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Movie Review - Flags of Our Fathers (2006)
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(What this rating means)
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| Director: |
Clint Eastwood |
| Starring: |
Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford, Adam Beach, Barry Pepper, Jamie Bell, Paul Walker, Robert Patrick |
| Rated: |
R (for sequences of graphic war violence and carnage, and for language) |
| Length: |
132 minutes |
| Genre: |
Action/Drama/History/War |
| Tagline: |
A Single Shot Can End The War |
| Studio: |
Paramount Pictures |
| Website: |
Flags of Our Fathers |
| Release: |
October 20, 2006 |
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PLOT
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Based on the bestselling book by James Bradley, Flags of Our Fathers tells the story of the battle of Iwo
Jima and the fates of the six men (five Marines and a Navy corpsman) who raised the American flag on Mount Suribachi
on February 23, 1945.
Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal captured the momentous occasion in a picture called "Raising the Flag
on Iwo Jima." The picture is said to have changed America's outlook on the war, but unfortunately for those who
raised the flag, the event didn't produce a fairy tale ending. Depression and disappointment ensue.
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JOHNNY'S TAKE
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So who's been spitting in Clint Eastwood's corn flakes over the past few years? I'm a HUGE Eastwood fan, but sheesh
man, come on, what's with the in-depth exploration of the dark side of life? Mystic River,
Million Dollar Baby, and now Flags of Our Fathers - it's
the wrist-slittin' trilogy. At least Mystic River and Million Dollar
Baby deliver engaging stories. Flags of Our Fathers does not.
Just so you'll know how big of an Eastwood fan I am (and to qualify that I'm quite familiar with his work) please
note that I've seen 45 of the movies he's appeared in, and I've watched 22 of the movies he's directed. That's why
it pains me to tell you that Fathers easily falls into the bottom half of his resume. I feel bad, really,
like I'm publicly criticizing a family member. It takes me back to the time I agreed to testify against Uncle
Larry. Just because something may be the right thing to do doesn't prevent it from leaving a scar.
If you're in the mood for a patriotic, inspirational depiction of the Iwo Jima battle then you might want to
rent John Wayne's Sands of Iwo Jima. Fathers digs deeper into the story behind the Iwo Jima flag
raising and those who raised it, and in that regard, the movie gets its point across. However, there's a
difference in getting your point across and belaboring it. Clint should've followed his "Lessness is bestness"
philosophy. A little subtlety can go a long way.
We get it - the flag raisers' perceived heroism was exploited, and they felt guilty about it. They didn't
want to be in the U.S. raising money for the war; they wanted to be on the battlefield with the real heroes.
That doesn't mean I want to be beaten over the head with their misery for 132 minutes. Clint certainly succeeds
in showing us the negative aspects of what those men dealt with, but in doing so he also succeeds in sending
the entire audience home depressed and bitter with life.
Perhaps that's the only way Clint could tell this story the way he felt it should be told, but could he not
find a more deliberate pace at which to tell it? Maybe give us a few moments of light-hearted respite or a
flittering moment of joy so we could have time to move the razor blades a safe distance from our wrists? Maybe
stick with one direction rather than jumping around with no benefit to the storytelling?
The movie rambles with little focus, bouncing back and forth between battle flashbacks and the flag raisers
in the states begging people to buy bonds for a war that was about to bankrupt the country. The battle
scenes are impressive to watch, but to what end? We're thrown from the publicity tour into a battle scene and
then whisked away before we can truly be awed by all the things going boom.
I sincerely believe that depressing movies can be told in such a way that I can walk out of the theater highly
recommending them. Take Million Dollar Baby, for example. Great movie,
but the ending is depressing enough to drain Jennifer Love Hewitt of her perkiness. However, the story and the
performances engage the viewer and demand his attention. This is where Fathers ultimately
fails.
The acting, for instance, is severely lacking. There's not a single performance that made me care about any of
the characters or their plights. Rather than being enthralled by dialogue between Eastwood and Morgan Freeman,
we're forced to sit through Ryan Phillippe/Adam Beach exchanges. Yeah, not quite the same.
Speaking of Beach, this guy needs a severe shot of testosterone. He has at least three crying scenes, each one
less believable than the previous. His delivery has all the emotional depth and resonance of a Katie Couric
interview and did nothing but leave me cold and completely unconvinced.
I did walk out of the theater with a greater knowledge of the story behind the photograph of the flag raisers.
Sadly, the disjointed boredom I endured almost made the education not worth it. A documentary would have been
more effective.
I'll give Clint a mulligan on this one and keep my fingers crossed that he'll discover something to laugh about
for his next project. Dare I suggest Space Cowboys 2?
Come on, Clint. Life's short. You're old. Laugh a little.
