Flags of Our Fathers

Red Eye Rundown
Weak script, slow dialogue, some reasonable performances are it's saving grace.
Why not try Band of Brothers Saving Private Ryan Kelly's Heroes
 
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Reviewed by Jo Pettitt
Flags Of Our Fathers will definitely go down for me as one of 2007's big disappointments. I had very high hopes; Eastwood in the director's chair, Steven Spielberg as co-producer and Paul Haggis (Crash) writing the screenplay - it was the recipe for an Oscar-winner. The novel from which the film has been adapted presents a fascinating plot; Flags of our Fathers attempts to expose the dirty underbelly of domestic war politics, as the three remaining "heroes" of Iwo Jima are paraded in front of the social elite of America as political chess pieces in a massive drive to sell war bonds. Leaving the cinema, I can't help but feel that all I'd seen was at best a poorly produced documentary, and at worst a weak script, poor dialogue, the odd action sequence and a total lack of musical soundtrack thrown together in half a day in the cutting room.

Flags Of Our Fathers attempts to simultaneously follow three separate storylines: (1) The beach landings on Iwo Jima (2) The Bond tour headlined by John "Doc" Bradley (Phillippe) Rene Gagnon (Bradford) and Ira Hayes (Beach), the surviving members of the flag raising party, and finally (3) the authors quest to learn more about his father and the events that occurred on Iwo Jima. Unfortunately, Paul Haggis fails to provide any clarity to the scene switching. The narrators randomly change without warning, and several scenes are abandoned, leaving you feeling as though they are incomplete, in order to focus on a different part of the storyline. The quality of the script in general is poor - there are no memorable lines, no deep or thought-provoking dialogue, and perhaps worst of all there is a total lack of character development. The consequence of this is that as a viewer you don't become emotionally involved with the film, and if there is any réason d'etre for war films it is to evoke feeling and reaction.

Ryan Phillippe puts in a well-balanced, mature performance in a leading role. Unfortunately, in the latter stages of the film, I felt he looked a little out of place purely because even after make-up he doesn't age convincingly. Adam Beach is also good playing the Native Indian character, although I felt the theme of racism was tactlessly crowbarred into the script (the barman's line of "I don't make the rules - we don't serve Indians" was a real cracker). When I see names like Steven Spielberg attributed to a film, I have come to expect genius, and this just isn't.

The action sequences are a saving grace - they are all realistic and well-executed with all of the eye-candy that 21st century CGI gives us. I thought that more could have been made of the scenes where the Japanese first attack the American landing forces; for example, a decent soundtrack would have heightened the whole scenario.

In conclusion, I think that within some film genres, you must accept that in order to be recognised you will be compared to the greatest. Any director shooting a gangster film will operate within the shadow of The Godfather, and in exactly the same manner a war film leaves you subject to scrutiny against the might of Saving Private Ryan, The Great Escape et al. Because of that fact, I found it difficult to get along with Flags of our Fathers. It was by no means a bad film, but it certainly doesn't share the same stage of the classics of the genre. If you enjoy your war films, then you ought to consider this a good but not essential addition to your DVD collection, but not a lot else.
 
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Genre Information
 
Production Information
Produced in: Iceland / USA
Language: English
 
Release Information
Released: 2006

UK cinema: 22/12/2006
US cinema: 20/10/2006

UK DVD: 02/07/2007
US DVD: 06/02/2007
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