Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
There were five Marines and one Navy Corpsman photographed raising the U.S. flag on Mt. Suribachi by Joe Rosenthal on February 23, 1945. This is the story of three of the six surviving servicemen - John 'Doc' Bradley, Pvt. Rene Gagnon and Pvt. Ira Hayes - who fought in the battle to take Iwo Jima from the Japanese.
Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers takes an interesting structural approach, intercutting the brutal Iwo Jima combat with the survivors' uncomfortable stateside war-bond tour, deconstructing the mythology of heroism. The cinematography is genuinely exceptional — Roger Deakins' desaturated, almost monochromatic battle sequences are harrowing and visually distinctive. The acting is solid across the board without being particularly standout. The plot's non-linear structure is ambitious but can feel fragmented and emotionally distant, preventing full investment in the characters. The ending dissipates rather than lands with impact, closing on a reflective but somewhat muted note that undercuts the emotional accumulation. As a companion piece to Letters from Iwo Jima it has more conceptual novelty than it achieves on its own terms.