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ODDS & ENDS
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- If you're worried about the casting of Paul Walker, well, it's basically a non-issue. He's only in a few
scenes and only has two lines. I'd like to know why he got the role though. He doesn't bury the movie, but his
presence is a bit of a distraction. One more element to pull you out of the story because you're turning to
your friend and saying, "Hey, it's Paul Walker."
- Lasting more than a month, the Iwo Jima battle was a bloody, drawn-out conflict that might have turned the
American public against the war entirely, had it not been for the photo, which was taken and published five days
into the battle.
- For two of the surviving flag-raisers, life became a series of compromises and disappointments; for the third,
happiness came only by shutting off his war experiences and rarely speaking of them ever again.
- Eastwood was initially attracted to the project after reading the best-selling book Flags of Our Fathers by
James Bradley with Ron Powers. Bradley is the son of John Bradley, the Navy Corpsman in the photograph.
- The screenplay is by William Broyles, Jr. and Paul Haggis from James Bradley’s book. The book was published in
2000 by Bantam Books and spent 46 weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list, including six weeks at
#1.
- Bradley was inspired to write the book after his father’s death; realizing that he knew only that his father
had been a flag-raiser and nothing else, he began interviewing the families of the other flag-raisers. “I never
set out to write a book – I set out to find out why my dad was silent,” says Bradley. “I decided to write the
book when I realized that everyone knows the photo, but nobody knows the story.”
- Of the three surviving flag-raisers, only Bradley was able to piece together a successful life after the
war – and even he was plagued by nightmares and hallucinations.
- Ira Hayes’s story is a tragic one; unable to get over the horrors of war and uncomfortable with what he felt
was an undeserved position as a national hero, Hayes descended into alcoholism and found himself in and out of
jail. In 1955, he died of exposure.
- Ah, inspiring.
- The famous picture actually depicts the second flag-raising on Iwo Jima. After the invasion on February
19th, the Marine fifth division began the attempt to capture Mt. Suribachi. By the fifth day, the American forces
had suffered many casualties, but had also forced the Japanese to retreat into caves on the island. That
morning, they raised a small American flag on top of the mountain as a signal that it had fallen. As the story
goes, the secretary of the Navy, who wanted it as a souvenir for himself, demanded the flag. The marines were
ordered to take it down and Marine runner Rene Gagnon was instructed to carry up another, larger flag, to raise
in its place.
- Shot back-to-back with Letters From Iwo Jima.
- Eastwood explains why the battle of Iwo Jima was filmed in Iceland, “It’s a geothermal volcanic island, much
like Iwo is. It’s got pure black sand, like Iwo has. They both have volcanic steam coming up out of the ground.
They’re in different meridians, of course, but Iceland in August, while a little cooler, has conditions otherwise
similar to Iwo in February.”
- David Rasche appears in the film in a cameo role. Rasche is famous for his lampoon of Eastwood's Dirty
Harry character in the sitcom Sledge Hammer! Eastwood is known for his sense of humor and apparently
liked the show.
- To make the experience of war as realistic as he could, Eastwood often did not inform his actors of when or
where, exactly, the special effects team had rigged explosions to go off. The actors were never in danger, but
always surprised.
- Over a period of 31 days, the United States and Japan remained locked in battle for the island. Marines headed
north to capture the airfields; Japanese troops fought to the death to maintain control. By March 26, the battle
had become a costly one, especially for Japan. Out of roughly 22,000 soldiers, only 1083 survived; 6821
Americans also lost their lives, among them three of the flag-raisers (Sgt. Michael Strank, Harlon Block, and
Franklin Sousley). 20,000 Americans were wounded in the battle.
- 27 Medals of Honor were awarded for conduct in the invasion of Iwo Jima – the largest number in history for
any single battle and more than one-quarter of all those awarded during WWII.
- Paul Walker was in Into the Blue with Josh Brolin who was in Hollow
Man with Kevin Bacon.
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MAMA'S APPROVAL
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Let's see; an R-rated "war movie" directed by Clint Eastwood? Yeah, I think that's enough to let you know this
one's a little rough around the edges. A few "f" bombs here, a handful of G-d**ns there, heads being blown off,
assorted body parts flying across the screen - let your common sense guide you.
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TRAILER COMPARISON
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The trailer looked solid, if not mind-blowing, but I thought this would be a case where the movie was far
superior to its previews. My assumption was wrong.
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THE GIST
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From a technical standpoint, Flags of Our Fathers is a competent piece of filmmaking, but do we expect
anything less from the Oscar-winning director? Competency does not a good movie make. The fact that it's neither
compelling nor particularly cohesive is what makes it such a huge disappointment, especially since I felt it would
be a "movie of the year" contender.
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