FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS, a Clint Eastwood film

You mean only a Japanese filmmaker should make a movie from the Japanese point-of-view? What are you, ten-years-old? What about Clint Eastwood's body of work and reputation as an artist makes you unsure about his "real motivation"?

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

One of my favorite directors doing a ww2 film, nice, except........

Iwo Jima, it's a touchy subject, how will it be done? I suppose I should look up the book.

And Japanese POV? I know we are supposed to be revisionist, but let's not forget that the Japanese were no nicer than the germans when it came to the likes of China, and especially the Phillippines.

Then again, not every japanese soldier was evil, not every nazi solider was evil.

But lets make some good films showing just what Japan really DID do besides torture US Pows.

Schindler's list, saving private ryan, The Pianist, Uprising, all very good pictures depicting the horrors committed by the germans.

Japan needs the same treatment as well, IMO.

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Somehow, this is the first that I've heard of the movie but I already cant wait for it.

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"Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country." -Patton 1970

No, I am 30 years old. You could easily have checked out my profile if you wondered about my age. Are you entering menopause, Holden? You seem a little egdy when your house gods are being questioned.

Ok, here's an answer to your question:

There is nothing about Eastwood's other films that makes me unsure about this project, although Million Dollar Baby showed Eastwood taking a direction towards a style that favours sentimentality and manipulation of the audience over realism.

Anyway, no I don't think that only a japanese filmmaker should make a film about the japanese point-of-view. And that wasn't my point. I am just curious about Eastwood's reasons for making two films. The interview didn't give any indication of the movies containing complexity or problematization about the two sides. There's one good, and one bad, no obscurity about that. There is one script that is darker than the other, apparently. I think it is possible that Lamps Before the Wind, if put in contrast to Flags of Our Fathers, rather than giving the impression of both sides of the story being told, instead will help to emphasize what the filmmaker considers as being good and evil. I think there's a big possibility that we will get two very good and "entertaining" war movies from Eastwood. As I said, I am really looking forward to them. But that interview didn't give me the impression that we will get both sides of the story (if we by that mean some kind of complete objectivity) even if that is how they will sell it. And I really don't have a problem with it...

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The novelist does not long to see the lion eat grass. He realizes that one and the same God created the wolf and the lamb, then smiled, "seeing that his work was good".

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They had temporarily escaped the factories, the warehouses, the slaughterhouses, the car washes - they'd be back in captivity the next day but now they were out - they were wild with freedom. They weren't thinking about the slavery of poverty. Or the slavery of welfare and food stamps. The rest of us would be all right until the poor learned how to make atom bombs in their basements.

I'm not a big fan of war movies, but this looks like a very interesting pair, from a cinematographic point of view. If Eastwood can balance these stories, it will be as profound as Kurosawa's Rashomon, but with immediate and obvious relation to current events. Could be history in the making.

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Review: Cabin in the Woods 8/10

I'll be honest and say that i used to be pretty ignorant of Eastwoods work (Acting and Directing) until i saw Million Dollar Baby and i was so impressed with what he done to Haggis's script that i'm now really interested in him. Can't wait for this to come out.

Anyone got any reccomendations for me to enjoy until Flags is released? I havn't even seen the Dollars trilogy.

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Pumpkins scream in the DEAD of night!

Unforgiven, A Perfect World and Bird are the three absolute must-sees in my book. Lots of other good ones, but those three are masterworks.

I'd recommend The Good, The bad and The Ugly.

True Grit. Nuff said.

Anywho, but I'm sure the japanese POV will be a cliche portrayal of the supposed kamikaze die for the empire type deal that shows that even though the japs were evil, they had honor!

Quentin Tarantino would cry for joy.

Woah some quick recommends there. They are now all on my LoveFilm list. I'm looking forward to Unforgiven most. All i have heard is goodness.

Still no trailer yet, but here's the poster for Flags of Our Fathers...



It's set for release on October 20th.


