Flags of our Fathers

[LaMedicine]

LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA trailer, for the Japanese market

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCZLkxYZmx0

This trailer has been running on TV here since late October, always coupled with the trailer for "Flags of Our Fathers" which opened here on Oct. 28.
Clint Eastwood was (is?) in Japan, and was interviewd on a prominent 30 minute news commentary program aired yesterday. I saw only a few minutes of it, since DH switched the channel to a volley ball match going on :rage: though I had wanted to watch the entire program.:cry:

 

[Feraud]

I just go around to watching Flags and enjoyed it a lot. Maybe "enjoy" is not the right word considering it is a war drama. Eastwood did a fine job with the material and kept the spirit of Bradley's book. There was some story clarification that should have been added but overall was a good film.

In terms of a "costume" piece I think this has a lot of offer. This is one of the few films I can remember that has a decent variety of period costumes. Military men, civilian men and women, etc. The cgi was used with good effect to compliment and not compete with the story.

 

[Fletch]

I ought to rent this. My late uncle was with the Army on Iwo as part of the mop-up operation, and got a good deal of his face rearranged there. The Army doesn't get a lot of credit for their time on Iwo. Even in retreat, the Japanese fought like mad dogs, because to surrender was unthinkable shame.

BTW, Jim Bradley used to attend my church in New York. Haven't seen him around in awhile.

 

[Nic Charles]

Flag of MY Father

My father served in the 3rd Marine Division on Iwo. He would NEVER talk to me about his experienes...until he gave me his 3rd Marine Division History on my 22nd birthday. Then the stories of horror came. He passed away in 2000, and I've always regretted that I could not sit him down to talk about it on tape. I only have little snippets of notes he left me. I will post some of his images later. In 2006, I had the extreme pleasure of potraying a US Marine at the Iwo Jima event sponsored by the Nimitz Museum in Texas. It was scarey to say the least. A photographer snapped a shot of me afterwards and gave me a link to it. It is the best tribute to my father, Corporal Richard Harold Cross, that I could have asked for. God bless you old man!

I was very impressed with the film and deeply touched.

Well, once again I see my images will not post (is there some kind of trick to this? I've never had such problems on other discussion boards. Any way, here's the link: http://render2.snapfish.com/render2...?*KUp7BHSHqqy7XH6gXPPe|Rup6aQQ|/of=50,294,442

 

[Hondo]

My father served in the 3rd Marine Division on Iwo. He would NEVER talk to me about his experienes...until he gave me his 3rd Marine Division History on my 22nd birthday. Then the stories of horror came. He passed away in 2000, and I've always regretted that I could not sit him down to talk about it on tape. I only have little snippets of notes he left me. I will post some of his images later. In 2006, I had the extreme pleasure of potraying a US Marine at the Iwo Jima event sponsored by the Nimitz Museum in Texas. It was scarey to say the least. A photographer snapped a shot of me afterwards and gave me a link to it. It is the best tribute to my father, Corporal Richard Harold Cross, that I could have asked for. God bless you old man!

I was very impressed with the film and deeply touched.

Well, once again I see my images will not post (is there some kind of trick to this? I've never had such problems on other discussion boards. Any way, here's the link: http://render2.snapfish.com/render2...?*KUp7BHSHqqy7XH6gXPPe|Rup6aQQ|/of=50,294,442

Hey Nic! Thanks for sharing, I think I can speak for all of us and say were honored to hear about your dad, I own father was on a Destroyer escort with the Navy on Iwo Jima, felt the same, not to talk, my dad is still here with me, and he is only now telling me bits, each year we lose another fromthe Greatest Generation, its a tribute/honor just having you share as well.
God bless your Dad and family.

BTW:
This link below lets you download pictures for free, real easy to do, then you can post them here. I copied your photo.

www.villagephotos.com

 

[Story]

from today's Wall Street Journal

Iwo Jima Letters
Of Young Japanese
Are Home at Last
An American's Souvenir,
They Had Sat on a Shelf;
Solving a Family Mystery
By SEBASTIAN MOFFETT
May 17, 2007; Page A1

KOBE, Japan -- After the fighting died down in the Battle of Iwo Jima, Victor Voegelin, then 19 years old, was searching for the wounded when he saw a piece of thread poking out of the ground in a blown-out gun emplacement. The U.S. Navy petty officer pulled the thread, and found it was attached to a pack of letters, along with part of a ceramic sake cup and some cigarettes. He picked it all up and put everything in his bag.

Over the decades, Mr. Voegelin looked at the letters just three or four times. He couldn't read the Japanese script, and he always wanted to send them back to Japan. As he got older, "I started thinking about these letters," says Mr. Voegelin, "and thought that people around my age might be around who would want them."

Finally spurred by the release last year of the movie "Letters From Iwo Jima," he took action. He found that the letters had belonged to Tadashi Matsukawa, a Japanese sailor who was 23 when he died. Earlier this year, he sent them to Tadashi's brother, Masaji, 80, the same age as Mr. Voegelin.

Masaji Matsukawa had guessed that his brother died on Iwo Jima because the date given for his death was March 17, 1945, when the main fighting ended. But he had never been sure, and widespread destruction of military records made it impossible to find out. "There was this blank where I didn't know what had happened," said the white-haired Mr. Matsukawa, as he moved a magnifying glass up and down the spidery Japanese script. "But now I understand."

He is one of a number of Japanese now receiving World War II battlefield items, including diaries and flags picked up by victorious Allied soldiers as souvenirs. The items often are returned by the children of veterans when they die.

Masataka Shiokawa, 62, lost his father in Okinawa. Today he works to return items to Japanese families as deputy director of the Association That Promotes Peace and Reverence for World War II Casualties.

complete story for subscribers at
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB117932280018204868-lMyQjAxMDE3NzI5MjMyMjIyWj.html

 

[Rooster]

I watched the first hour of "Flags", then gave up and turned it off. Clint needs to stick to Dirty Harry and Cowboy movies.

 

[Feraud]

I liked Flags and thought Eastwood did justice to the great book by Bradley.
The cgi was just enough to support and not overwhelm the story.

I am looking forward to seeing Letters from Iwo Jima.

 

[Story]

Has anyone seen this?

Ore-Kimi (For Those We Love )
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0882797/

Japanese cinema produces an other effort at praising the men of the Imperial Forces with "Ore Kimi" (For Those We Love). Full title is "ORE wa KIMI no tameni koso, shini ni iku" ("I decided to die only for you")

This time it's the story of a kamikaze pilot, who faces the dilema of going on a suicide mission to protect those he loves, in a war that is already lost.

Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyEel2ShQOk