Product Description

From Academy Award-winning director Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby, Unforgiven) comes the World Was II epic Flags of Our Fathers, produced by Eastwood, Academy Award winner Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List), and Rob Lorenz (Mystic River), and from a screenplay adapted by William Broyles, Jr. (Cast Away) and Oscar winner Paul Haggis (Million Dollar Baby, Crash).
February 1945. Even as victory in Europe was finally within reach, the war in the Pacific raged on. One of the most crucial and bloodiest battles of the war was the struggle for the island of Iwo Jima, which culminated with what would become one of the most iconic images in history: five Marines and a Navy corpsman raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi. The inspiring photo capturing that moment became a symbol of victory to a nation that had grown weary of war and made instant heroes of the six American soldiers at the base of the flag, some of whom would die soon after, never knowing that they had been immortalized. But the surviving flag raisers had no interest in being held up as symbols and did not consider themselves heroes; they wanted only to stay on the front with their brothers in arms who were fighting and dying without fanfare or glory.
Flags of Our Fathers is based on the bestselling book by James Bradley with Ron Powers, which chronicled the battle of Iwo Jima and the fates of the flag raisers and some of their brothers in Easy Company. Bradley’s father, John "Doc" Bradley, was one of the soldiers pictured raising the flag, although James never knew the full extent of his father’s experiences until after the elder Bradley’s death in 1994.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5496 in DVD
• Brand: Paramount
• Released on: 2007-02-06
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Korean
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 132 minutes

Amazon.com
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

Customer Reviews

Read the Book FIRST!!!
For all the negative responses to the movie "Flags of Our Fathers" I would guess 85% did not read the book with the same title by James Bradley, son of John "Doc" Bradley. This book will give you the whole, true story of what the movie is all about with many details not shown in the film. You will get so much more out of the movie. I can't even fathom seeing the film beforehand. I am absolutely NOT soliciting the book but I am personally acquainted with the Bradley family and my extended family from Antigo, Wisconsin were very good friends with John and continue to be with his wife Betty. My cousins went to school with James and his siblings. John was the funeral director for my grandmother and others I know. I have attended memorials for "Jack" in Appleton, WI (where he went to school), after the book was released. Jim Bradley, the author of "Flags of Our Fathers" agonized over writing the book and consulted with his family whether to do it until he got the go ahead from his mother. Since his father only spoke of the war once to his family is the reason, in the movie, there isn't much personal information on him. People who wrote other reviews stated that they were confused as to why James was interviewing other WWII, Iwo Jima families. This is why. As for the other "stars" of the movie, which very little is said about their personal lives before and then again after the war you will find many details in the book which will help you to understand what lies beneath each personality. I cried when I read the book and I cried when I saw the movie. PLEASE read the book first, or if you've already seen the movie before reading the book, read it and then go back and see the movie again!

Flawed But Still Powerful
Iwo Jima ("Sulfur Island" in Japanese) is a little island six hundred miles south of Tokyo. (Today there is only a Japanese military base now, and you cannot visit the island.) But the name of the island got famous immediately after one photo was taken and published in America nationwide during WWII. The memorable image of six soldiers raising a flag gave courage to the people in America, and three surviving soldiers returning their country became national heroes. It's a famous story.

Clint Eastwood's new film `Flags of Our Fathers' does not try to `debunk' this story. It gives human face to these flag-holing soldiers without over-glorifying them, showing what happened to these heroes John "Doc" Bradley (Ryan Phillippe), Rene Gagnon (Jesse Bradford) and Ira Hayes (Adam Beach) before, during, and after the Battle of Iwo Jima. Familiar actors like Jamie Bell, Paul Walker, Robert Patrick and Barry Pepper appear, but the three above play the pivotal roles here.

Remember this is a war movie, and the battle scenes on the beach are often disturbing. (One of the film's producers is Steven Spielberg). Though the fight scenes are less bloody and brutal than those of `Saving Private Ryan,' they are still honest, often shocking, not only because of the bullets and grenades, but because of the confusion and total chaos of the grey-colored battlefield. Eastwood refuses to soften or sensationalize anything, but the results are riveting.

Though the film's theme is clear, its narrative requires our patience a little. The film's story goes back and forth (screenplay part done by Paul Haggis, `Crush'), and this only makes the film look slightly detached from us. The disjointed story requires us to reconstruct, not follow, the experiences of the soldiers. The emotions are certainly there on the screen (thanks to the effective acting), but I am not sure that this is the best way to visualize them. But as I said, the three actors did a fine job as three soldiers who travel around the country for Bond rallies where they have to face another reality during wartime - they are war heroes and people expect them to behave as such.

Finally, some people, not without good reason, say this film is dull. It is true that Eastwood's films tend to be slow, and he takes time to show certain things about the characters. He avoids melodramatic storytelling and showy camerawork, and that does not change in this film. If the battle scenes look confusing, it is perhaps because the war is confusing. If the descirtios of their life as war hero look boring, that is because it is really boring; they were required to do the same thing again and again before finally being forgotten. We just share their feeling, but perhaps too much of it.

This is Clint Eastwood's most ambitious film (and there is "Letters from Iwo Jima" still waiting), and maybe too ambitious as far as its screenplay is concerned. I am impressed with the film, however, with the sincere message from the director who realized the one of the saddest events in history for both people in America and Japan with his touch subtle and powerful at the same time.

Flags of our Fathers
This is one of the best war movies ever mad. It realy shows what alot
of the soldiers went through. A great cast and terrific action.