Flags Of Our Fathers [2006] - Warner Home Video

A Thought Provoking Film

"Flags of Our Fathers' is a thought provoking historical film. It consists of two basic segments, scenes of the battle for Iwo Jima and the story of the War Bond Tour on which the survivors were sent.

The battle scenes are excellent. They skillfully depict the horrors which must be war. The Bond Tour segments tell a different story about how the "heroes" were treated by others and how they viewed themselves.

This movie is thought provoking in that it makes the viewer consider the nature and happenstance of "heroism" and its fleeting nature. The heroes did not consider themselves to be heroic and their post war lives were determined by their post-war actions, not their status as "heroes." In a sense, all on Iwo Jima were the heroes and a few were sent on tour. A movie that leaves one thinking is a worthwhile watch.

Flagging a dead horse

Although beautifully shot and based on a true story of a fearsome and bloody battle, this film manages to be confused, overly long and distracted by the rather marginal question: "Were the Marines in the famous photograph of flag-raising on Iwo Jima actually the ones who put the flag up?"

The action chops and changes irritatingly between different times and the characters are not well-rooted enough for us to be quite sure who is who. When you put these two failings together, it is hard to keep track of who is dead and who is alive. And when we cut to the modern day, with aged vets telling the narrator about their days with his father, it is totally unclear who each one is. I suspect we are supposed to be in tears by this stage (the music would suggest as much) but I was merely drumming my fingers.

So the heart of the film is not the battle, but this question about the flag, which will probably only stir you if you are a) American (and tremendously proud of your flag) and b) easily led by the Forrest Gump school of film-making. The film actually seems to be asking us to care more about the veracity of the flag picture than about all the young men being turned into mincemeat by Japanese guns.

In the segments interspersed in between the Iwo Jima battle scenes, "Flags of our Fathers" follows the story of three of the combatants, yanked back to the States to do a War Bonds fund-raising tour, based on their status as flag-raising heroes. So the key conflict is not American vs Japanese, but the troubled self-reflections of these three men, who have to swallow the truth about the flag to do their duty on the home front.

To cap it all, this version of the DVD, although cheaper than all the 2- and 4-disc sets, has absolutely no special features at all, which was pretty, well... cheap.

If you want to see a much better film about much the same thing, with more focus on the battle and a genuinely moving story, watch the companion to this one: Letters from Iwo Jima.

Fairly Average

This film is well directed and the battle scenes in particular are vivid and real. Some of the acting is also very good making the film worth watching. However like with its partner, letters from Iwa Jima, the story carrying the action and overall commentory of the battle for Iwa Jima is slightly poor. Only one of the characters (the doctor played by Ryan Phillipe) is actually likeable and Indian character is such a mess I stopped having any sympathy with him quite early on.

Over all its worth a watch, but dont be expecting a war film anywhere near as good as Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now or even Saving Private Ryan.

A Mixed Bag

I felt a bit let down by this film. Why? Well, here goes. The film is comprised of scenes from the battle at Iwo Jima and scenes from after the battle (where survivors from the Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima picture are travelling around America in an attempt to convince the public to buy war bonds to keep America in the war.). The Iwo Jima scenes are very well done (I tried my best not to keep comparing them to Private Ryan as I do not think it was Eastwood's aim) but strangely I found myself relieved whenever the movie went back there from the America scenes and that for me is the issue. The scenes in America are so downbeat that I actually prefer watching soldiers kill each other. I suppose the message about what makes a hero is made and I still think it as a good film but it is by no means a classic and below the level of Ryan and Band of Brothers (not hard).