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List Price: $34.99 | | Label: Dreamworks Video
Salesrank: 65851
Released: May 22, 2007 |
| Our Price: $9.99 |
| Used Price: $3.20 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Chronicles one of the bloodiest battles of World War II, focusing on the men who raised the flag at Iwo Jima and were subsequently hailed as heroes and used to raise money for the war effort.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 22-MAY-2007
Media Type: DVD
Description of Flags of Our Fathers (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition):
Thematically ambitious and emotionally complex, Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers is an intimate epic with much to say about war and the nature of heroism in America. Based on the non-fiction bestseller by James Bradley (with Ron Powers), and adapted by Million Dollar Baby screenwriter Paul Haggis (Jarhead screenwriter William Broyles Jr. wrote an earlier draft that was abandoned when Eastwood signed on to direct), this isn't so much a conventional war movie as it is a thought-provoking meditation on our collective need for heroes, even at the expense of those we deem heroic. In telling the story of the six men (five Marines, one Navy medic) who raised the American flag of victory on the battle-ravaged Japanese island of Iwo Jima on February 23rd, 1945, Eastwood takes us deep into the horror of war (in painstakingly authentic Iwo Jima battle scenes) while emphasizing how three of the surviving flag-raisers (played by Adam Beach, Ryan Phillippe, and Jesse Bradford) became reluctant celebrities – and resentful pawns in a wartime publicity campaign – after their flag-raising was immortalized by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal in the most famous photograph in military history.
As the surviving flag-raisers reluctantly play their public roles as "the heroes of Iwo Jima" during an exhausting (but clearly necessary) wartime bond rally tour, Flags of Our Fathers evolves into a pointed study of battlefield valor and misplaced idolatry, incorporating subtle comment on the bogus nature of celebrity, the trauma of battle, and the true meaning of heroism in wartime. Wisely avoiding any direct parallels to contemporary history, Eastwood allows us to draw our own conclusions about the Iwo Jima flag-raisers and how their postwar histories (both noble and tragic) simultaneously illustrate the hazards of exploited celebrity and society's genuine need for admirable role models during times of national crisis. Flags of Our Fathers defies the expectations of those seeking a more straightforward war-action drama, but it's richly satisfying, impeccably crafted film that manages to be genuinely patriotic (in celebrating the camaraderie of soldiers in battle) while dramatizing the ultimate futility of war. Eastwood's follow-up film, Letters from Iwo Jima, examines the Iwo Jima conflict from the Japanese perspective. --Jeff Shannon
Beyond Flags of Our Fathers
Other World War II DVDs | 
Essential DVDs by Director Clint Eastwood | 
Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley |
Stills from Flags of Our Fathers (click for larger image) Flags of Our Fathers (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition) Reviews:
EASTWOOD CRACKS A TOUGH NUT! 
2009-11-21 - Just had a look at a description of the book on which this film was based. Made understandable the structure of the film which somewhat puzzled and a little disturbed me as I saw it. Felt the interweaving of combat with later events weakened the impact of each. However, turns out the book was an extensive study of the lives of 6 men and the combat which united them at the pole on which they placed and raised the American flag on a hill in Iwo Jima. Not having a mini-series of 10 or more hours at their disposal and yet having to, (by contractual arrangement), or wanting to, they had to cover both facets of the book in one two hour movie. They did a fine job. The combat scenes stand up very well, the civilian scenes less so since the personalities formed in the early years prior to service might have explained better the situational accommodations made to post-combat conditions. At any rate, this is a film worth seeing mostly for the thesis that men (and, now, women )in combat are mostly ordinary people who have to adjust to extraordinary circumstances and react often in extraordinary ways. While the brutality of war is suggested, no film can convey the extent to which fear, hatred, the close bonds of the primary group in the military, the shattering of bodies and souls, and sheer necessity create a boiling cauldron out of which anything can emerge.
Certainly, a notable film despite minor flaws.
Love the Blu Ray
2009-11-19 - This DVD is blu ray and really looks crystal clear on my HDTV! Great interactive menus and docudrama included.
The picture is set in WWII and has that "look" about it. It's NOT your TV, it's the way it was filmed. You know the story, six Marines raise the flag on Mt. Suribachi, in February of 1945. A picture was taken that mesmerised the country and the three marines that weren't killed, in the meantime, were sent on a bond tour that raised more money than ALL previous Bond tours combined! You learn about the men who raised the flags(yes there were TWO flags raised that day. The flag that became famous and which the picture won a Pulitzer prize was hardly even noticed when these Marines changed the first flag out, because a politician wanted that first flag) in a way that was never told before. Great story, well filmed! The actual war scenes are graphic, but the main story is about the men who raised the flag and less on the actual battle.
reasonably impressed 
2009-09-22 - With only a few reservations, I have to say I was reasonably impressed with this Clint Eastwood creation that documents the life stories of the men who raised the American flag at The Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. I thought they did a convincing job of showing us how facts and reality can be so liquid, how the government and military tries to manipulate the public and, ultimately, how the public so craves certain icons--heroes to hold high on their shoulders, worthy of such status or not--that they're willing to believe whatever they're sold. The war scenes I found brutally effective and gripping, something you just kind of sit there and absorb in a trance, vaguely thankful that the path of your life has never taken you there. I was also struck by the casual, accepted racism towards the Native American Ira Hayes. What a different world it was then, worse in many ways, but so much better in others as well. Using a cast of relative no-name actors also added to the overall effect for me; rarely was I thinking, Oh I remember him from some other movie or TV show. I did feel it dragged on at the end, getting perhaps overly sentimental with certain aspects. But still, I liked it overall. And the photo sequence that ran during the credits that was capped off by a film shot from the memorial on Iwo Jima today was a fitting touch to end on.
Flags of our fathers 
2009-08-28 - The movie helped personalize the fight of the generation that went before me. My father was a career man in the army and fought in WWII and the Korean War. Clint Eastwood did a wonderful thing by making this movie and the companion film, Letters from Iwo Jima. Both entertaining, informative, and insightful.
The Cliche Holds True 
2009-08-24 - More than ever... the Book is Far Better than the movie. The movie was a bit disjointed and didn't really delve into some of what made these men tick. The complexities associated with feelings experienced by the men who raised the flag on Iwo Jima, survived and then went on a war bond tour cannot be done justice on film. Too much detail is missed.
