Movie Review: Flags of Our Fathers

Sunday afternoon my father-in-law and I saw Clint Eastwood's "Flags of our Fathers". A few years ago, my father-in-law bought me the James Bradley book upon which the movie was based. Personally, I thought the movie was fantastic, worthy of future DVD purchase and possibly Oscar caliber.

Flags of our Fathers is about the famous photograph by Joe Rosenthal, on top of Mt. Suribachi in the island of Iwo Jima by members of the U.S. Marines, Easy Company, 5th Marine Division, V Amphibious Corps on February 23, 1945. The movie looks at the lives of the three surviving flag raisers as they appear on the 7th Bond Tour for the United States Government. It shows the conflict that they went through internally as they were routinely called "the Heros of Iwo Jima!" The movie does a good job of showing how they did not consider themselves "heros", and that the real heros were the Marines who never made it off that island.

The book, is written by James Bradley, the son of John Bradley, one of the flag raisers. James Bradley makes a point of saying that he was unaware of his father's involvement in the flag raising. James finds out about his father's role in history after his father's death. The books emphasis was more on the lives of the flag raisers before the war, and how each one of them came to be on Iwo Jima an Mt. Suribachi. Only about a third of the book is dedicated to the Bond Tour itself.

All in all, Flags of our Fathers, the movie, contains a great story line, some great battle scenes (although not as good as Saving Private Ryan), and a strong historical message. The movie is worth watching, the book was definitely worth reading.