Flags of Our Fathers Review - full version

First off, it’s been a couple of years since I read the book, but I do remember that it was not an easy story to tell in a narrative, and that comes through in movie. It’s clear the filmmakers struggled to resolve the two main storylines, that of the Battle of Iwo Jima and the flag-raising, and that of the surviving flag-raisers’ Victory Bond tour several months later. What they came up with was to interweave the two stories, jumping back and forth between them at points of connection. At times, this technique works very well, showing how the Marines could not leave the war behind, even when ensconced in luxury and waited on hand and foot. It can also be a useful way to stress the emotion of what the men had to go through, both on the island and back in the States. At other times, however, it’s jarring and disorienting, even for someone like me who has a pretty good knowledge of the battle and the war in general. My companion, who does not have that advantage, found herself constantly unable to follow the movie, and basically checked out as a result. The biggest problem here, I think, is that the filmmakers don’t just jump around between the two storylines, but also within the storylines, making it all that much harder to know exactly where and when you are watching. After a while, you begin to wonder if maybe they should have just gone with a chronological storyline, and let everything else play out on its own.

This editing becomes more problematic towards the end of the film, as the Iwo Jima storyline falls away, and the post-war storyline then peters out. The result is one of the more common complaints among moviegoers lately: a movie that you keep expecting to end, but that keeps going. After about 20 minutes, you find yourself looking for them to just up the epilogue in text at the end, like we’ve seen a million times. Instead, they batter the audience with more emotional scenes, heaping it on in obvious ways, right down to a bedside confession of inadequacy as a father (I checked; it's not in the book). I was determined to stay to the end, but it really wasn’t easy. In fact, the credits have more emotional punch, using pictures of the Marines on Iwo Jima along with the names of the actors who portrayed them.

Before it sounds like I absolutely hated the movie, I didn’t. In fact, overall, I’d say I liked it, but at least the final third left an unpleasant taste in my mouth. Before that, however, there was much to like about it. The visual effects during the war scenes are outstanding. The use of CGI is about as seamless as I’ve ever seen it, and as a result, the experience of the battle scenes is striking. It easily approaches the experience of Saving Private Ryan, and at times might even surpass it. And like I said before, the connection the film makes between what the men experienced on Iwo Jima, both before and after the flag-raising, and what they experienced trying to get on with their lives after their return is very powerful at times. And finally, the movie reminds us that World War II was not always seen as the “Good War”, even as victory was in sight. The need to have the surviving flag-raisers go around the country to sell war bonds in order to keep the war effort supplied is one of the centers of the movie and will probably come as a shock to some viewers. Whether or not the U.S. would have had to accept Japanese terms if the 7^th bond drive failed might be questionable, but the movie certainly shows how hard it was to keep the American public behind the war just three years in (one wonders what a Brit, Russian, or German would have thought about that situation, having at that point been through five years of more devastating war themselves), as well as what effect the picture of the flag-raising had on the public, from politicians down to the families the flag-raisers who did not survive the battle.

So while the movie may have been a disappointment (OK, I had pretty high expectations going in, so maybe that was inevitable on some level), I would still recommend seeing it, especially for the historical perspective. Just be prepared to have to pay close attention to the various storylines, and to suffer a bit towards the end.