Flags of our Fathers

[MrBern]

isnt it all about balance? A good director can take a boring actor & make something out of it. A boring cliche can be elevated to a classic.
Look at how many remakes of older films or foreign films can fail even tho the original was great.

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

I too have seen the previews, and thought it looked like something I'd like to see. From what I read in reviews, I will like the story. I am a fan of Clint Eastwood. And, although this is rather embarassing and something that I'm not sure I should admit in public, I like Ryan Phillipe.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts after the movie is seen. I trust the reviews of the Fedora Lounge so much more than any other medium that reviews movies.

 

[Feraud]

And, although this is rather embarassing and something that I'm not sure I should admit in public, I like Ryan Phillipe.

A Phillippe fan? Have you seen Way of the Gun? A great movie!

I trust the reviews of the Fedora Lounge so much more than any other medium that reviews movies.

I feel the same way. I see more movies recommended by our members than I do friends and family.

 

[Hondo]

I don't think there's really any choice these days. The time is long gone when you could get a Marine Corps Reserve fighter squadron still equipped with Grumman Hellcats to spend part of their training time making strafing runs over the boondocks at Camp Pendleton for a camera crew. The original gear is either gone or in museums or private collections, logistics and insurance regulations prevent some of the stunts that used to be performed regularly just a few years ago and, frankly, computers can do it a lot more safely and inexpensively.

The good news is that each film seems to be a quantum leap in technology and skill level over the last one, so the effects are getting better.

Cheers!

I agree with everyone. I saw how they made Braveheart battle scenes with computer graphics, its quite amazing, the same applies here in this film.

 

[MrBern]

CGI choices

Yes, and the Dday CGI in Band of Brothers was fabulous. All the planes moved realistically, not like a kid's videogame. CGI isnt bad, its the actual choices made by the designers to resemble reality or to mimic a comicbook.
I didnt care for the CGI in FlyBoys, but in KingKong`05, the biplanes sweeping over NYC was the best part of the movie.

Windtalkers wasnt a great war movie, but the CGI of the fleet assaulting the island wasnt bad at all.

 

[Baggers]

Here's the review in Variety.

Cheers!

 

[Twitch]

There is simply no way to film an 'epic' anymore. It's one thing to have 1,000 extras march down a road as Romans or GIs but you can't recreate the vehicles and equipment on the mass scale that they were actually employed.

 

[Story]

Eastwood keeps it a little too real in ‘Flags’
By Herald wire services
Thursday, October 19, 2006

It is Clint Eastwood’s “Dirty Harry”-esque directing approach - not the star-studded cast - that “Flags of Our Fathers” actor Barry Pepper credits for the oh-so-real on-screen re-enactment of World War II’s bloody Battle of Iwo Jima.
“Eastwood didn’t rehearse anything,” Sgt. Michael Strank’s alter-ego told the Track. “So we didn’t know when these massive explosions were going to be sending a ton of sand in the air or where the weapons were going to be fired.”
Battered from a blast, the startled stars would voice their surprise to Eastwood after a take. But Pepper said the Oscar winner would “just smile and say, ‘Well your look was accordingly perfect.’ ”
“That was exactly what he had in mind to get these incredibly accurate emotions of these young, 18- or 19-year-old kids scared and out of their element,” said Pepper, who also appeared in “Saving Private Ryan.”
And if an actor sustained an injury during a scene, Pepper said you had to bite the bullet and get stitched up later.
“He doesn’t wait for anybody to have their actor weeny moment,” the war movie veteran laughed. “He just expects that you are a mature actor and you can get through the film. If you don’t, then you are just left in the dust because he can pretty much take you or leave you. He’ll shoot the movie without you!”
Pepper witnessed Eastwood’s tough love first-hand when a “squib-hit” blew up in his face, bloodying his lip.
“A medic came up to me after the shot and told me I had to go to the hospital,” he recalled. “But I went up to Eastwood and said, ‘I’m not leaving because I know you - and you’ll shoot the day without me! I won’t be in the movie!’ He laughed and said, ‘Good, because it’s a long way from your heart.’ ”
Then the 76-year-old icon reached over and plucked a 1-inch copper wire that had piercedPepper’s lip adding, “But, you might want to take this out first.”
Yikes! Was Eastwood channeling Gen. Patton???
“Flags of Our Fathers” tells the story of the six men who raised the second flag during the Battle of Iwo Jima. Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford and Adam Beach portray the three survivors who are shipped back home and whisked off on a propaganda tour to raise money for the war effort.
“Flags of Our Fathers” opens in theaters tomorrow.

