Flags Of Our Fathers

Back in 1998, Steven Spielberg made what is usually considered the ultimate WWII movie. Saving Private Ryan was just about the most visceral and emotional experience I have ever had in a theatre. More so than Lord Of The Rings. More so than Star Wars. Even more so than finally seeing Stand By Me in the theatre with Wil Wheaton in attendance.

This was real. I, personally, think that Spielberg took his actors and crew back in time and filmed the actual storming of the beach at Normandy. There’s no other way that he could have done what he did. He put us in the action. I was dodging bullets in my seat. When someone got killed in front of me, I thought I was next.

When I heard that he was teaming up with Clint Eastwood to make another WWII movie, thought that I was in for the same kind of thing. Maybe not quite as good as SPR, but I thought that I would still be in for a fucking amazing experience.

What I got instead was a good movie without the emotional wallop that I felt that I should have gotten. Oh, the movie tried. I tried REALLY hard. And that’s the real problem here.

John “Doc” Bradley (Ryan Phillipe) is our hero here. He and his buddies stormed Iwo Jima. They’re the ones in the famous picture of the soldiers raising the flag on the mountaintop, a picture that pretty much won the war for the US. Before that, everyone was an emotional wreck. They were sick of putting money into a war that they didn’t see an end to. But when these six guys were able to put the flag on the mountain and claim a victory thousands of miles from home, it turned everything around.

Of course, no one knew that there were about 45 days of battles after that picture was taken. Or that it was the second flag raised that day and the second picture taken. Or even that the names of the soldiers were given to a reporter by a guy who barely fought and named who he wanted to name, not necessarily who was really there. Rene Gagnon (Jesse Bradford) was in it for the hero status. Sure, he wanted to help the war effort, but he also wanted a really good life when he got back home to his girlfriend (Melanie Lynskey from Heavenly Creatures).

Ira Hayes (Adam Beach), on the other hand, doesn’t really want any part of the hero worship. He wanted to stay in Japan and fight with his buddies. As time went by, he started drinking more and making more of a spectacle of himself.

The three surviving members of the flag raisers were brought home early and sent on a tour of the US to raise money by telling people to buy war bonds. It worked better than anyone could have imagined.

There’s a lot to like about this movie, but not a lot to love. The three leads are pretty well cast, but I still think Ryan Phillipe is a mush-mouthed pretty boy with no real talent behind his cherubic face. Luckily, he didn’t have a lot of lines here, so he was ok. Adam Beach was alright and I’ve always liked him, but he’s not the strongest actor out there. Jesse Bradford was probably the best of the three and he’s just ok. Nothing special.

The battle sequences (which were scattered throughout the film since it was mostly told in flashbacks while the boys were on tour) were very well shot, especially the first one where they are actually storming the beach. I never approached the greatness or realism of Saving Private Ryan, but it came closer than a lot of battle scenes have. (Although, there’s a shot of a kid’s head laying at Ira’s feet after it’s blown off that was almost ridiculous. The head was almost pristine. No blood except where it had been ripped from the neck. A very clean grenade.)

The whole movie kind of reminded me of The Best Years Of Our Lives, William Wyler’s 1946 epic about men who came back from the war shattered. The problem is that that movie will rip your heart out. Flags Of Our Fathers won’t. These three guys are ALMOST well painted. Almost, but not quite.

The worst thing about the movie was the modern story. Writers William Broyles, Jr. and Paul Haggis framed the story with Doc’s son seeking out people who knew his dad to tell him the stories. The end of the movie had a very Stand By Me feel to it as the son (Thomas McCarthy) is sitting at a computer writing the book that the movie is based on and narrating the end of the story. I expected a couple of kids to come in asking if he’s ready yet.

And then there was the scene with Thomas and his father in the hospital. Blech. So overdone.

I certainly didn’t hate this movie. It’s a great story that I had never really heard before. (Yeah, I knew that there were two flags and all, but nothing about the guys who raised them.) I just wish that it had been a lot better.

One more interesting thing: Clint Eastwood originally didn’t want any actors over the age of 21 to play any lead roles. As it is, I don’t think there’s a single actor 21 or under with more than three lines. Even a lot of the supporting cast (Paul Walker, Barry Pepper) are over 21. Hell, two out of three of the leads are over 30! And Jesse’s approaching it fast. (Of course, fuckin’ Phillipe can still play 18…bastard.)

Watch for some of the older supporting cast, too. Robert Patrick, Neal McDonough and Jon Polito all have small-ish roles. And Jamie Bell shows up a few times in a key role. All of these guys are better than the three leads. And that’s kind of a problem.

Next February, watch for Clint’s sequel-of sorts, Letters From Iwo Jima. It tells the Japanese side of the story. Hopefully, it’s better than this one. I do kind of wonder if we’re going to see the results of what these kids did. They were filmed pretty much at the same time. Should be interesting even if it’s not great, much like Flags Of Our Fathers.