message in the movies By Rev. Bruce Batchelor Glader

              
Flags of Our Fathers Rated R
Directed by Clint Eastwood. 
Starring Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford.  

Photos © Copyright DreamWorks Pictures
If you ask most Americans to tell you what they know about WWII’s Battle of Iwo Jima – assuming that they even recognize the name of “Iwo Jima” – they will likely tell you that they remember a group of soldiers raising an American flag at the top of a hill.  That picture, snapped by Joe Rosenthal, became an iconic symbol of American participation and victory.  James Bradley wrote a stirring book about that moment (his father, John “Doc” Bradley, was one of the six in the photo) and its aftermath and Clint Eastwood has directed a moving film based on the book.  Iwo Jima, with its charred surface destroyed by U.S. bombing, was an island base for 20,000 Japanese soldiers with miles of underground tunnels that were used as a passage route to attack American troops.  Just as the Iwo Jima victory was taking place, Americans were beginning to lose interest in a costly war effort.  The three surviving soldiers and their photograph were recruited to return stateside to launch a major campaign for war bonds.  Doc, Rene (Bradford) and Ira (Adam Beach) struggle with their instant celebrity at home while American soldiers continue to fight and die overseas.  Doc is overwhelmed by it all, Rene enjoys the fame, and Ira (a Native American) struggles with the mixture of acclaim accompanied by racist slurs. Eastwood’s battle scenes depict the brutality and violence of war in a way that is realistic and yet somewhat more respectful than Steven Spielberg’s brutal Normandy Beach landing in “Saving Private Ryan”.  Both films are masterpieces, but “Flags of Our Fathers” seems much more relevant to our current time of war.  This is a patriotic film in the best sense of the word, with perhaps half a dozen important messages about war, violence, the media, heroism, sacrifice and racism.  Eastwood (and his screenwriters) respect the ways in which war requires the ultimate sacrifice from its participants and how every survivor carries with them the loss of those who perished.  This is a must-see movie.  Eastwood concurrently filmed a second movie – entitled “Letters from Iwo Jima” – on the same island set, which will tell the story of the battle from the Japanese point of view. That film is due for release in early 2007

Pitchfork Rating: Four halos.  (One of the best films about war ever made, evoking reflection and sadness.)   Three pitchforks  (Extreme war violence and swearing, although both are meted out with discretion; racist slurs.)

 

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