Movie Review: Flags of Our Fathers
May 1st, 2008 by admin
- Director: Clint Eastwood
- Genre: War/Drama/Action/History
- Year: 2006
It took me a while to get on the boat of this one, even after I had heard amazing commentary on this film, the first of two parts of Clint Eastwood’s Iwo Jima series. Even though the film was not very well marketed and not as openly received by the mainstream media which was expecting an action packed film, this war movie, in the way Terrence Malik’s The Thin Red Line did, brings a heavy amount of thought upon this movie.
Intended to shed some light on the topic that was brought up by the book of the same title, Flags of Our Fathers sets out to delve into the accounts that led to what perhaps became the single most famous picture ever taken during World War II and as it is explained in the movie, sometimes it is pictures that can change the outcome of the war.
Thoroughly the movie tells in a non linear fashion, the unfolding of the events that lead to the planting of that flag and the importance, while looking into the lives of those that were there for the moment and those that by fate were put there even though they were not.
Sober in it theme, this movie is a gem, with Eastwood’s signature directing quality and interesting visuals, which were desaturated and tinted on the green side to give the movie a stylistic, but fitting, retro look that nearly kicks it back to black and white, without ever becoming such.
A huge recommendation on this one.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Notes: Violence, language, disturbing images and war sequences.
Quote: Lundsford: You actually chose the Marines because they had the best uniforms?
Rene Gagnon: No sense being a hero if you don’t look like one.