PDA

View Full Version : Corps cinema



thedrifter
10-17-06, 12:10 PM
October 23, 2006

Corps cinema
Eastwood’s ‘Flags’ may rewrite Marine movie lore

“Saving Private Ryan” came out in 1998. And for soldiers, the movie had it all.

Hanks. Spielberg. Normandy. A pile of Oscars. And that goose-bump line near the end: “Earn this.”

Hollywood could quit after that. Because if you were a soldier between 18 and 98, you had “your movie.”

So what’s it been like for the Corps since then? Have you gotten “your movie?” Most, if not all, would probably say, “Not really.”

Sure, you had “Full Metal Jacket” back in ’87. But Marines only really made friends with the first half. The Ermey half. The rest of it got weird over there behind director Stanley Kubrick’s vision of the dope-smoke haze of Vietnam.

Since then, it’s been a pretty bland selection — nothing recruiters would want to burn onto a DVD and pass out at malls.

But after years of getting their hopes up for the next big, gritty two hours of pure ooh-rah — only to be let down before the credits roll — Marines former and current are fired up about “Flags of Our Fathers.”

“Flags,” based on a best-selling book written by the son of one of the Iwo Jima flag raisers, hits theaters Oct. 20. But since the trailer popped up on the Internet at the beginning of this month, bloggers are buzzing about the movie’s potential as the one and whether director Clint Eastwood “did it right,” as one online poster — MarineVet32935 — put it.

They’ve got reason to be optimistic. Not only has Eastwood put out some amazing stuff in recent years, he also got help on “Flags” from the Corps. First, Lt. Christy Kercheval said the Corps’ Los Angeles public affairs office worked closely with DreamWorks studios, sending then-1st Lt. Tryiokasus Brown to the set for a seven-week stint as a technical adviser on DreamWorks’ dime.

Kercheval said Brown was the Defense Department’s representative on the set and that he was “there to answer questions as they came up.”

Brown left active duty after working on the project but “left a 5-inch-thick folder here on Iwo Jima stuff that’s all tabbed up,” Kercheval said. “He did a lot of research to be smart on those types of things for the movie.”

So not only will it look good, it will also be done right.

For Marines who’ve seen contemporary Corps-centered movies such as “Jarhead,” “Windtalkers” and “Rules of Engagement,” the stakes are higher when it comes to a film about the battle for Iwo Jima, which is taught to every Marine recruit in boot camp.

“Flags” won’t be the first Hollywood release to tackle the subject, but it’s been awhile. In 1949, John Wayne starred in “Sands of Iwo Jima,” which became required viewing for Marines well into the new millennium.

“RodeeB” wrote in one online forum that he remembered watching the black-and-white movie when he was at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C., and wondered “if they still [watch it] and if this will replace it.”

And then there’s always Ermey’s rant.

“There will never be another ‘Full Metal Jacket,’” wrote “1DEVILDOG1.” “I will, however, see [‘Flags of Our Fathers’] on the big screen.”

With that in mind, here’s a look at seven Marine movies that had buzz before they came out but managed to fall short. You’ve got your work cut out for you, Clint.

— Marine Corps Times movie nerds

Ellie

thedrifter
10-17-06, 12:12 PM
October 23, 2006 <br />
<br />
Nice try <br />
<br />
Here they are: Seven Marine-related flicks stretching from 1986 to this month. Bear in mind, we’re not saying they’re all bad. We’re just saying they fell short, in...