After the surprising success of 2004's Million Dollar Baby that earned Clint Eastwood a second Oscar for Best Director while winning Best Picture. It became clear that Eastwood, following 2003's Oscar-nominated Mystic River that the man is on a roll. For his next project, Eastwood chose to go into more ambitious territory, with Steven Spielberg as producer, in making a World War II film project. Choosing to focus on a novel about the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945, Eastwood started off making a film about the American struggle with the battle and its aftermath. Then, Eastwood decided to make a second part of the Battle of Iwo Jima for a Japanese perspective that's been titled Letters from Iwo Jima. Two ambitious pictures about Iwo Jima might seem much for someone in his 70s but Clint Eastwood is no slouch as he decides to present the first part, Flags of Our Fathers.

Based on the novel by James Bradley and Ron Powers, Flags of Our Fathers told the story of the young soldiers fighting in the Battle of Iwo Jima including the iconic picture of the raising of the flag. The story goes further in the aftermath when three of the surviving men of that picture are thrust into the spotlight of celebrity to sell bonds as they reluctantly struggle with their role as heroes. With a script by William Broyles Jr. and Million Dollar Baby screenwriter Paul Haggis, Flags of Our Fathers is a tale of heroism and the price of loss as Eastwood paints an elegant picture of Americans struggling with World War II. Starring Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford, Adam Beach, Jamie Bell, Joseph Cross, Paul Walker, Barry Pepper, John Slattery, John Benjamin Hickey, Robert Patrick, Thomas McCarthy, Melanie Lynskey, Beth Grant, and Neal McDonough. Flags of Our Fathers is a stark yet powerful motion picture from the great Clint Eastwood.

It's the present day as an old man is having a nightmare about his horrid memories of being in the Battle of Iwo Jima that lasted for over a month. In shock and having a heart attack, the elder John "Doc" Bradley (George Grizzard) is rushed to the hospital as he thinks of himself when he was a young man (Ryan Phillippe) working as a Navy medical corpsman who helps close wounds for the Marines. At a camp in late 1944, he is surrounded by several young men led by the experienced Sgt. Mike Strank (Barry Pepper). Among the men in the camp are the young Franklin Sousley (Joseph Cross), Harlon Block (Benjamin Walker), Hank Hansen (Paul Walker), Rene Gagnon (Jesse Bradford), Ralph "Iggy" Ignatowski (Jamie Bell), and Native American soldier Ira Hayes (Adam Beach). Upon hearing that they were to embark on a battle to take the island of Iwo Jima, thousands and thousands of young men are shipped to the island where they awaited orders from Captain Severence (Neal McDonough) and Col. Chandler Johnson (Robert Patrick). With Doc joining Iggy in battle at his side, the men wait on ship as into the foggy night, they would wait for battle.

Suddenly in the morning, ships fired cannons at the mountain where artillery and everything including fighter planes shooting bombs. The soldiers land onto the black sand of Iwo Jima waiting for the enemy to fire. The Japanese meanwhile, are hiding under the fields next to the sand as they fired unsuspecting shots as battle commenced. The battles would be bloody and fought harshly as the American soldiers are aware that the Japanese will kill prisoners of war and fight to the last man. After days of fighting on Mount Suribachi, a flag was posted to honor the victory but one of the Marines' leading authorities wanted the small flag for himself as a flag was replaced where a young war photographer named Joseph Rosenthal (Ned Eisenberg) took the photo of a second flag being replace. Within days, the iconic image of six men raising that flag was all over the newspapers across America at a time when people where giving up hope and such.

Still, the battle raged on as Rene Gagnon was then being called on to confirm about the story of who raised the flag as he was the one who brought the replacement flag. With Gagnon, Bradley, and Hayes confirmed as the survivors, they’re being called heroes as they are now taken a tour of the U.S. to have their image sell bonds led by Bud Gerber (John Slattery) and Marine publicist, Sgt. Keyes Beech (John Benjamin Hickey). While Hayes and Bradley are still traumatized by what they saw and happened in Iwo Jima, they reluctantly chose to go on tour to help sell bonds to help aid the war. While Gagnon seems to the celebrity in stride while accompanying his mother (Beth Grant) and girlfriend Pauline Harnois (Melanie Lynskey) in the tour. Hayes meanwhile, becomes increasingly uncomfortable with the attention and everything while notifying Gerber that the men in the picture aren’t right since Hank Hansen is credited with raising the flag when actually, he raised the first and Harlon Block wasn't mentioned. Bradley noticed that too since he remembered on who raised the second flag.

