THE SANDS OF IWO JIMA

US, 1949, 109 minutes, Black and white.
John Wayne, John Agar, Adele Mara, Forrest Tucker, Arthur Franz, Julie Bishop.
Directed by Alan Dwan.

The Sands of Iwo Jima is, as the title indicates, a re-enactment of the battle of the small island in the Pacific and the raising of the flag, the photo of which became an emblem for the war effort in 1945.

This is the archetypal film of John Wayne winning the war. He had appeared in a number of war films including The Fighting Seabees and They Were Expendable, for John Ford. He received an Oscar nomination as best actor (and was to win twenty years later for True Grit).

The film is tough, Wayne plays a character who is tough, a martinet whose family have left him and who exercises his severity on his troops, especially the son of a friend who was considered too soft (John Agar).

The film was written by Harry Brown and James Edward Grant. Grant, a friend of Wayne, had written a number of films for him including Angel and the Badman, Flying Leathernecks, Big Jim McLain?, Trouble Along the Way, Hondo. The film was directed by veteran Alan Dwan, whose CV includes three hundred and eighty-six films as director, from 1911 to 1961, most of them routine and genre films. This one was one of his most upmarket films.

The Battle of Iwo Jima received a great deal of attention when Clint Eastwood’s two films, Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima were released to great acclaim in 2006, the battle seen from the point of view of the American as well as from the Japanese point of view.

1. Was this a good war film? The style of 1949 and of the present? The nature of the contrast, similarities? Audience response to war films now?

2. What were the major emphasis of war films in the late 40s? The status of America’s morale-boosting? John Wayne as hero?

3. What evaluation of war and its effect on people and the world did this film give? The good aspects of war and had? Fear and destruction and death? Courage and heroism?

4. How important was the visualizing and reconstruction of battles? Comment on the portrayal of the beachhead and the battle? Audience participation in these battles and helping the audience to experience and evaluate them?

5. How well did the film focus on Conway? A typical young soldier of World War II or not? Young, intelligent, educated, reacting against his parents, against tradition, chip on his shoulder yet volunteering? What insight into this type of character did the portrayal give? His response to training, comradeship, his attitude towards fear? how did the war chance him, for better or worse? His arrogance, his life being saved, his final entering into the war? Was this genuine or jingoism? The importance of his marriage and the effect on him? Of his child?

6. How did he contrast with Stryker? The older generation, the war heroes, the John Wayne type? How interesting was the character of Stryker? His toughness with the men and their training, no-nonsense attitudes, teaching the men lessons? Yet the background of his wife and child? His drinking? The clash with Thomas and Conway? The importance of the encounter with Mary, going home with her and learning something about himself? The need to talk and communicate? His response and heroism in war? The irony of his death, the reading of the letter? What values did this character stand for?

7. How important for the complexity of the war theme was the portrayal of Thomas and his trouble making? Insight into the type of trouble-maker?

8. Was the battle balanced by the romantic sequences? The real relationship between Conway and Alison? The marriage? The child?

9. How well did the film portray the men and the marines? The nature of life during war, training, the purpose of fighting, learnings versus heroism?

10. What did the film say about the nature of heroism? The ordinary man and the challenges made? The various battles, soldiers’ behaviour? Patriotism and morale with the flag? The famous flag, and its impact on America?

11. How successful was this film as a record of the impact World War II had on post-world-war ferlings?

12 Was the film a successful film of its kind?