A SINGLE SHOT CAN END THE WAR.
The story about the U.S. soldiers who raised a flag on Iwo Jima after winning the 1945 battle for the island, and then were immortalized in a photograph that was taken of the event, gets a worthy treatment by director Clint Eastwood. He tells three different stories – about the battle, the PR tour that followed after the photo was made famous, and a son who tries to learn more about his father. The jumps back and forth in time do not work seamlessly, but Adam Beach is gripping as a GI who can’t handle being labeled a hero, and the battle (in bleached colors) is appropriately horrifying.
2006-U.S. 131 min. Color. Widescreen. Produced by Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg, Robert Lorenz. Directed by Clint Eastwood. Screenplay: William Broyles, Jr., Paul Haggis. Novel: James Bradley, Ron Powers. Cast: Ryan Phillippe (John “Doc” Bradley), Jesse Bradford (Rene Gagnon), Adam Beach (Ira Hayes), John Benjamin Hickey, John Slattery, Barry Pepper… Paul Walker, Robert Patrick, Len Cariou.
Trivia: The story of Ira Hayes was told previously in The Outsider (1961). Followed by Letters From Iwo Jima (2006), which was shot back-to-back with this film.
Last word: “There’s never been a story on Iwo Jima, even though there have been pictures that have been entitled – using it in the title – but the actual invasion, it was the biggest marine corps invasion in history, the most fierce battle in marine corps history. But what intrigued me about it was the book itself and the fact that it wasn’t really a war story. I wasn’t setting out to do a war movie. I’d been involved with a few as an actor, but I liked this because it was just a study of these people. I’ve always been curious about families who find out things about their relatives much after the fact. And the kind of people that [have talked to me] about this campaign and many other campaigns, and the ones who seemed to be the most in the front lines and have been through the most, seem to be the ones who have been the quietest about their activity. It’s a sure thing that if you hear somebody being very braggadocio about all their experiences in combat, sure thing that he was probably a clerk typist somewhere in the rear echelon.” (Eastwood, About.com)
