Below is my review of Flags of our Fathers that I posted on my web site, World War II Gyrene, on 20 October 2006:
http://www.ww2gyrene.org/weblog.htm
I watched Flags Of Our Fathers at the local theater yesterday. I couldn't wait until tonight when the local Marine contingent heads to the flick. FOOF, in my opinion, does a good job of telling its story.
This film covers a lot of ground and tries to keep several (I lost count at four) story lines going at the same time. Sometimes while watching, I got lost trying to figure out who was who as the scenes switched back and forth from Iwo Jima, the war bond tour, and the 1990s.
I have a special place in my heart for Mike Strank, and I wear a KIA bracelet every day with his name engraved on it. Barry Pepper played him in Flags and I felt he did a very serviceable job. He looked like a Marine NCO and obviously was comfortable in the role.
The absolute stand-out of this film was Adam Beach. As Ira Hayes, he hit the ball out of the park. Beach was so believable as the tormented Marine, it was almost eerie. Beach has mastered his craft and grown as an actor since his last Marine role, Pvt Ben Yahzee in Windtalkers. As the film portrayed the war bonds tour and Hayes' struggle with alcohol and his memories, I really felt his pain.
It seemed as though the film was built around Beach, since he was really the only character who had much depth to him. I never figured out whether or not this was on purpose or not. It was hard to keep track of who Harlon Block and Franklin Sousley were, since they weren't clearly identified early in the film. Hank Hansen was easy to spot when he was wearing his steel pot without a helmet cover. Otherwise, he would've been lost in the crowd too.
I really wanted to identify with these Marines, but instead I felt oddly detached. Even Doc Bradley and Rene Gagnon were both pretty much one-dimensional characters. Doc was earnest and serious. Rene was a climber looking for fame.
The Iwo Jima scenes were critical, and here Flags stood out. As one of the most filmed campaigns of World War II, there was little wiggle room in portraying the combat of Iwo. The production team just couldn't afford to get the 75% solution in the combat scenes. It had to be spot-on, and Flags delivered. At times, I felt right in the moment watching these parts. They even went to the trouble of recreating some famous battle photographs during the filming in Iceland.
Coming in to the theater, I was wondering if the combat footage was going to be as punishing to watch as Saving Private Ryan. While graphic and brutal, Flags didn't leave me feeling exhausted and depressed the way SPR did. We've seen way too much over the top — almost surreal — violence in films in the past several years. Flags left me with no doubt that Iwo Jima was shockingly horrific, but the pacing gave me time to breath.
From the nit picky, military viewpoint, there were a couple of things I spotted in the film that made me scratch my head. When the convoy arrived off Iwo Jima, the Marines spent D–1 sitting on the weather deck of their transport watching the shore bombardment. During the night, Sgt Strank sits topside reading a letter by the light of his cigarette lighter within range of the Japanese guns on Mount Suribachi. As far as I know, this whole sequence was made up for the movie.
From the super nit picky military viewpoint, all the watertight doors on the ship were standing wide open every time I saw them on screen. Especially at battle stations off the island, every water tight door would've been dogged. Submarine and aerial attacks were a real concern to every ship's crew.
And then there was the swimming on the beach scene, which I won't say anything about since I don't want to spoil the film for you. To find out about this one, you'll have to go see Flags yourself.
So, what grade does Flags Of Our Fathers get from World War II Gyrene? I give it a passable B– for its portrayal of this defining event in our history. Like every film, there were areas that could've been improved on. But in general, the story moved along and did its job. My only big complaint was the shallow character development—except for Ira Hayes, I never felt a true connection to the characters, even though I really wanted to.
Below are some comments I made about the film a few days after I saw the film with more specifics:
1) The portrayal of General Vandegrift during the Chicago scenes. First of all the 18th Commandant of the Marine Corps wasn't a fat guy as depicted by the actor in the film. General Vandegrift was tall with proportional weight. Many of his contemporaries described him with words such as, "polite," "stately," "dignified," etc. His depiction on screen did a disservice to him and the Marine Corps. His calm leadership and decisive command presence were bopth key reasons why he was awarded the Medal of Honor for the campaign on Guadalcanal. General Vandegrift was a Virginia gentleman of the old school, not a loud mouth like the actor who was chosen to play him on screen.
As one of the architects of the World War II Marine Corps, he fully understood the citizen-Marine nature of the wartime Corps. He was reputed to have his driver stop during trips around Washington, DC, to give enlisted Marines a lift. The scene where he bawls out the flag raisers at the stadium entrance, according to all accounts, did not happen.
2) When the invasion fleet put into harbor at Saipan on February 11th, 1945, the assault companies of 2/28, including Easy Company, cross decked from the USS Missoula (APA 211) into LSTs 14, 15, and 28. They rode the LSTs from Saipan to the Transport Area off Iwo Jima. The scene where they sit on the deck of the Lane Victory watching the shore bombardment on D-1 was a total fiction. The LST convoy reached the Transport Area early in the morning of D-Day. The convoy was in enemy waters when it reached Iwo and the crews were at battle stations. Marines weren't allowed to sit on deck within effective range of enemy shore batteries at night reading letters by cigarette lighter. They were at darken ship and sealed in their berthing compartments until called to debarkation stations.
3) General Smith wasn't on the Missoula during the run-in to Iwo. He was a colorful character, and an outstanding combat leader, but the conference where Pfc Gagnon was a runner on the wall never happened, by all accounts. General Smith was the Commander of Expeditionary Troops, a largely ceremonial post. General Harry Schmidt exercised tactical control as the Commander of the Vth Amphibious Corps. General Smith was embarked on the command ship, USS Eldorado and didn't attend any meetings on the Missoula.
4) General Smith landed on D+4 with SecNav Forrestal and the SecNav uttered words to the effect, "that flag up there guarantees a Marine Corps for the next five hundred years." (There were a couple of different variations recorded by different witnesses.) No one who was present ever wrote that the SecNav said "I want that flag." It's true he later wrote a memo that he wanted the flag to display in his office. But the implication in the film was that he personally wanted the flag as a memento. His intent was to display the flag in an official capacity.
I think Flags Of Our fathers was a good movie. But, in my opinion, it played fast and loose with some of the history, which isn't a surprise.
