Flags Of Our Fathers

I’m a member of the Art Director’s Guild, which means I get the infamous ‘Academy Screeners’ - DVDs of movies that are sent out by the movie studios for award consideration. In the past few weeks I’ve gotten The Queen, Flight 93, World Trade Center and a few others. What fun!

A couple of days ago I got Clint Eastwood’s Flags Of Our Fathers and Lauren and I watched it tonight. It’s about the famous picture of the Marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima and it’s quite a story. Great work by everyone; all the actors were very good and it’s the second time in a week I’ve seen Barry Pepper in a film after watching Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada earlier in the week. Harrowing war scenes intercut with the story of how the photo raised war bond money back in the states and contemporary footage of the son of one of the soldiers in that photo trying to piece the story together. Echos of Saving Private Ryan in terms of the look and some of the bits of old men remembering the war and of course Steven Speilberg co-produced. Good movie though and it seems relevant in terms of the current war to remind us that selling a war isn’t exactly a new thing.