 

[Nashoba]

Yall who see this will have to let me know how much they bring the "homefront" element into this and how bad the battle scenes are. I have a hard time with war movies that really delve into the "homefront" effects. I was fine watching Full Metal Jacket and it took my husband an hour to calm me down after Blackhawk Down. As it is I've been told I'm not allowed to see Saving Private Ryan and I'm REALLY not allowed to see We were Soldiers. I didn't make it through Pearl Harbor. So let me know if it's movie I should tell my husband to watch while he's in Iraq!
Nash

 

[Feraud]

The WSJ gives Flags a so-so review.

The Wall Street Journal, Friday, October 20, 2006

IT IS ODDLY AND EERILY peaceful as a line of Marines charged with taking
strategically important Iwo Jima hits the island's shores in February 1945. Why
aren't we being shot at, one of the young men wonders to a comrade. Why not
indeed?

With horror-movie creepiness, a slit suddenly opens in what looks to be a
thatched mound in the hillside, and the barrel of a machine gun snakes out. The
camera, now assuming the point of view of the Japanese soldiers in the
camouflaged bunker, pans across a column of Marines, soon, so soon to be the
latest casualties of war.

This sequence, which takes place early in Clint Eastwood's "Flags of Our
Fathers" is one haunting scene among many. His is a deeply affecting account,
admittedly a sometimes muddy one, of the band of brothers in THE iconic
photograph of World War II: five Marines and a Navy corpsmen, their faces
obscured, hoisting the U.S. flag atop Iwo Jima's Mount Suribachi. In fact, it
was the second of two flag raisings snapped that day by Associated Press
photographer Joe Rosenthal; a do-over was required when, supposedly, the
secretary of the Navy demanded the first flag as a souvenir. "Flags of Our
Fathers" also serves as testament to the fact that spin was as revered a tool
in 1940s Washington as it is today.

As a civilian, that lone corpsman in the photo, John "Doc" Bradley (Ryan
Phillippe) worked as a barber for the local funeral home; When we first meet
him, he's none too skillfully trimming the locks of Rene Gagnon (Jesse
Bradford), a Marine runner who's also destined to appear in the shot seen
'round the world.

In the days before the assault on Iwo Jima -- eight inhospitable square miles
described by a superior as resembling a burnt pork chop -- Bradley and Gagnon
play cards with their buddies including Native American Ira Hayes (Adam Beach)
who's nicknamed Chief, Harlon Block (Benjamin Walker) and Franklin Sousley
(Joseph Cross), the goofy, naive kid brother of the unit.

Despite the best intentions of their commanding officer Michael Strank (Barry
Pepper), who like Hayes and Block and Sousley would also appear in the photo,
these young men were ill-prepared for what waited in the island's black sand.

"Flags of Our Fathers," which uses the hoary if reliable framing device of a
journalist interviewing veterans, inter-cuts the battlefield scene -- almost
drained of color they have a stunning intensity and immediacy -- with scenes
from the home front. There, pols and public-relations specialists seek to
capitalize on the sensation caused by the photo to sell more war bonds. They
argue about strategy and turf and about how best to deploy their latest
"weapons": the "it" boys of the moment, Doc Bradley, Rene Gagnon and Ira Hayes,
the only three men from the picture to survive Iwo Jima's carnage. In fact, the
trio has simply exchanged one battleground for another, a point made manifest
by the pop-pop-pop of bullets bleeding into the sounds of popping flash bulbs.

The decision to shoot from a distance the scene of the photo being snapped, to
forswear slow motion, close-up views of the marines' faces and images of the
flag-raising taken from different angles -- honors the historical record. It
also serves the plot, which deals partly with the consequences of
misidentifying one of the men in the picture.

But what's good for the plot isn't necessarily good for viewers of the movie.
Certain key Marines are given minimal face time and in their helmets they all
look markedly similar -- so young and so scared. Consequently, film audiences
who might otherwise be focusing on the movie's underlying themes of bigotry and
media manipulation -- the casual racism directed at Chief, the insistence that
the trio re-enact their big moment by "climbing" a papier-mache mountain and
planting Old Glory for the benefit of a cheering crowd at Soldier Field --
will, instead be muttering to themselves, "Wait, which one is Harlon?" "Was Hank
(another Marine in the unit) in the picture or wasn't he?" and "Whose mother is
that, anyway?"

The cheap perfume of sentimentality wafts through the closing moments of "Flags
of Our Fathers." It's all the more noticeable for having been avoided so well
and so long. Mr. Eastwood knows that sort of thing doesn't mix with the stench
of war.

 

[Doctor Strange]

The reviews have mostly been good, with quite a few raves from some respected critics:

http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/flagsofourfathers

I think I'm gonna try and see this in the movies, and drag along my teenage son and WWII-vet father...

