Flags of Our Fathers

I think Clint Eastwood is over-rated. There, I’ve said it. OK, films such as ‘Pale Rider’ and ‘The Outlaw Josey Wales’ are very good – and of course ‘Unforgiven’ is one of the best westerns ever made, but (and I’m refering just to his self-directed films here) there are also some deeply mediocre pictures on his CV – ‘Space Cowboys’? ‘The Rookie’? The plaudits heaped on ‘Million Dollar Baby’ mystified me as I thought it was nothing more than well acted sentimental trash. I recently caught the end of the execrable ‘Heartbreak Ridge’ which is possiblty the most jingoistic piece of US military propaganda since the infamous Green Berets – complete with a stirring score as the gung ho marines save the poor peasants.

The plaudits have continued with Eastwood’s most recent picture, ‘Flags of Our Fathers‘ The plot gravitates around the soldiers who erected the stars and stripes over the battlefield of Iwo Jima and the ensuing propaganda efforts on home soil as the iconic image seeps into the war tired public consiousness. As the film develops, Eastwood explores the nature of heroism and propoganda, as it is revelaed that the flag was erected twice, before the battle was even won, and that two of the three main protagonists who are shipped back to the States to campaign for war bonds weren’t even in the picture.

Visually, the film is impressive, with some well produced CGI images of the massive fleet off the coast of the island giving a real sense of the enormity of the battle. Much has also been made of it’s alleged intense battle sequences which made we wonder if I had seen the same film – the battle scenes are reasonably graphic and gruesome but ‘Saving Private Ryan’ they are not. Twitching, hand-held operators? Check. Washed out, bleached negative film stock? Check. Indiscriminate death and overwhelming sound design that makes you duck in your seat? Check – yet Eastwood fails to reach the same intensity of sheer terror, chaos and mayhem that Spielberg captured – maybe we become immune to these images so much quicker these days especially when real world examples are available at the click of a mouse.

The film is certainly contemporary as it does give food for thought on what it acceptable in the realms of propoganda, truth and lies during times of national conflict. Whilst relying on some clumsy metaphors (crimson red sauce being poured over cakes imitating the flag scene – ooo, it’s just like blood isn’t it?) it is worth seeing and raises some pertinent questions, but you won’t be leaving the cinema feeling mentally and emotionally assualted like you did after Ryan. It will be interesting to compare it with the second film that Eastwood has produced on the battle, ‘Letters from Iwo Jima”, which focuses on the Japanese side of the battle, due in the UK in late February.

 Oh, almost forgot – Happy New Year.

January 4, 2007 | Categories: Film | 1 Comment