![]() ![]() “Flags of Our Fathers” argues, not without reason, that the Rosenthal photograph electrified public opinion, and the money those men raised turned the financial tide. The film told me something I did not know: Domestic enthusiasm for the war was becoming exhausted, funds were drying up, the government had run out of lenders. Eastwood depicts him as focused on fantasy over substance and indifferent to news that there was an earlier flag-raising, but in fact he is doing his job, which is to hold the three together, present an appropriate image and help the war effort by raising money. Their PR man is Keyes Beech ( John Benjamin Hickey), who from the later 1940s through Vietnam would be the Pacific correspondent for the famed Chicago Daily News Foreign Service. And Hayes, a Pima Indian, revolts against the idea of being cheered and wants only to return to action. Of the men, Bradley, a Navy corpsman, is the spokesman, repeating in city after city, “the heroes are the men we left behind.” Gagnon enjoys the fame and the attentions of a sexy girl friend determined to become his wife. They raise some $26 million, not without personal conflict. ![]() Stateside, they are given a press agent to manage their tour and be sure they say the right things and project the right image to raise desperately-needed money to fund the war. These were John " Doc" Bradley ( Ryan Phillippe), Rene Gagnon ( Jesse Bradford) and Ira Hayes ( Adam Beach). The men themselves knew who they were, and were not, but no one really wanted to know the truth three of them were later killed, and three others were brought home to headline a national tour to sell U. Nor were those who raised the first flag credited, because the official story was that there was only one event. The men who raised the flag were hailed as heroes, but who precisely were they? No faces were visible. His good luck is underlined because the camera required a plate change after every shot. And “snapped” is the correct word he aimed his big Speed Graphic and clicked the shutter without framing or focusing, and obtained a perfectly-composed, iconic picture. The second flag raising was the one snapped by AP photographer Joe Rosenthal, whose photograph became arguably the most famous ever taken. Yes, there were two, after the first flag was taken down and kept by a politician as a souvenir. One of the baffling realities of the battle was that a machine-gun emplacement could be “cleaned out” by grenades or flame throwers, and then, re-manned by tunnel, become active again.Įastwood focuses particularly on the soldiers who will be involved in the flag raisings on the island’s Mount Suribachi. We learn in the second film that they did it mostly by hand. ![]() “How did they dig these things?” one Marine asks. Their positions were linked by tunnels in the solid rock, and their big gun positions were shielded by steel doors that swung shut after every firing. The Japanese tactics, while ultimately doomed, were fearfully effective. On that first day, 2,000 lives were lost, almost all of them American. Then, after a tense prelude at sea, it focuses on the initial American landing, which was eerily quiet no Japanese fire was encountered on the beach, and troops advanced inland easily, until being ambushed by concealed enemy positions. All the major themes are being introduced, although we will discover that only later. The film opens with interlocking scenes from past and present, showing the battle underway and being remembered, with voice-overs from survivors. It was clear to them that without air or sea support they would be defeated their mission was to hold out as long as they could, and die. ![]() He joined it with another film, “ Letters from Iwo Jima,” about the Japanese experience a garrison of defenders tunneled into the rock of the island to create fortified positions. Eastwood’s ambitious and enormously effective film has three aims: To recreate the hell of the Battle of Iwo Jima, to explore the truth and meaning of the famous photograph of the flag being raised over the island, and to record the aftermath in the lives of the survivors. ![]()
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