The tone of Clint Eastwood's 2006 war film "Flags of Our Fathers" might be surprising. "Flags of Our Fathers" is a film extrapolated from the celebrated 1945 Joe Rosenthal photograph titled "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima," taken at the eponymous battle, and featuring a group of American soldiers hoisting their nation's flag just after the carnage. The photograph also served as the model for the Marine Corps War Memorial, sculpted in 1954 and located in Arlington, Virginia. The screenplay was an adaptation of a book by James Bradley and Ron Powers, whose fathers are featured in the photograph, hence the title.
Ever since the days of "Twelve O'Clock High" in 1949, whenever American filmmakers make movies about American soldiers, they tend to be romanticized stories of survival and victory. Given the subject matter of "Flags of Our Fathers," one might presume that it, too, stands as a tale of honor and tenacity.
Ever since the days of "Twelve O'Clock High" in 1949, whenever American filmmakers make movies about American soldiers, they tend to be romanticized stories of survival and victory. Given the subject matter of "Flags of Our Fathers," one might presume that it, too, stands as a tale of honor and tenacity.
- 1/21/2023
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
In 2006, Clint Eastwood directed a pair of war dramas that stood as companion pieces. The first, "Flags of Our Fathers," based on the 2000 book by James Bradley and Ron Powers, was a contemplative and violent dramatization of the Battle of Iwo Jima, told from the perspective of the seven American soldiers who famously raised an American flag to signify their battlefield victory. The raising of the flag was captured on film by the Pulitzer-winning photographer Joe Rosenthal, and his picture served as the inspiration for the Marine Corps War Memorial in Washington DC. Eastwood's film climaxed with Rosenthal's taking of the picture.
"Flags of Our Fathers" was released on October 20, and its companion, "Letters from Iwo Jima" was released on December 20. "Letters" also detailed the events of the Battle of Iwo Jima, but from the perspective of the Japanese soldiers. Ken Watanabe gave an excellent performance as real-life General Tadamichi Kuribayashi,...
"Flags of Our Fathers" was released on October 20, and its companion, "Letters from Iwo Jima" was released on December 20. "Letters" also detailed the events of the Battle of Iwo Jima, but from the perspective of the Japanese soldiers. Ken Watanabe gave an excellent performance as real-life General Tadamichi Kuribayashi,...
- 12/29/2022
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
A man long credited as one of the six soldiers photographed raising the American flag over Iwo Jima in World War II was misidentified, the Marine Corps admitted. Instead of Navy Pharmacist's Mate 2nd Class John Bradley, the internal investigation concluded that the man in the photograph is actually Private 1st Class Harold Schultz. Schultz died in 1995 without ever publicly acknowledging his presence in the photo, but his stepdaughter Dezreen MacDowell told the New York Times that the Purple Heart recipient once mentioned his participation in passing. Bradley, whose son wrote Flags of Our Fathers, which was inspired by the photo,...
- 6/23/2016
- by Lindsay Kimble, @lekimble
- PEOPLE.com
A man long credited as one of the six soldiers photographed raising the American flag over Iwo Jima in World War II was misidentified, the Marine Corps admitted. Instead of Navy Pharmacist's Mate 2nd Class John Bradley, the internal investigation concluded that the man in the photograph is actually Private 1st Class Harold Schultz. Schultz died in 1995 without ever publicly acknowledging his presence in the photo, but his stepdaughter Dezreen MacDowell told the New York Times that the Purple Heart recipient once mentioned his participation in passing. Bradley, whose son wrote Flags of Our Fathers, which was inspired by the photo,...
- 6/23/2016
- by Lindsay Kimble, @lekimble
- PEOPLE.com
Mark Kennedy, Associated Press
Jake Coyle, Associated Press
New York (AP) - Elaine Stritch, the brash theater performer whose gravelly, gin-laced voice and impeccable comic timing made her a Broadway legend, has died. She was 89.
Joseph Rosenthal, Stritch's longtime attorney, said the actress died Thursday of natural causes at her home in Birmingham, Michigan.
Although Stritch appeared in movies and on television, garnering three Emmys and finding new fans as Alec Baldwin's unforgiving mother on "30 Rock," she was best known for her stage work, particularly in her candid one-woman memoir, "Elaine Stritch: At Liberty," and in the Stephen Sondheim musical "Company."
