the slow pace does fit into the dark, pessimistic atmosphere of the film, it weakens the film, but thankfully doesn't ruin it.

I say thankfully because I wanted to like this film. There are many themes in play, from the question of what is hero to blatant racism, which is surprisingly not towards the Japanese, but Native Americans. The film focuses on three of the men who raised the flag, John Bradley (Ryan Phillippe), Rene Gagnon (Jesse Bradford), and Ira Hayes (Adam Beach). The men each react differently to being named a hero. While Bradford and Beach have strong characters with both strengths and flaws, Phillippe is simply the lovable leader. Everyone seems to like him, yet he lacks charisma. Perhaps his modesty is a statement of a true hero. On the other hand, Bradford and Beach play off each other's character, loving or hating their role as a hero, respectively. Not only does Beach's character want to go back to the war, he is constantly bombarded with racist comments, both unintentional and deliberate. Hence, he turns to drinking as an escape. While this may be taken as stereotypical, Eastwood makes an honest attempt to depict both the internal and external conflicts facing Ira Hayes.

Beyond the themes, Eastwood also uses a few interesting devices throughout the film. Most prominent is the almost complete lack of the Japanese point of view, which is reserved for the second film, Letters from Iwo Jima. There are moments, however, when the camera is shooting from the Japanese turret, successfully creating suspense. Beyond that, there are approximately two scenes when the faces of the enemy are shown, proving this film is solely reserved for the Americans.

Another notable film device is the flashback, not uncommon to war films. Flags of Our Fathers starts in the present, and then moves between the Battle of Iwo Jima, the months afterwards when the flag raising soldiers tour the country to raise money for the war effort, and the present again. The film is able to stand up with such an intricate timeline, and creates an interesting effect. At one honorary dinner, Phillippe stares at an ice cream treat in the shape of the flag raisers smothered in strawberry syrup, clearly reminiscent of blood soaked troops, triggering a flashback to all the dying soldiers on the beach. While there is reason

and meaning behind each flashback, the pace of the movie is affected. Jumping between moments of war and character reflection makes chronological, not rhythmic sense and I was left with mixed feelings of a slow paced movie with scenes of intense war.

I suspect that Eastwood was aiming for a slow, near hopeless atmosphere which all ties into how and why heroes are made, and who should be those heroes. The film is clearly not made for shock value, as there is very little gore, but when it is there, it's extremely effective. All the shots of the military transportation, from boats, planes, tanks are compelling and nicely avoid the CGI syndrome.

Flags of Our Fathers is a good story with many strong performances but could be told more efficiently with a slightly shorter screen time.

Special Features

Do trailers count as special features? I didn't think so either. Unless you enjoy manipulating the audio and subtitle options of your DVDs, you'll have to wait for deleted scenes or various other extras when Paramount presumably releases a two-disc set with Letters from Iwo Jima. For those who enjoyed this film and not Letters, the DVD is a real disappointment.

Movie Grade: A-
DVD Features Grade: F

Overall Grade: C+