Flags of our Fathers

Flags of our Fathers is a powerful movie based on the book by James Bradley and Ron Powers published in May 2000 and is the first in a two movie series on Iwo Jima. The second movie, Letters from Iwo Jima, tells the story from the Japanese perspective and is due out next summer. The Japanese government would not permit filming of combat scenes on Iwo Jima, so action scenes were filmed in Iceland as its black sand beaches resemble those of Iwo Jima.

The movie is only partially about Iwo Jima. The raising of the flag at Iwo Jima represents what the media could do in shaping how history is remembered. A group of men ordered to replace a flag and put up a new one, and because a photo was taken and passed on to the right hands at the right time, a myth was borne. Yet that famous photo inspired a nation.

This movie is saying a lot and does so with some subtly. There isn’t much of a trace of an agenda in the movie. And there was plenty of opportunity. However, what does this movie say about us? Yet another important symbol is today much less than it was. Does it matter that the events taking place in that famous photo were seen at the time by those involved as nothing more than insignificant? They were just following orders and replaced a flag. Does the act have to have meaning for those involved? After all, only reason we even know of Thomas Jefferson today as the author of the declaration is because no one at the time considered it an important job. He got stuck with the job. But what he was apart of is still, justifiably, an important historical event.

The fate of Ira Hayes, one of the six flag barriers, is perhaps the best aspect of the film. Unlike Windtalkers (which was to be a movie about Navajo Indians in WWII but ended up being about Nic Cage), finally a historically based movie provides some depth and honesty to an American Indian character.

So, if you’re looking for a Saving Private Ryan (a movie I also really like) type of presentation stay home (not that there isn’t some serious war action) as this movie is aiming a little higher on the intellectual and cultural ladder.