With the tour pressing on, including an emotional meeting with the mothers of the dead flag raisers, things become uncomfortable as Gagnon enjoys the attention while Bradley chose to act quietly and deal with his own pain in private. Hayes however, has trouble coping as he drinks himself to the point that he couldn't deal with everything. Everything comes to ahead when he, Bradley, and Gagnon went to reenact the raising of the flag in the middle of Soldier Field in front of everyone as Hayes is out with only Beech to really comfort him as Commandant Vandergrift (Chris Bauer) is upset with his behavior. More importantly, rumors begin to arrive that the flag-raising might have been a hoax. Bradley and Gagnon continue with the tour as Gagnon marries Pauline while Bradley returns home after the tour.

With the war over, reality sets in as Gagnon, who was promised several big job deals, was turned down while Bradley settled quietly with a family. Hayes however, dropped further into a downward spiral as Bradley is forced to not think of his duty as a soldier as his adult son James (Thomas McCarthy) tries to learn everything about why none of the soldiers are comfortable in being called a hero.

Films of World War II can be described in many ways as films of heroism, patriotism, or a study of madness and horror. In what Eastwood went to do was the latter in not just showing the madness and horror but the crippling aftermath of war and why veterans just won't talk about it, not even to their own children. It's a really a film about heroism but in the way that soldiers feels that it's undeserved. With a fantastic script from William Broyles Jr. and Paul Haggis, the film takes a somewhat non-linear approach where it moves back and forth around the second act when the survivors go on tour while thinking of the images that haunt them on the war. A subplot is added in the present time is when James Bradley writes the novel that would become the film's title where he talks to several men involved in the tour and Iwo Jima while coming to terms with why his father couldn't talk. The result is a fantastic, harrowing script from Broyles and Haggis as they created a story that really goes into the horrors of war.

Then there's Clint Eastwood in his approach to the film. Since he knew of those times during World War II and everything about the flag-raisers of Iwo Jima. Eastwood indeed put a personal touch to the film that definitely will resonate with his audience. From the gritty, raw battle scenes that indeed won’t be for everyone to watch, though not as brutal as Saving Private Ryan, to the more dramatic sequences of the bonds tour and James Bradley's search for answers. Eastwood chooses not to sentimentalize everything but rather observe the times and everything that goes on war from the brotherhood to the horrors. Since the film moves back and forth where it's told in flashbacks and memories of other characters that were in the film. Really, it's a tribute to the soldiers who fought in World War II.

Some of the more harrowing scenes whether it's a brutal battle scene or the scenes of the bonds tour will conjure up emotions as Eastwood knows when not to make a big close-up but rather observe a behavior while showing scenes of reactions to make everything real. Obviously taking cues from the late Sergio Leone whom he worked with in the mid-1960s, Eastwood definitely takes a personal connection with the characters where he allows intimate moments of heartbreak and brotherhood to the film. More importantly, the film doesn't stop with the film's emotional moments, even during the final credits where the last shot of the film is the site of the Iwo Jima memorial. Eastwood isn't trying to say anything new about war, anti-war, or anything but rather remind audiences of what those soldiers did for their country and why they don't have to be called heroes. What this film reveals that Clint Eastwood, as a director, is clearly in the top of his game.

Helping Eastwood with his broad scope is longtime cinematographer Tom Stern. Taking the same, tinted, blue-green visual scope that's been in past Eastwood films, the image Stern puts is more raw in the film’s harrowing battle scenes as it's all done with hand-held cameras in a similar style that was captured in Saving Private Ryan. Stern's photography captures the horrors of war while the other sequences like the bonds tour reveals more of a scope into the emotions that goes one while more intimate shading is revealed in the present-day sequences. Longtime editor Joel Cox definitely had a lot to work with in giving the film's shifting sequences as his editing is brilliant to convey the rhythm and intensity of the battle sequences to the more observing settings of the bonds tour as his editing is masterful.

