Flags of Our Fathers
- Thread starter ylexot
- Start date
DotTheEyes
Movie Fan
I haven't read the novel, but the movie seems decent. Clint Eastwood's usually a decent director (though I thought Million Dollar Baby was incredibly overrated and The Aviator or Sideways deserved Best Picture at the Academy Awards) and the trailer was effective and interesting. I plan to see it at the theatre.
DotTheEyes
Movie Fan
By the way, here's the trailer for those interested.
DotTheEyes
Movie Fan
Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers is a very good film, but falls short of being a masterpiece.
The film has three separate timelines, each involving Joe Rosenthal's iconic photograph of a Navy corpsman and five Marines raising an American flag atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima. The first follows the six flag-raisers as they endure the infamous conflict, the second revolves around the three surviving flag-raisers who're ordered to go on a nationwide propaganda tour promoting the purchase of war bonds, and the third depicts one of the three's son, who is researching a novel about his father. Each, by itself, is fascinating, but the complicated way Eastwood chooses to jump between them throughout his two-hour-plus film can be either confusing or grating, or both at the same time.
Otherwise, this is a fine war picture. Eastwood's mastery of the camera has never been more evident and the performances are across-the-board terrific, especially Jesse Bradford's as the most celebrity-minded of the three flag-raisiers.
Overall, despite the single significant flaw I described above, I recommend Flag of Our Fathers because it's a challening, powerful, and stylish film.
The film has three separate timelines, each involving Joe Rosenthal's iconic photograph of a Navy corpsman and five Marines raising an American flag atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima. The first follows the six flag-raisers as they endure the infamous conflict, the second revolves around the three surviving flag-raisers who're ordered to go on a nationwide propaganda tour promoting the purchase of war bonds, and the third depicts one of the three's son, who is researching a novel about his father. Each, by itself, is fascinating, but the complicated way Eastwood chooses to jump between them throughout his two-hour-plus film can be either confusing or grating, or both at the same time.
Otherwise, this is a fine war picture. Eastwood's mastery of the camera has never been more evident and the performances are across-the-board terrific, especially Jesse Bradford's as the most celebrity-minded of the three flag-raisiers.
Overall, despite the single significant flaw I described above, I recommend Flag of Our Fathers because it's a challening, powerful, and stylish film.
matteressdancer
New Member
I am looking fwd to seein it! Its a big screen movie that will loose somthin on video!
Dougstermd
ORGASM DONOR
matteressdancer said:
MPDs are soo ghey!
matteressdancer
New Member
Dougstermd said:
takes one to know one
Bustem' Down
Give Peas a Chance
Good movie. 
Larry Gude
Strung Out
Does the movie...
...tell the fact that the picture we all know was staged? That the first flag that went up was under enemy fire as our guys first got to the top with only a handful of guys around? That the famous one was after we'd established control, with a bigger pole and flag and a small crowd?
...tell the fact that the picture we all know was staged? That the first flag that went up was under enemy fire as our guys first got to the top with only a handful of guys around? That the famous one was after we'd established control, with a bigger pole and flag and a small crowd?
Bustem' Down
Give Peas a Chance
Yes, that's actually a central part of the movie. It creates a lot of antagonism.Larry Gude said:
If I remember correctly from the book - that particular flag was run up from one of the battleships that had been bombarding the island because the powers that be said the other flag was too small and the US flag needed to be visible to all.
itsbob
I bowl overhand
Gagnon lived in my town (Rochester NH) he never publicly spoke about it, and if I remember correctly only gave ONE interview before his death. You woulnd't recognize him if you ran into him at the local store, or out fishing, he really was a VERY private person, that actully felt guilt for surviving.ylexot said:
Unlike the guy we saw in the papers around here wearing his own personally made flight suit with all his medals on it.
ylexot
Super Genius
No, that was the first one. Well, maybe there were three which would make the staged one the second flag raising (can't quite remember). THE PICTURE (the one that the whole book/movie is about) was NOT the staged one. It was the replacement for the staged one. The press was still there/packing up. The fact that a photo even exists was a fluke. I think the guy that took it was just using up the last of the film so he could get it developed.itsbob said:
itsbob
I bowl overhand
http://www.iwojima.com/raising/lflagi.gifylexot said:
The first flag raising.. if it was staged, they did a crappy job.. not very emotional..
how about the PAX RIVER conneciton!!
News pros were not the only ones bedazzled by the photo. Navy Captain T.B. Clark was on duty at Patuxent Air Station in Maryland that Saturday when it came humming off the wire. He studied it for a minute, and then thrust it under the gaze of Navy Petty Officer Felix de Weldon. De Weldon was an Austrian immigrant schooled in European painting and sculpture. De Weldon could not take his eyes off the photo. In its classic triangular lines he recognized similarities with the ancient statues he had studied. He reflexively reached for some sculptor's clay and tools. With the photograph before him he labored through the night. By dawn, he had replicated the six boys pushing a pole, raising a flag.[15]
I DIDN"T know that!! DeWeldon is who sculpted the Marine Corps Memorial!!
So there is a HUGE connection between the marine Corps Memorial and Pax River, yet there isn't even a sniff of it on base..
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itsbob said:
the same person who sculpted the Marine Corps Memorial also sculpted the Crucifix that is hanging in St. Nicholas Chapel on base. There have been numerous articles, over the years, about the relationship between the base and the Marine Corps Memorial. There is even a monument in front of the Chapel depicting the memorial and it's associtation with the base.