thedrifter
06-19-07, 05:56 AM
Flags of our Fathers
Apollo
In Flags of Our Fathers, director Clint Eastwood offers a timely message. He reminds us that those who so enthusiastically wage war rarely have to fight it. “Every jackass thinks he knows what war is,” one character intones early in the film, “especially those who’ve never been in one.” While it would be easy to attack the flaws of Flags of Our Fathers, and there are some, the film offers such a potent rejoinder to the hawkish inclinations of those in positions of power today that it would surely be a sign of pettiness to allow a few blemishes to distract us from the greater beauty of the whole.
The February 1945 photograph of six U.S. marines raising the American flag over the Japanese island of Iwo Jima is one of the most iconic images of the 20th Century, and is considered by many historians a turning point in the war in the Pacific. Eastwood’s film deconstructs that monumental event, examining the costs, in all senses of the word, paid by the three soldiers (Ryan Phillippe, Adam Beach, Jesse Bradford) captured on film who survived the battle over the island. Beach gives a typically solid performance as the emotionally fragile Native American Ira Hayes, but it is Philippe who surprises in his less flashy role as a corps medic. I’ve been a vocal critic of his in the past, but Phillippe delivers the goods here with a rock steady, well-modulated performance. Between Flags of Our Fathers and Breach, Phillippe’s grown-up career looks much more promising than his youthful one.
Eastwood also takes aim at the machinery of war; specifically the powerful and cocksure men in Washington who blithely promote the waging of war without needing to risk anything in pursuit of the glory of victory. Visually, the film has a familiar patina, as Eastwood utilizes the same bleached out palette of many recent war films, particularly Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg is a producer of this film). The battle scenes, while generally executed with what must be considered – by 21st century standards – to be a modicum of restraint, capture the terror and confusion of combat convincingly. Furthermore, the Eastwood-penned score is remarkably delicate and restrained (its many quiet variations on ‘America the Beautiful’ are affecting) allowing the audience intimate moments to contemplate the horrors we have been witnessing.
The film’s greatest weakness may be Eastwood’s lack of faith in his audience. While voice-over narration worked well in Million Dollar Baby, and made sense given the noir-ish nature of that film, with Flags of Our Fathers, the narration is often far too on the nose, and the preachy quality begins to grate. Further, the film’s framing device of a young man trying to learn the truth about his father’s wartime career is not given sufficient screen time to develop emotional resonance, which results in flaccid pacing during the film’s final 20 minutes.
However, regardless of petty complaints about these aspects of the film, this is without doubt an important and timely release, reminding us in times of war of the great damage that can be done to society’s most vulnerable by those blustering war mongers who are so very far away – temporally, emotionally and physically – from the combat they are inciting. It is also great to see Eastwood, as he nears his 80th birthday, still making films that are (at least in parts), thrumming with vitality and resonant with relevance. This is even more true of the second half of his Second World War diptych, Letters from Iwo Jima, one of 2006’s best films.
Dan Jardine
Reminds us of the great damage that can be done to society’s most vulnerable by those blustering war mongers who are so very far away from the combat they are inciting. - Dan Jardine
Ellie
Apollo
In Flags of Our Fathers, director Clint Eastwood offers a timely message. He reminds us that those who so enthusiastically wage war rarely have to fight it. “Every jackass thinks he knows what war is,” one character intones early in the film, “especially those who’ve never been in one.” While it would be easy to attack the flaws of Flags of Our Fathers, and there are some, the film offers such a potent rejoinder to the hawkish inclinations of those in positions of power today that it would surely be a sign of pettiness to allow a few blemishes to distract us from the greater beauty of the whole.
The February 1945 photograph of six U.S. marines raising the American flag over the Japanese island of Iwo Jima is one of the most iconic images of the 20th Century, and is considered by many historians a turning point in the war in the Pacific. Eastwood’s film deconstructs that monumental event, examining the costs, in all senses of the word, paid by the three soldiers (Ryan Phillippe, Adam Beach, Jesse Bradford) captured on film who survived the battle over the island. Beach gives a typically solid performance as the emotionally fragile Native American Ira Hayes, but it is Philippe who surprises in his less flashy role as a corps medic. I’ve been a vocal critic of his in the past, but Phillippe delivers the goods here with a rock steady, well-modulated performance. Between Flags of Our Fathers and Breach, Phillippe’s grown-up career looks much more promising than his youthful one.
Eastwood also takes aim at the machinery of war; specifically the powerful and cocksure men in Washington who blithely promote the waging of war without needing to risk anything in pursuit of the glory of victory. Visually, the film has a familiar patina, as Eastwood utilizes the same bleached out palette of many recent war films, particularly Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg is a producer of this film). The battle scenes, while generally executed with what must be considered – by 21st century standards – to be a modicum of restraint, capture the terror and confusion of combat convincingly. Furthermore, the Eastwood-penned score is remarkably delicate and restrained (its many quiet variations on ‘America the Beautiful’ are affecting) allowing the audience intimate moments to contemplate the horrors we have been witnessing.
The film’s greatest weakness may be Eastwood’s lack of faith in his audience. While voice-over narration worked well in Million Dollar Baby, and made sense given the noir-ish nature of that film, with Flags of Our Fathers, the narration is often far too on the nose, and the preachy quality begins to grate. Further, the film’s framing device of a young man trying to learn the truth about his father’s wartime career is not given sufficient screen time to develop emotional resonance, which results in flaccid pacing during the film’s final 20 minutes.
However, regardless of petty complaints about these aspects of the film, this is without doubt an important and timely release, reminding us in times of war of the great damage that can be done to society’s most vulnerable by those blustering war mongers who are so very far away – temporally, emotionally and physically – from the combat they are inciting. It is also great to see Eastwood, as he nears his 80th birthday, still making films that are (at least in parts), thrumming with vitality and resonant with relevance. This is even more true of the second half of his Second World War diptych, Letters from Iwo Jima, one of 2006’s best films.
Dan Jardine
Reminds us of the great damage that can be done to society’s most vulnerable by those blustering war mongers who are so very far away from the combat they are inciting. - Dan Jardine
Ellie