 

[Hemingway Jones]

Yes, I agree; The New York Times review was encouraging. It sounds intense and appropriately somber for its subject matter.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Great Iwo pics...

http://www.mca-marines.org/leatherneck/Galleries/MtSuribachiG/index.htm

My Uncle was Marine Intelligence officer on Iwo. I once had his copy of Leatherneck Magazine from that Spring of '45 that included many of these photos. He had scrawled across the cover, "Col. E.J. Buckley, USMC ... who was there!

I never had the opportunity to talk to about his experiences; he died of Malaria in 1950 and is intered at Arlington.

That crumpled issue of Leatherneck disappeared decades ago I'm afraid.

-dixon cannon

 

[Lincsong]

Yall who see this will have to let me know how much they bring the "homefront" element into this and how bad the battle scenes are. I have a hard time with war movies that really delve into the "homefront" effects. I was fine watching Full Metal Jacket and it took my husband an hour to calm me down after Blackhawk Down. As it is I've been told I'm not allowed to see Saving Private Ryan and I'm REALLY not allowed to see We were Soldiers. I didn't make it through Pearl Harbor. So let me know if it's movie I should tell my husband to watch while he's in Iraq!
Nash

If you don't like to see the "homefront" element in movies then don't see , 1946's The Best Years of Our Lives, it really showed a side of post World War II that no one today will even touch. When I first saw this film, it really bothered me.fftopic:
But, back to Flags of Our Fathers, if I find time on Saturday I'll try to catch it. I've generally shied away from Clint Eastwoods films over the past 16 years but I want to see this one.

 

[MrBern]

I didnt really care for the movie. The desaturated colors didnt really grab me. And the music wasnt particularly inspiring either. I'd have prefered more unknows in the casting.
It had some nice moments.

I still look forward to the companion film BlackSandRedSun.

 

[Solid Citizen]

Movie C+/ Story A+/Worth Seeing

Aside from too many characters & constant flashbacks I'm glad I saw this film. It is unvarnished and tells it like it was & it wasn't pretty either at Iwo Jima (6,800 Marines Dead/20,000+ Marines Wounded) or back on the homefront for the three survivors inclluding Marine PFC Ira Hayes :eusa_clap

SC

 

[Feraud]

Did any other Loungers see this movie? Thoughts?
I was supposed to see it with MrBern but the Post Office kept me home this past Saturday.

 

[tallyho]

I heard on the radio this morning it only made 10 million this weekend. not a good sign for an openeing weekend for such a big budget movie.

I heard an interview of some Iwo Jima vets and they said they got the Iwo scenes right. They said it really showed what it was like on that island. The only thing missing was the constant stence of sulpher from the volcanic ash mixed in with the smell of of the dead.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I saw it this afternoon at the dreaded multiplex -- a fair crowd for a mid-day matinee, and it's one of those few films where practically everyone stayed all the way thru to the end of the credits.

It's a very non-linear film, and I had the feeling quite a few of the folks around me were getting confused by the constant flashbacks/flashforwards, and I don't think I was the only one in the place who found some of the combat stuff a bit too grisly -- I can guess what happens when someone blows themselves up with a grenade, but I don't know that I actually need to see it shown in all its gooey detail. But dramatically, I thought the story was very well and thoughtfully told -- and I liked the cast very much. I was especially glad to see Melanie Lynskey, one of my favorite young actresses of the '90s, in a bit part -- pity they couldn't have given her something more substantial to do.

Periodwise, it looked good. Excellent attention to detail, and the only glitch I noticed was Wrigley Field being passed off as Washington's Griffith Stadium -- those light towers on the roof were unmistakable!

 

[Hondo]

History Channel

I heard on the radio this morning it only made 10 million this weekend. not a good sign for an openeing weekend for such a big budget movie.

I heard an interview of some Iwo Jima vets and they said they got the Iwo scenes right. They said it really showed what it was like on that island. The only thing missing was the constant stence of sulpher from the volcanic ash mixed in with the smell of of the dead.

Last night History Channel ran a program on Iwo Jima, b/w photos along with color 8mm film, they went after those who raised the flag and the final 3 who were brought back to help sell war bonds. More died on Iwo Jima than at Normandy landing, the Japanese really gave the beach landing hell, I felt for those who survived retell the story. An interesting interview and view point from the late Joe Rosenthal who took the flag raising photo. If you missed it, watch for repeats, it will give you better idea or more real than the film. I haven’t seen “Flags of our Fathers” but I plan to. I kept thinking of Ira Hayes and how tragic his life came to an end at only 32 years old.