ShareThisBy BETSY PICKLE
Sunday, October 29, 2006
"Flags of Our Fathers" may be the most frustrating movie you'll ever love.
Director Clint Eastwood weighs in on the Greatest Generation with this film adaptation of the nonfiction best seller about the men who fought on Iwo Jima _ both the ones who died and the ones who survived and were touted as heroes, especially those hailed for raising the U.S. flag on the island's Mount Suribachi in the iconic photograph of World War II.
Eastwood's direction is insightful. The images are amazing. The performances defy comparison. The themes provoke cynicism, sympathy, respect and sorrow. But the structure of the screenplay by William Broyles Jr. and Paul Haggis requires trust and patience in large quantities.
"Flags of Our Fathers" probably will make the most sense for jazz lovers like Eastwood. The narrative is like a melody repeated in different keys and different time signatures by different instruments until all the soloists have had their moment to shine. It's a lot easier to follow that kind of approach in music than it is in a film, but Eastwood eventually pulls it together.
"Flags of Our Fathers" is basically an improvisation that conveys not only the Iwo Jima story but also how James Bradley discovered the history his father, John Bradley, never shared with him and how the son came to write (with Ron Powers) about his father and his comrades.
Most of the film takes place in late 1944-early 1945. John Bradley (Ryan Phillippe) is a Navy corpsman known, of course, as Doc, who's among the thousands of servicemen destined to put their lives in jeopardy trying to take Iwo Jima from the Japanese.
As their officers fume over foolish orders, Doc and his pals _ including Iggy (Jamie Bell), Ira (Adam Beach), Rene (Jesse Bradford), Hank (Paul Walker), Harlon (Benjamin Walker), Franklin (Joseph Cross) and their sergeant, Mike (Barry Pepper) _ land on the beach of the tiny island and find themselves in the chaos of attack.
Five days into the battle, when the Marines have gained the high ground of Suribachi, they plant a flag that raises the spirits of all those below. It also catches the eye of a politician, who wants it for himself, so it's taken down and another flag is raised. Photographer Joe Rosenthal (Ned Eisenberg) snaps the second flag-raising, and the image is printed in hundreds of newspapers, galvanizing a nation that is tired of war.
Rene, Doc and Ira, who were in the photo, are sent on a tour of the States as "the heroes of Iwo Jima" in a war-bond campaign. While Rene enjoys the attention, it makes Doc and Ira uncomfortable. They feel that the real heroes were the men who died on Iwo Jima, and Ira starts drinking heavily to numb his guilt.
The film cuts back and forth between World War II scenes of the bond tour, Iwo Jima and families on the home front and from to post-war experiences to decades-later scenes of John (George Grizzard) flashing back to the war and John's son (Tom McCarthy) finding his father's memorabilia and talking with several older men to piece his dad's story together.
It's even more stressful trying to match the elderly men with their younger selves than it is to keep the young guys, in their uniforms and helmets, straight. And Eastwood doesn't make it any easier with editing that reflects the chaos of war and the untidiness of memory.
However, within the jarring editing are sobering messages about heroism and war and fine performances. The standouts are Phillippe, terrific as humble Doc, and Beach, soulful as the Native American who is always an outsider yet feels the bonds of brotherhood more keenly than anyone else.
Eastwood didn't need to offer any more proof that he's a great director, but he does. "Flags of Our Fathers" is unforgettable.
Rated R for sequences of graphic war violence and carnage, and for language.
Four and a half stars (out of five).
