The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

For a movie that has the word "fathers" in the title, this film doesn't really have all that much to do with the relationships between father-son or father-daughter. I understand that the intention of the title is that every solider who fought in World War II are our "fathers", but when there is a character who plays the son of one of the Iwo Jima veterans who interviews other vets, they should tie it in a little more convincingly then they did with this film.

I have to admit I was also confused when Flags of our Fathers cut to interviews with the old war veterans. Most of the time I had no idea which soldier the actor on screen was trying to portray. Was that the Robert Patrick character? And I also thought the movie was much more interesting when they just concentrated on what happened up to, and during, the Iwo Jima battle. Flags of our Fathers tries to put more importance on the "tour" of three of the soliders captured on film raising the American flag, played by Ryan Phillippe, Adam Beach and Jesse Bradford. They become overnight heroes and go from city to city to encourage the public to buy war bonds. Each character has their own struggles as they do the tour, including the somewhat clichéd thoughts of "Why me? Why did I live? Such and such a person deserved to be here, not me" etc. Adam Beach is a little too over the top as the guilt-ridden Native who struggles with these questions, but I think most of us would eventually come to the conclusion that every soldier who went to fight for their country are all equal in their bravery, and in war some live and some die and we have little control over which fate our fellow soliders will end up with. So the resolution to this problem isn't all that surprising.

The scenes at Iwo Jima are very well done. The measuring stick is of course the opening battle scene of Saving Private Ryan and while it is not as gripping, it is still very effective and the realism is there. I liked the fighter jet shots especially; the war planes descending on the island as they take & return fire. And before the battles, there were some nice scenes of camaderie between the different platoons. I wish this film just went with that instead of the cutbacks to present day and the "tour" aftermath, but it isn't the case.

So, at the end of the day this is a solid feature, but just not as moving as perhaps it should be. I think this is one of those movies that may improve with a second viewing, but in the meantime films like Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red line will rate higher in my books.