Flags of Our Fathers

"Flags of Our Fathers" is not a typical war film, nor is it intended to be. It is a faithful screen adaptation of James Bradley's book of the same title. Flags of Our Fathers is a moving character study of the six men who raised the American flag atop Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima. The film, like the book, also focuses on how the politics of war bonds badly distorted the real story of Iwo Jima.

Flags of Our Fathers was co-produced by Steven Spielberg ("Saving Private Ryan") and Clint Eastwood. Mr. Eastwood also directed the film and has been credited with a moving score providing an appropriately somber piano that avoids being maudlin.

On flagsofourfathers.net, Mr. Eastwood explains that he didn't want to do another John Wayne-type flick. Flags of Our Fathers avoids giving a pro- or anti-war message. It has a Joe Friday-approach, giving us the relevant facts, which are not always simple.

Flags of Our Fathers follows the three surviving flag raisers: John "Doc" Bradley (Ryan Phillippe), a level-headed Navy medic; Rene Gagnon (Jesse Bradford), a Marine "runner"; and Ira Hayes (Adam Beach), a Pima Indian Marine. The rapid time jumps take some getting used to. After Iwo Jima is taken, Bradley, Gagnon, and Hayes are enlisted by the government to sell war bonds. This is an important task because the U.S. Treasury is almost broke, and the Feds have to raise $14 billion for an invasion of the Japanese Mainland (pre-Hiroshima). Bradley, Gagnon, and Hayes are put through obligatory speech-making and ludicrous recreations of the flag raising on paper mache mockups of Mt. Suribachi in front of cheering crowds in packed stadiums. There are frequent oscillations between the media hoopla post-Iwo Jima and the actual battle. There are also numerous time shifts between 1945 and the 1990s.

Flags of Our Fathers runs 147 minutes, but the shifting of scenes and time keeps the film from dragging. Hayes, who has a violent temper and a drinking problem, is the most interesting and troubled of the three men. Underneath his pugnaciousness is a person tormented by the horrors he has witnessed on Iwo. Even Doc Bradley, the most stable of the trio, battles similar demons. Early in the film, we see him as an elderly man having a battle-related nightmare. Bradley is the most dutiful of the three, taking the bond tour in stride. Hayes does everything possible to avoid it, even threatening to kill Gagnon at knifepoint if the latter identifies him as a flagraiser. Gagnon holds out for awhile, but gives Hayes up under heavy pressure from military brass. As a result , there is fierce tension between the two men during most of the tour. Hayes is sent back early to his unit because of his drunkenness. Gagnon actually begins to enjoy the media circus, especially after being joined by his publicity-seeking girlfriend.

Complicating matters is the fact that there were two flag raisings. The second, immortalized by AP photographer Joe Rosenthal, only occurred because a selfish commanding officer demanded the first flag. Worse yet, one of the second group of flag raisers was misidentified as Hank Hansen (Paul Walker) instead of Harlon Block (Ben Walker, III). Hansen, like Block, died on Iwo, and it is Hansen's mother, not Block's, who is honored throughout the war bond drive. Early in the tour, Gagnon and Hayes try to correct the misinformation but are told to clam up. A paternalistic politician tells the three soldiers that the mixup is too complicated for people to understand, and that the details will prevent the selling of war bonds.

By contrast, Rosenthal's iconic photograph showing six men raising the flag above Mt. Suribachi was very easy to understand. It symbolized victory for a war-weary American public. But the dirty little secret behind it was that the fighting on Iwo did not end with the flag raising; the battle was just beginning. Major newspapers added to the myth by running stories of epic firefights on the way up the mountain. In fact, there was very little enemy activity on Mt. Suribachi.