In his last work as a longtime production designer for Clint Eastwood, the late Henry Bumstead (who died this year as Eastwood dedicated the film to him along with casting director Phyllis Huffman) along with art directors Adrian Gorton and Jack G. Taylor Jr. did fantastic work on not just the set designs of the war camps and use of caves that were shot on parts of the Iwo Jima island as well as some shots in Iceland. They also did some great, 1940s style of the cities with several of them shot in Los Angeles and Chicago including a wonderful sequence of 1945 Time Squares and Soldier Field that's enhanced by the wonderful visual effects of supervisor Michael Owens who also does great work in the battle sequences. Costume designer Deborah Hooper also did great work of not just capturing the authenticity of 1940s clothing but playing to the times as it breathes life of what would be the era of postwar-America. Sound editor Bud Asman with sound designers Charles Maynes and Steve Ticknor also do great work with the sound in conveying the horror of war with the sound of cannons, planes, grenades, and such to play up to the horror.

Clint Eastwood also does the film's score with arrangements from his son Kyle and Michael Stevens where the music is plaintive in the film's more dramatic moments with the use of piano and guitars while the more harrowing stuff has a bigger score that is more ominous and foreboding to convey the intensity of battle. The soundtrack features a lot of 1940s cuts and jazz music that plays well to the times.

Finally, we have the film's huge, amazing ensemble. With small performances from Melanie Lynskey, Chris Bauer, Ned Eisenberg, Robert Patrick, Neal McDonough, George Grizzard, the often incomparable Beth Grant, Judith Ivey as Harlon Block’s mother, Ann Dowd as Strank's mother, and David Hornsby as Louis Lowery are all excellent in their brief scenes. Other minor performances from Joseph Cross, Benjamin Walker, and Paul Walker as the other flag raisers of Iwo Jima are memorable with Cross being the naive one, Benjamin Walker as the more humor-driven character, and Paul Walker being the tough Hank Hansen as the three give excellent, fine performances. Jamie Bell is also great as Iggy Ignatowski as who has some fine dialogue with Ryan Phillippe as a soldier who tries to help out in battle only to face his own doom. Barry Pepper is really great as Mike Strank as the experienced sergeant who tries to protect his boys and is considered the eldest brother of his group as Pepper brings a lot of wit and warmth to his role.

John Slattery is great as the slimy, publicist Bud Gerber who seems to care more about money rather than the feelings of the soldier while John Benjamin Hickey is also great as the more sympathetic Sgt. Beech who tries to comfort the soldiers while understanding their own reluctance. The Station Agent writer/director Thomas McCarthy is wonderful as James Bradley in a very understated performance as a man trying to understand what his father goes through as he is restrained in playing a man that would eventually write the novel. Jesse Bradford is wonderful as the good-looking, charming Rene Gagnon as a young soldier who thinks that being a celebrity is great where he has all of the perks as Bradford brings the right youthfulness to the character while developing into someone who realizes how fleeting it is. Adam Beach is amazing in the role of Ira Hayes as a soldier who is haunted by the horrors and the lack of comfort in playing a hero. Beach brings all of the dramatic scales of his role as he reveals the pain of Hayes to remind the audience of the war's horrifying aftermath and how he missed the men he served with.

The film's most impressive performance truly goes to a very understated Ryan Phillippe as John "Doc" Bradley. While often considered to be a pretty-boy with such films as Cruel Intentions before being in impressive films like Robert Altman's Gosford Park, Igby Goes Down, and Paul Haggis' Crash last year. Phillippe is really the film's conscience as a man who is aware of war's horrors as his job was to save lives. Phillippe plays the character with great restraint and realism as he is the man who tries to comfort Hayes while being supportive of Gagnon. Phillippe truly gives the best performance of his career by just playing his character with great dignity and restraint.

Flags of Our Fathers is truly one of the greatest war dramas ever made thanks to the talents of Clint Eastwood, screenwriters William Broyles Jr. and Paul Haggis, and producer Steven Spielberg. With a superb ensemble cast and a great crew, this film is likely to be a favorite among those who enjoy war films that resonates with an audience. While it's just the first part of the Iwo Jima story that's to be followed by Letters from Iwo Jima that's going to be released in Japan in December and in February 2007 in the U.S. Flags of Our Fathers is still an amazing tribute to those who fought on that island with the images that are everlasting as Clint Eastwood has created another masterpiece.

Clint Eastwood Reviews:

The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly (1967):

http://www.epinions.com/content_226932133508

Million Dollar Baby (2004):

http://www.epinions.com/content_169020722820

Letters from Iwo Jima (2006):

http://www.epinions.com/content_420183314052

Changeling (2008):

http://www.epinions.com/content_450086276740

Gran Torino (2008):

(Coming in Dec. 2008/Jan. 2009)

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age