Every country needs heroes, symbols of hope in times of trouble and despair.  Director Clint Eastwood, who has played dozens of heroes in his time from Dirty Harry to the man-with-no-name, tackles the myth of heroes during the difficult times when the U.S. goes to war.

The film, FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS itself begins with a nightmare.  Later on in the film, a character talks of making sense of war’s unbelievable cruelty.  FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS proves that this cruelty is more mental than the physical wounds and deaths that plague the victims of war.  It is the reality of how ones basic faith in the country, fellowmen and oneself is truly shaken.  The question of whether how celebrated heroes survive (or not) is director Eastwood’s story.

The life stories of the six men who raised the flag at The Battle of Iwo Jima, a turning point in WWII are examined.  The men were deemed heroes, but there were more to it than the iconic photograph of heroism.  That flag was actually raised twice.  No one can really determine who the men were as their faces are unseen.  But the U.S. politicians pick their heroic marines to help sell war bonds to raise the much needed funds to continue and eventually win the war. The story is told from the point of view of one marine John ‘doc’ Bradley (Ryan Phillippe), whose son reveals the story of his father to a reporter as the film is told in flashback.

FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS is perhaps Eastwood’s most difficult film.  And it shows!  First of all there are too many stories to tell.  Eastwood’s focus on the film on Doc, then follows on Ira, then Rene.  Eastwood’s use of too many flashbacks tends to add confusion to the story.  Being a film about WWII, a topic that has been filmed countless times, segments of Eastwood’s film look copied.  The scenes of the American landing on Iwo Jima are reminiscent of the opening sequence in Steven Spielberg’s SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and the ending segment of the soldiers bathing in the sea of APLOCALYPSE NOW.  For a film about the invasion of Iwo Jima, hardly any Japanese faces are seen, though Eastwood will probably make up for it when the Japanese equivalent version of this film (also directed by Eastwood) telling the Japanese side is released early next year.  Still Eastwood’s film contains many scenes of graphic horror – a severed head staring into the sky; a wounded soldier pushing his guts back into his body; a soldier with eyes gouged out taken on stretcher.  But the most startling effects are subtler ones.  The scene where a marine falling overboard is left in the water (illustrating the unstoppable monstrous war machine) or the one where another falls off the climbing rope into the sea (showing the inexperience of the young men) are just as telling.

FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS, photographed by Tom Stern who did ROAD TO PERDITION and AMERICAN BEAUTY is magnificent to look at.  The old fashions, vintage vehicles, props and music by Eastwood himself all add to a realistic WW11 atmospheric feel.  The battle scenes are coloured to look like the old WWII films.  Eastwood’s films tend more to rely on images than on long speeches to make a point.  The short heroic speech by Rene (Jesse Bradford) is given the appreciative nod by his colleagues.  But the long lost stares of the mothers who have lost their sons in the war say and relate more sentiment than any dialogue that can be written.  A bit of irony is added to complete the picture.  The Indian hero, Ira (Adam Beech) is kicked out of a bar that does not serve Indians.  Ira delivers a speech on the world being a better one but he has difficulty finding work later on.  But Eastwood’s cross cutting of two key segments - the actual battle on Iwo Jima and the spectacle of the reenactment of the flag raising in a packed stadium is the most effective in relaying the message of irony.

It is difficult to find a suitable ending for a film like FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS.  The choice of the marines bathing in their underwear in the Japanese sea is not a bad one.  It depicts both the futility of war and allows the audience to bathe in a false sense of a happy ending when leaving the theatre.  FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS is not a good a film as MYSTIC RIVER or MILLION DOLLAR BABY, mainly for the reason that it is a more complex film posing more difficulties like the lack of a main character or even a real hero that would itself defeat the main idea for this film.  But full credit to Eastwood for attempting such an ambitious film.  The biggest irony here is that when this film and Martin Scorsese’s THE DEPARTED go up for the Best Picture Oscar next year, THE DEPARTED will probably win, not because THE DEPARTED is the better picture (though it is, and this is the irony) but because it is Scorsese’s time.