Follow Us on Twitter

Flags Of Our Fathers - Preview & US reaction

Flags of our Fathers

Preview by Jack Foley

CLINT Eastwood looks to have created another masterpiece as a director if the critical reaction to Flags Of Our Fathers in America is anything to go by.

Released on October 20, 2006, the film has won considerable support from critics as both a fiercely intense war film and a passionate examination of heroism and the effect of combat on young men.

Based on the novel by James Bradley, the film examines the events surrounding one of the most iconic images in photographic history – namely, Raising of the Flag on Iwo Jima. The photograph was taken by Joe Rosenthal, of the Associated Press, on February 23, 1945, and depicts five Marines and one Navy Corpsman raising the flag on Mount Suribachi after one of the bloodiest conflicts of World War Two.

The fight that preceded it lasted more than a month and resulted in a tremendous loss of life on both sides. It could even have turned US opinion against supporting the war. But realising the impact of the photo, the US government had it published five days after it was taken and used it as a propaganda tool.

The three surviving flag-raisers were subsequently returned to the US and hailed as the conquerers of Japan. But while a nation embraced them as heroes, the men themselves struggled to combat their own demons, or to escape the notion that the real heroes were the men who lost their lives.

The film follows the fortunes of these men as their fortunes faded and life become a series of disappointments and compromises. It is a tragic look at the notion of heroism based on a heart-wrenching true story.

Playing the central trio in question are Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford and Adam Beach, while the film co-stars the likes of Paul Walker and Barry Pepper. As well as being directed by Eastwood, it’s produced by Steven Spielberg (who was able to draw on his experience of filming Saving Private Ryan for the film’s combat scenes).

Says Eastwood of the photo itself: “Everyone has their own idea about what makes that photograph special. On one level, it’s guys doing some work – raising a pole – and that may be how the six guys in the picture saw it themselves. But in 1945, it symbolized the war effort.”

Critics in America have subsequently responded to the movie in admirable fashion, crediting Eastwood with another fine set of reviews as a director and predicting Oscar nominations galore.

Rolling Stone, for instance, wrote that Flags Of Our Fathers is “a film of awesome power and blistering provocation”. While the Chicago Sun Times hailed it as “an American masterpiece”, adding: “It’s a searing and powerful work from a 76-year-old artist who remains at the top of his game.”

The New York Observer opined: “Brilliantly conceived, articulately written, sensitively acted, filled with deeply penetrating emotions and breathtaking action, it is the greatest cinematic canvas of war since Saving Private Ryan.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer stated: “It can and will be seen as patriotic, a tribute to the armed forces. But it is also, in its clear-eyed depiction of the chaos and carnage of battle, of the soldiers’ quaking fear, and the cruel finality of a bullet or a bomb, very much an anti-war film.”

USA Today meanwhile concluded that it’s “one of the year’s best films and perhaps the finest modern film about World War II”.

And Variety stated: “A pointed exploration of heroism – in its actual and in its trumped-up, officially useful forms – the picture wields a powerful account of the battle of Iwo Jima.. with an ironic and ultimately sad look at its aftermath for three key survivors.”

The New York Post concludes this overview, however, with the following: “Eastwood storms Mt Oscar again with Flags Of Our Fathers, a stirring ode to American heroism during the battle of Iwo Jima – which also pointedly dissects how that heroism was cynically packaged for public consumption.”

The film is due to open in UK cinemas on December 22.