But the Battle of Iwo Jima was America's most heroic battle. More Medals of Honor were awarded for action on this tiny Pacific island than in any battle in U.S. history. "Iwo Jima" means "sulphur island", an appropriate name for what became a Hell on Earth during the closing months of the Second World War.The battle raged 36 days, from February to March 1945. By the time it was over, the Marines had suffered 25,851 casualties, two-thirds of the invasion force, including 7,000 killed. Most of the 22,000 Japanese defenders fought to their deaths.

The battle scenes are shot in black-and-white, increasing the aura of authenticity. Prior to the land invasion, the Air Force had bombed Iwo Jima for several days, denuding it of vegetation. The Marines coming ashore appear to be entering a lunar landscape, a coal black surface replete with craters.

Unbeknownst to them, the Japanese are hunkered down in an intricate web of underground tunnels of blockhouses and pillboxes containing rockets and heavy guns. The Japanese can see the Americans, but the Americans can't see the Japanese. As a result, U.S. troops are slaughtered. The Americans have to use flamethrowers with liquid gas and napalm, as well as grenades, to stop the ensconced Japanese, who fight to the bitter end in their subterranean lairs.

This isn't a film for the squeamish. The Japanese operate like vampires in the night, snatching unsuspecting Marines from their foxholes by dragging them down into the caves via unseen trap doors. Toward the end of the Battle, Doc Bradley looks for his good friend Ralph "Iggy" Ignatowski (Jamie Bell) who had disappeared in this manner. He finds him in a cave among a group of disemboweled corpses. Ignatowski's body is never shown. It is left for a shocked Marine to remark, "Look at what they did to that poor bastard." Mr. Eastwood realizes that the greatest horrors are best left to the imagination. And he has the good sense to spare us further nauseation.

Predictably, there is little comic relief in Flags of Our Fathers. A notable exception occurs during training on the island of Tarawa prior to the invasion. Squadron leader Sgt. Mike Strank (Barry Pepper) tells gullible farm boy Franklin Sousley (Joseph Cross) to go to the records office and make sure that his "masturbation papers" are in order. Strank and Sousley are two of the iconic flag raisers who later die in combat.

Flags of Our Fathers nicely explores the hero concept. None of the three surviving flag raisers considers himself heroic. Gagnon and Hayes explicitly reject that characterization during war bond speeches. Doc Bradley comes closer to the mold. He tends to severely wounded soldiers under fire, and with a huge piece of schrapnel protruding from the back of his thigh, crawls around to treat fallen men, nearly bleeding to death in the process. But we hear early on from the younger Bradley, who narrates the film, that his father never talked much about his military service and hid his medals.

All of these men were from modest backgrounds, and they faded from public consciousness after the war. Gagnon unsuccessfully tried to capitalize on his moment of fame, but he worked as a janitor for the rest of his life. Hayes, a day laborer, became notorious for his drunken brawls. Doc Bradley was the most successful of the three. A funeral director with a good local reputation, he sedulously avoided publicity.

James Bradley was on to something when he said that heroes are created by us, the general public, not by those on the battlefield. Yet most people would agree that the almost-superhuman acheivements of a Sergeant York or an Audie Murphy are heroic. The soldiers who served on Iwo Jima were ordinary men who found themselves in extraordinary circumstances and rose to the occasion. The debate about what constitutes heroism has been going on since the beginning of civilization. It won't be resolved anytime soon, certainly not in this column. But author Bradley makes a good start toward that goal.

The movie's ending is surprisingly uplifting, with Doc Bradley on his deathbed reminiscing to his son James about a pleasant moment on Iwo Jima during a break in "the action." Without spoiling it for you, let me just say that it allowed the battle-hardened troops to briefly become boys again. It'll bring a tear to your eye.

Flags of Our Fathers is so riveting that I heard nary a peep in the audience during its nearly three-hour run. Half the people in the theatre stayed an extra ten minutes to view the still, black-and-white photographs of the real-life Marines who fought and died on that sulfur island. This is a story that should be seen through the ages, especially by those of us who have never served. We all need to remember what happened on Iwo Jima to ensure that those events are never repeated.