Film Reviews

Flags of Our Fathers

• Rating:
• Director: Clint Eastwood.
• Starring: Jamie Bell, Ryan Phillippe, Adam Beach, Barry Pepper.
• Details: US / 132 mins (15A).

With Clint Eastwood directing a Paul Haggis script, Flags Of Our Fathers should have been a lot better. The story follows the six men who raised the American flag on Iwo Jima - you've all seen the iconic photograph - but it's common knowledge that the photo was staged after the original flag was hoisted, and this is the story that Eastwood and Haggis tackle. The photo symbolises American resilience and victory in the Pacific; but in actuality, the fighting on the island went on for another 35 days and half the men in the photo were killed soon after, in the bloodiest battle the U.S encountered during WWII. With America almost bankrupt, the remaining three men (Phillippe, Beach and Jesse Bradford) are shipped home and escorted around the country in attempt to raise funds for the flagging war finances. But the accolades for heroism don't sit well with Beach and Phillippe, who have to lie to cover up the true story behind the photo. Eastwood took elements of TV's Homefront series, Terrance Malick's Thin Red Line, stripped Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan and delivered a so-so war film. There is a feeling of deja-vu as Eastwood went as far as inserting numerous shots from Spielberg's WWII epic into his film; even the bleached out colours is reminiscent of Janus Kaminski's cinematography. The film falls down between two stools, as Eastwood really wants to tell the story of the soldiers back home, but feels impelled to make a war film too. There is a general feeling throughout that Eastwood dropped the ball; what he had on his hands was a war film with no big stars, which could have been beautiful - no stars means we don't know who is going to live and who is going to die. However, with cutting between the battle and the aftermath back home, we know pretty early on who's going to survive and this is a let down. Don't go expecting this to be an out-and-out war movie as apart from a ten-minute sequence, we are only treated to the odd snippet here and there throughout the two hours plus running time.

Review by Gavin Burke