Flags of Our Fathers

The best thing I can say about Flags of Our Fathers is that I admired it more than I liked it. In other words, I was disappointed in the film. I do give director Clint Eastwood credit for making such an ambitious film. But, unfortunately, the film didn't work for me.

Flags of Our Fathers focuses on three of the six soldiers who were in Joe Rosenthal's famous flag raising photo taken on the top of Iwo Jima. Three of the soldiers are killed during the war but three survive. They are John "Doc" Bradley (Ryan Phillippe), Rene Gagnon (Jesse Bradford), and Ira Hayes (Adam Beach). The three men are sent back to the United States and touted as "the heroes of Iwo Jima." They are sent on a tour across the country promoting the sale of war bonds. The picture has pumped up people into believing that the war is going well but all is not as it seems. This, of course, makes us think of the situation in Iraq today when the government wants to make us believe all is well. But because of our advanced technology we know better.

Back to the film - Gagnon loves all of the attention, Bradley deals with it and Hayes can't handle it. He drinks himself into a stupor every chance he gets. We know that these three men were part of a team that put a second flag up but the men that put the original flag up are gone. The film cuts back and forth between battle scenes and the war bond tour. Although the war scenes are stunning I found my mind wandering as I watched them. Perhaps they reminded me a bit too much of Saving Private Ryan. And that shouldn't be surprising because Steven Spielberg is one of the producers of this film.

The main problem with the film is that it doesn't know what it wants to be. I would have preferred if it focused more on the men themselves rather than the war bond mission that they were sent on. The character development is rather weak and for that I blame screenwriters Paul Haggis and William Broyles, Jr. (the screenplay is based on a book by Bradley's son James and Ron Powers). Most of the acting lacks emotion. The only exception is Beach who is successful in conveying his character's pain. Actors Barry Pepper, Jamie Bell and others are wasted in nothing roles. The cinematography by Tom Steel is spectacular and gives us a real sense of the war (I had to close my eyes a number of times) but that certainly is not enough.

Flags of Our Fathers is by no means a terrible film. It is just a very uninvolving one (at least for me). But, as I said before, I respect Eastwood for trying something like this. I am looking forward to seeing what he did with part two of this saga - Letters from Iwo Jima - which is the Japanese side of the story and comes out in February. I am hoping that I like it better than I liked part one.