R | 2h 15m | Drama, War, History | 2006
Every picture tells a story. Consider the one that everyone thought was behind the timeless photograph of six U.S. Marines raising the American flag on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima in 1945. It’s now considered in some circles to be one of the Great War tall tales of all time.
Anti-Heroes
As he has did with “Bronco Billy,” “Heartbreak Ridge,” “White Hunter Black Heart,” and “Unforgiven,” director Clint Eastwood takes the subject of hero worship and turns it on its ear. As Mr. Eastwood sees it, heroes do not have superpowers. More often than not, regular, it’s everyday folks who find themselves doing just the right thing at the exact right time, and getting noticed for it.People everywhere, and in America particularly, want and need heroes to worship, but few realize the devastating toll it often takes on those actually in the limelight. Mr. Eastwood wants to drive this home, and he succeeds most of the time.
“Flags of Our Fathers” (“Flags”) is based on the book by James Bradley. His father John (played by Ryan Phillippe) was one of three survivors of the month-long battle and also present at the indelible flag raising. Within days of the photo being featured on front pages everywhere, the senior Bradley, Rene Gagnon (Jesse Bradford), and Ira Hayes (Adam Beach) were brought back to the states to begin a nationwide publicity-sales tour designed to squeeze every last possible penny from American pockets.
Dog and Pony Show
We can tell immediately the men don’t appreciate the dog-and-pony-show presentation or adulation they feel isn’t deserved. Hayes is so distraught that he hits the bottle hard before each show. He is drunk in public so often that his handlers eventually kicked him off the tour and sent him back to the war.The movie works best when Mr. Eastwood and his writers (Paul Haggis and William Broyles, Jr.) concentrate on the tour and its subsequent emotional fallout. It is more than enough material to make a great movie; like the government, however, Mr. Eastwood seems to feel a need to oversell it. He also employs an ill-fitting, out-of-sequence narrative and intersperses it with battle footage.
It’s not that the battle scenes aren’t good. Some portions are spectacular, but they bear too close a resemblance to co-producer Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan.” There’s sped up, slowed down, and heavily bleached stock, which is light on the carnage, but heavy on atmosphere that the movie simply doesn’t need.
The performances of the three leads are good, but not enough to garner awards consideration. However, a supporting nod should have gone to John Slattery who plays Bud Gerber, the soldiers’ chief stateside handler and mastermind behind the publicity tour. Gerber’s concern for flawless pageantry and brisk bond sales far outweigh his regard for the mental and emotional health of his soldier “performers.”
Bookend Release
Exactly two months after the release of “Flags,” Mr. Eastwood’s “Letters from Iwo Jima” hit theaters, which served as a bookend-companion film told from the Japanese perspective. Unlike “Flags,” “Letters” received four Oscar nominations, winning one for Best Sound Editing.In the nearly two decades since “Flags” and “Iwo Jima,” Mr. Eastwood has released a dozen features, yet only three of them (“Gran Torino,” “American Sniper,” “Richard Jewel”) are worth watching. This has pretty much been the case for his entire filmmaking career. For every winner Mr. Eastwood makes, he issues two or three duds, much like Woody Allen.
“Flags” and “Iwo Jima” were Mr. Eastwood at his most daring and creative. He made two movies at basically the same time about an historical event from different and previously unknown perspectives. This was an artist at his most insightful and audacious.