Clint's companion film about the battle from the Japanese perspective, Red Sun, Black Sand starring Ken Watanabe, is set for a December awards-qualifying release. No trailer or poster for that one yet.

Interesting. A couple of days ago I watched a discussion on a swedish morning show on TV. Apparently there's a photographer that's been manipulating with photo material from the war in Lebanon and there were two photographers invited to discuss legendary manipulated war photographs. The most famous ones are the one of the dying soldier in the Spanish Civil War, the photo of soldiers raising the Soviet flag on a church tower (?) in Berlin during the Red Army's march into Berlin in WWII and then the soldiers raising the Stars and Stripes after victory in Iwo Jima. According to these two experts in the studio it took the photographer something like 14 or 17 shots before he got the picture he wanted.

As the photograph is staged, it's with great interest that I look forward to seeing this film by Eastwood. I wonder why he chose this famous image to promote his new film. It could be for a number of reasons, but two possible ones are that he either wants to tell the story neatly and in the same "staged" manner as the photo (and later on sculpture) the poster is being modelled after. Or he could be saying: "This is how victory has been portraited as in the past. Here's the Eastwood version." And, no, I haven't read the book. It is based on a book, right?

Yes, that photo was staged. It was recreating a moment that had actually happened, but yes, the most famous photograph of World War II (and one of the most famous images of the 20th Century) was staged.

The book Flags of Our Fathers, as well as Eastwood's film, recount all the details of that image, from the battle, to the staging, to the fates of the young men in that picture. They were trotted around the United States on publicity tours afterward, to boost homefront morale and infuse the war effort. Most of them died in action shortly after returning to the Pacific. What makes the book so interesting, and I'm sure by extension the film, is that it covers all of this ground, not glossing over anything.

So yes, it is staged. No, that's no State secret. And after the movie opens, millions more people from different generations will know the heroism of that battle as well as the manipulation of the image.

Eh, ok. Did I in some way imply that it was a State secret? Even if I don't think you meant to I guess you just answered my question about what kind of film at least YOU think, or want, Eastwood to make. Wouldn't you agree that the manipulation of the image of something also is to manipulate what the image represents? That's what caused the interest I was talking about in my previous post, not the very well known fact itself. I mean, sure, every movie ever made is manipulating the audience in some way, but I'm just curious about if Eastwood chooses to play along with traditional conceptions or if he will challenge them or examine them in some way.

Btw, have you seen the film? Not saying this to be a smartass in any way, but it's not clear to me if it's finished or not. And I know that you often attends preview screenings, so...

Both the photo of the flag raising on Iwo Jima and the photo of MacArthur wading ashore in the Philippines were re-enacted. That is not to say that they did not take place, just that no camera was around to immortalize the original moment.

P.S. The battle for Iwo Jima was far from over when the original flag raising took place

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Ain't no rocket scientists in the Fire Hall

I don't believe Clint has finished editing it yet, and no, I haven't seen it. But I have read the book, which I recommend.

I know. What I'm getting at has very little to do with if the photo was staged or not but more with the fact that Eastwood (or the production company) uses a very well known image with tons of meanings for people, made/staged to bring a certain kind of meanings to people, to promote the film. It is of course a pretty logical step in terms of promotion strategy since the audience immediately knows exactly what this film is about (it certainly awoke my interest, as you probably understand by now), they don't need a tagline for that one. The staged photo itself bears little relevance, even if the fact that it is staged is interesting, but using it raises the level of expectation among the audience to a certain level, and to a high level as well. And I'm interested in what Eastwood will do with that.

I'm not trying to pick a fight, but I honestly have no idea what you're trying to say.

OK, HERE's the first look at some footage for Flags of Our Fathers and Red Sun, Black Sand. This is a Japanese teaser, and it incorporates scenes from both films. The Japanese isn't subtitled, but here's the first taste...

SMALLER FORMAT or LARGER FORMAT

Greatness! I am looking forward to this movie!