A tart-tongued monument to New York show business endurance, Stritch worked well into her late 80s, most recently as Madame Armfeldt in a revival of Sondheim's musical "A Little Night Music." She replaced Angela Lansbury in 2010 to critical acclaim.
In 2013, Stritch - whose signature "no pants" style...
Jake Coyle, Associated Press
New York (AP) - Elaine Stritch, the brash theater performer whose gravelly, gin-laced voice and impeccable comic timing made her a Broadway legend, has died. She was 89.
Joseph Rosenthal, Stritch's longtime attorney, said the actress died Thursday of natural causes at her home in Birmingham, Michigan.
Although Stritch appeared in movies and on television, garnering three Emmys and finding new fans as Alec Baldwin's unforgiving mother on "30 Rock," she was best known for her stage work, particularly in her candid one-woman memoir, "Elaine Stritch: At Liberty," and in the Stephen Sondheim musical "Company."
A tart-tongued monument to New York show business endurance, Stritch worked well into her late 80s, most recently as Madame Armfeldt in a revival of Sondheim's musical "A Little Night Music." She replaced Angela Lansbury in 2010 to critical acclaim.
In 2013, Stritch - whose signature "no pants" style...
- 7/17/2014
- by The Associated Press
- Moviefone
If you don't have plans for Memorial Day weekend, it will be a great time to tune in to Reelz. The weekend will feature not only a Bomb Girls marathon and the premiere of the Reelz original movie Bomb Girls: Facing the Enemy, we'll also be airing the National Memorial Day Parade on Monday at 2p Et/ 11a Pt. Of course if you need even more ways to commemorate the sacrifices of our nation’s veterans, it's a great weekend to watch some movies about real-life war heroes. Throw some popcorn in the microwave, turn on the A/C and check out our list of movies about real heroes making real sacrifices in defense of our nation’s freedom.
The VicMu Girls Are Coming Back
Sergeant York (1941)
Alvin York (Gary Cooper) was a simple man from Tennessee who hoped to avoid action in World War I because of his religious beliefs.
The VicMu Girls Are Coming Back
Sergeant York (1941)
Alvin York (Gary Cooper) was a simple man from Tennessee who hoped to avoid action in World War I because of his religious beliefs.
- 5/20/2014
- by BJSprecher Sprecher
- Reelzchannel.com
The historically significant work of groundbreaking war photographers like Roger Fenton, Alexander Gardner, Robert Capa and Joe Rosenthal has been widely documented, but the names of their modern-day counterparts are less well-known. The exceptions tend to be photoreporters killed in action, like Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros, who lost their lives in a 2011 attack in Misrata, Libya. That incident provides the background for one of the four episodes in Witness, a visceral HBO Documentary miniseries executive produced by Michael Mann and David Frankham. Directed by Abdallah Omeish, Witness: Libya premiered and was reviewed this summer at the
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- 11/2/2012
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
With his lavish mini-series, Spielberg let slip the fog of war, favouring verisimilitude over characterisation
Never has a theatre of war been less appropriately named than the Pacific. It began, famously, in infamy, moved on to savage trench campaigns on obscure islands and culminated in the radioactive mushroom clouds over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was the arena in which dug-in attrition, guerrilla fighting, suicide bombing, hand-to-hand combat, naval battles, dogfights and atomic warfare all came together in a vast ocean of violence. And it was a sideshow.
The main story was in Europe and so it has remained ever since in the popular imagination or, to call it by its official name, Hollywood. There have been plenty of attempts to dramatise specific battles, such as Midway, Iwo Jima, Guam, Guadalcanal and, most notably, the attack on Pearl Harbor, but the Pacific war has never enjoyed the narrative coherence of the allied victory over Nazism.
Never has a theatre of war been less appropriately named than the Pacific. It began, famously, in infamy, moved on to savage trench campaigns on obscure islands and culminated in the radioactive mushroom clouds over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was the arena in which dug-in attrition, guerrilla fighting, suicide bombing, hand-to-hand combat, naval battles, dogfights and atomic warfare all came together in a vast ocean of violence. And it was a sideshow.
The main story was in Europe and so it has remained ever since in the popular imagination or, to call it by its official name, Hollywood. There have been plenty of attempts to dramatise specific battles, such as Midway, Iwo Jima, Guam, Guadalcanal and, most notably, the attack on Pearl Harbor, but the Pacific war has never enjoyed the narrative coherence of the allied victory over Nazism.
- 4/10/2010
- by Andrew Anthony
- The Guardian - Film News
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