FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS
US, 2006, 132 minutes, Colour.
Ryan Philippe, Jesse Bradford, Adam Veitch, John Benjamin Hickey, John Slattery, Barry Pepper, Jamie Bell, Paul Walker, Robert Patrick, Neil Mc Donough, Melanie Lynskey, Thomas Mc Carthy, Judith Ivey, Joseph Cross, George Grizzard, Harve Presnell, Len Cariou, Beth Grant, David Patrick Kelly, Jon Polito, David Clennon, David Resche, Tom Mason.
Directed by Clint Eastwood.
While Flags of our Fathers can stand alone, it was made back-to-back and is a companion piece to Letters from Iwo Jima. Each film focuses on the battle for Iwo Jima in early 1945, Flags as a re-creation of the fighting and a memoir about the soldiers as well as a reflection on the famous photograph of the raising of the US flag. Letters is in Japanese and is a Japanese perspective on the events.
When each film was released, Clint Eastwood was 76. He has become not only one of the screen icons of American cinema but one of its most prolific and celebrated directors, winning Oscars for Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby. Since 2000, his four films (including Mystic River) have shown a maturity of storytelling and reflection that has been appreciated worldwide.
Both storytelling and reflection are important elements in Flags of Our Fathers. In fact, the storytelling is not presented chronologically so that we do not know when we will be on Iwo Jima, when we will be accompanying the three young men who were sent on tour of America as heroes and to raise bonds for the war effort, when we will be flashing back to incidents on the island and when we will be listening to interviews and reminiscences fifty years later. This complex way of narration keeps us attentive while continually challenging us to test our feelings and to gauge what we are thinking about war, about maiming and death, about the reasons for war, about heroism and heroic behaviour.
This is one of the main themes of the film, heroism. The men who raised the flag originally on Iwo Jima simply acted spontaneously in a deadly situation. They were photographed. However, the photo was damaged and an opportunity arose for six men who had gone to the top for other reasons (laying a phone cable) were asked to re-enact the former raising. Something small became something enormous, especially for American morale and propaganda. This is the nature of symbolic actions. They are not symbolic until they are imbued with meaning. The photo of Iwo Jima became a rallying cry for the American forces and people. They had a felt need for a symbol and this was it. And it was managed with US showbiz pizzazz.
The three young men, inexperienced even in war, were feted by President Truman, politicians and ordinary people. They were celebrities for a time. Rene Gagnon (Jess Bradford) loved it, a dapper man who had simply been a runner; ‘Doc’ Bradley (Ryan Philippe) who observed people and did his medical duties quietly and with courage; Ira Hayes, the native American Indian who experienced racism, who felt guilty that he was feted and who drank and died tragically (Adam Beach in a very fine performance). (Ira Hayes was the subject of the 1961 film, The Outsider, with Tony Curtis.)
Steven Spielberg co-produced this film with Clint Eastwood and the reconstructing of the landing on the island and the battle sequences will remind war movie aficionados of the graphic depictions of D- Day in Saving Private Ryan. The audience is not spared the bloodshed and death. However, since it is constantly intercut with the bonds tour and the interviews, the audience is not mired in it as the soldiers themselves were.
There is a very strong cast of character actors. The colour is desaturated, made to look like photos of the period (and the final credits should be watched for actual photos and a final panorama of Iwo Jima). Clint Eastwood composed the score and included contemporary songs like I’ll Walk Alone.
The screenplay by William Broyles Jr and Paul Haggis (writer of Million Dollar Baby and Crash) keeps reminding the audience of the ambiguities of war, of young inexperienced fighters, of officers and decision-making, of the financial debt incurred by the US and the need for bonds, heroism, duty, the exploitation of heroism and the distinction between heroes (in the grandiose sense) and ordinary men and women behaving heroically when required.
1.The impact of the film? Its acclaim? A perspective on World War Two? Re-creation of a battle? Re-creation of a symbolic event? A revision of history from the point of view of the 21st century?
2.Clint Eastwood and his work, his perspective, an American icon? His perspective on war? On heroism?
3.The re-creation of the war, the detail, the graphic nature of the battles, the dead and wounded? 1945? The re-creation of the tour for getting bonds? The later decades and the old men being interviewed?
4.The style of the colour, desaturated? The colour of different moods? Editing and pace? The musical score? Clint Eastwood’s melodies? The use of contemporary songs, ‘I Walk Alone’, the Andrew Sisters…?
