Wavering Flags

"Flags of Our Fathers" is the latest from the arguably brilliant director Clint Eastwood. I don't know how excited I was about seeing the film but I knew it was one of those "must see, how could you miss it" films that comes along only once in a while. I can spare you dear reader, from spending more than $4 or a Netflix mailer on this film, because it is a rental to be sure. I didn't hate the film by any means but I also didn't really get it.

I think that Eastwood did not successfully make the film he set out to make. The story was not solid enough. I know it was based on real-life events and do not want to dishonor the memory of the men who make up the story but there are different ways to talk about the same event and this, to me, was not the most effective way. I was not invested in any of the characters, could not keep straight who was who (there are the present-day older men and their younger versions in war and it was unclear as to who was who). There were a few soldiers who came in and out of the story and eventually died though it was difficult to discern who died when soldiers fell so investment in those characters was tough too. The story went from present-day to the battlefield to post-battlefield and those three time periods became muddled quite often.

It was interesting to learn more about the cloudy history that surrounds much of our nation's successes in war, but if you don't know much about it by now, my advice it to wait a little while longer to find out about Iwo Jima.

Oscar Buzz? Yes, publications are mentioning Adam Beach, the man who played the Pima Indian soldier and also the pretty Ryan Phillipe for potential nods. I'd say that Beach has a chance of nomination but not of a win ("The Departed" might kill everyone who didn't die during the end sequences of the film). Phillipe's recent split with Reese may affect his nominations chance at this point if politics come into play at this stage in the game. Either way, I don't see him winning either. The way the story was written didn't allow for a fully developed characterization of either man.

Overall, the film was negatively impacted by a loosely written film about a specific and important time in our history.