Flags of our Fathers is about a concept: heroism. And if you want to see what happens when heroism is settled within american media, get a beer, vodka, chocolate, popcorn etc and watch it. When the movie is over you will go to the toilet (cause’ both the the draft and snack wrapper are empty) and while sitting on the throne, thinking how great is Clint Eastwood, you will want to discover the same concept but from the japanese perspective and for this you will watch Letters from Iwo Jima.
Firstly carefully study this photo.
As you can(n’t) see there are six soldiers rising their “patriotism”. The pose is perfect, charming, fantastic…three of these men died after several days in the battle; the other three survived and became a “kind of heroes” for the americans. “kind of” because for american media being a hero turned to be nothing else but a business.
Flags of our Fathers, depicts the story of the three surviving soldiers that raised the flag on Iwo Jima (the place of the battle against the japanese). You will discover how media transformed the “heroes” in actors of a business. Other things that are not actually as they seem to be in the picture above are exposed in the movie. In a way the truth is kind of ironic.
The three soldiers (the real ones) with the original flag raised on Iwo Jima. On the left is Hayes, a native american that fought in the second WW. The movie tackles the situation of native americans too.
On the other hand, Flags of our Fathers, is a movie about fighting for your country comrades. To see how the head of your fellow is flying smoothly on the backround of the grey sky, or how was he transformed in a piece of red meet by the japanese is…
…whatever… if you want to see more red meet watch Letters from Iwo Jima, is the same battle but from the japanese perspective. Clint Eastwood managed to be successful with this movie too. Very good jap actors and it depicts the japanese soul (samurai soul to be more exact) very well. The japanese can’t be defeated… or they don’t give the chance to be. The only ones who can lay a finger on them are themselves. Yeah. The same strategy: neo seppuku aka suicide
D. H
AmericanClub 