5.The structure of the film: a memoir, James Bradley and his interviews, voice-over and comment, his quest about his father, discovering more about the war, about Iwo Jima, about the raising of the flag? The range of interviews? The end and John Bradley’s death? The insertion of the war flashbacks? Of the tour? The flashbacks within the tour as each of the three remembered their war experiences? The brief cuts, intercutting the narrative? The build-up of the comments with the action?
6.John Bradley, the opening nightmare, Iwo Jima and the black sand, his searching for Iggy? His waking, his collapse on the steps, his son, going to hospital? His talking with his son, his death? James Bradley and the interviews with Captain Severance, with the other members of the entourage? With Keyes Beech? The variety of comments and the audience absorbing these?
7.The strategy for taking Iwo Jima, the Japanese hold, the Pacific, the attack on Japan? The military chiefs and the discussions? The maps, the size of Iwo Jima, the mountain? The tactics? The ships and the troops being sent?
8.The presentation of the personnel, Mike Strank and his leadership, Captain Severance and his overall supervision? The variety of officers? Their personalities? Men in war? The variety of the young men? John Bradley, Rennie Gagnon, Ira Hayes, Iggy, Hank Hansen, Franklin Sousley, Harlon Block? The men and their talk, the haircuts, playing cards, teasing Franklin, Iggy and his optimism? Each of the characters? Their bonding – and ready for action, together?
9.The visuals of the landing of the troops, the holes and the guns, the big guns from the mountain, the slaughter, the men and the strategy, Doc and his work? Rennie as a runner? The progress along the beach, the number of men killed? Climbing the hill? The squad and its being sent on ahead? Mike and his leadership? The sudden shock of his death? Iggy and his disappearance? Hank and Harlon and their deaths? The putting up of the flag, the initial photo? The powers-that-be wanting the flag, Rennie taking the substitute flag, their getting the pole, those who happened to be there raising it? The new photo? The role of the photographers and propaganda? The war effort?
10.The photo itself, the background of the raising of the flag, the second raising? Small events becoming symbolic? The impact, the collecting of the flag? The newspapers? The collage of the American people getting the paper, the families and their looking at the photos, the reactions, the demand for the photo, Roosevelt and his seeing it as a breakthrough? The use of the photo?
11.The calling of the three back to the United States? Keyes Beech and his chaperoning them? Bud Gerber and his overall strategies for the bonds? Ira being unwilling? Their meeting with Gerber, the telling of the truth? His reactions? The plan, the boosting of morale, raising bond money? The meeting with Truman? Ira and his drinking, Doc looking after him? Rene pleased with all the attention? His always wanting to look smart? Pauline and her intrusion into the entourage? Doc and his observing things? Their age, lack of experience, becoming celebrities, the meetings, autographs on the trains, people giving business cards (and later not following them up)? The parties, Times Square and the parade, the reconstructed hill and their having to perform, Ira and his being drunk, persuaded to go back? Pauline and her continued presence, the proposal? Newsworthy? The mothers of the soldiers, their coming to the reception? Ira and his greeting Mike’s mother, his grief? Ira and his not being served in the bar, getting drunk and sick? Being sent back without being allowed to see his mother?
12.The three men and their personalities, Doc in himself, his work, serious, his searching for Iggy? Rene and his being smart? The marriage? Ira and his Indian background, people calling him Chief, the racist remarks, as a good friend, Doc supporting him, his drinking, the reality about the flag-raising and its effect on him? Mike’s death? Mike’s mother? His return to fight?
13.The aftermath for the three: Doc, best man at the wedding, return home, marrying, the undertakers? Rennie, his wanting jobs, wanting to follow up the references, yesterday’s hero, becoming a janitor? Ira and his return home, working in the fields, people stopping for autographs, with the Indians, their pride in him, his drinking, in jail, walking along the road – and Beech’s memory of seeing him on the road, Ira seeing him and his driving on? His going to tell the mother about her son truly raising the flag? The three gathered together for the final ceremony of the statue? The pathos of his death?
14.The issue of heroism: heroic behaviour by ordinary people, situations making demands, otherwise people acting ordinarily? Actions becoming symbolic? The public’s need for symbols, the reaction to symbols, the crowds and enthusiasm, morale-boosting, propaganda – especially for raising money from bonds?
15.The explanation of the American predicament in the war, debt, the need for weapons, loans, the raising of bond money, the need for morale? The Japanese and their tenacity? The irony that within a few months the atomic bombs would be dropped?
16.The final collage of photos of the characters, of Iwo Jima itself and action? The final panorama of the island? The history of war films and their impact? Flags of Our Fathers in the tradition? The companion piece of Letters From Iwo Jima?
