My take: Flags of Our Fathers
Way back when this trailer first hit, I admitted my skepticism. As a director, Clint Eastwood has been hit and miss with me, mostly b/c of his desire to keep things as "real" as possible, meaning not everything ends all rosy. He likes to examine flawed characters, bad guys with a good streak and other such dichotomies. This is what makes him a great director, but only so-so with me - I'm just there for the storytelling, and while the ending doesn't always have to be good, I do expect some manner of redeeming value when I leave the theater or the couch.
Flags of Our Fathers, I readily admit, is a hit. Big time. This is the movie (based on the book by James Bradley) about the six soldiers raising the flag on Iwo Jima, and the trials and tribulations that followed them throughout the rest of that miserable island campaign to the war bond tour the survivors embarked on following their rise to immortal fame - a fame that was largely blown out of proportion.
The one thing I do ding the director for is his usage of flashbacks to tell the story. All the fighting takes place in all it's brutal glory during these flashbacks mostly from the standpoint of the three survivors. However, they can be disconcerting at first unless you already know a fair amount of World War II history. This is only a minor inconvenience though - as the movie progresses, it becomes easier to put names with faces and the movie does a relatively good job of character development, even of those who don't make it off the island.
What this movie does right is just about everything else. Ryan Phillipe and Adam Beach are phenomenal as two of the survivors and flag raisers who are on decidedly different paths. Beach plays Ira Hayes, a Marine and Native American who has a hard time on the bond tour being peppy and encouraging others to buy bonds to support the troops. Hayes retreats in to the demons of the drink, something the real Ira Hayes never shook. Phillipe, in a role that might make Hollywood sit up and pay attention, plays Doc Bradley, the only Navy man in the group of flag raising Marines. Most of the battle sequences are seen through his eyes as he scampers around the battlefield treating wounded and carrying friends (and other flag raisers) off the field.
I won't go in to more details, mostly b/c I've actually found people who still have no idea what happened on that island. They know the photo, and maybe a made up or embellished story about it. I recommend not only seeing this movie, but also picking up the book as well. Definitely one of the best Eastwood has ever done. 10/10
Flags of Our Fathers, I readily admit, is a hit. Big time. This is the movie (based on the book by James Bradley) about the six soldiers raising the flag on Iwo Jima, and the trials and tribulations that followed them throughout the rest of that miserable island campaign to the war bond tour the survivors embarked on following their rise to immortal fame - a fame that was largely blown out of proportion.
The one thing I do ding the director for is his usage of flashbacks to tell the story. All the fighting takes place in all it's brutal glory during these flashbacks mostly from the standpoint of the three survivors. However, they can be disconcerting at first unless you already know a fair amount of World War II history. This is only a minor inconvenience though - as the movie progresses, it becomes easier to put names with faces and the movie does a relatively good job of character development, even of those who don't make it off the island.
What this movie does right is just about everything else. Ryan Phillipe and Adam Beach are phenomenal as two of the survivors and flag raisers who are on decidedly different paths. Beach plays Ira Hayes, a Marine and Native American who has a hard time on the bond tour being peppy and encouraging others to buy bonds to support the troops. Hayes retreats in to the demons of the drink, something the real Ira Hayes never shook. Phillipe, in a role that might make Hollywood sit up and pay attention, plays Doc Bradley, the only Navy man in the group of flag raising Marines. Most of the battle sequences are seen through his eyes as he scampers around the battlefield treating wounded and carrying friends (and other flag raisers) off the field.
I won't go in to more details, mostly b/c I've actually found people who still have no idea what happened on that island. They know the photo, and maybe a made up or embellished story about it. I recommend not only seeing this movie, but also picking up the book as well. Definitely one of the best Eastwood has ever done. 10/10
posted by misawa at 8:49 PM
1 Comments:
I probably would have liked the movie a lot better if I had not read the book first. Don't get me wrong - it was a good movie - but here is one of those cases in which a movie can never measure up. Perhaps if it had been made into a mini-series, like Band of Brothers.
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