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| Variety review of "Flags of Our Fathers" |
| 2006-10-10 |
| looks like a winner. Clint's a national treasure Ambitiously tackling his biggest canvas to date, Clint Eastwood continues to defy and triumph over the customary expectations for a film career in "Flags of Our Fathers." A pointed exploration of heroism -- in its actual and in its trumped-up, officially useful forms -- the picture welds a powerful account of the battle of Iwo Jima, the bloodiest single engagement the United States fought in World War II, with an ironic and ultimately sad look at its aftermath for three key survivors. This domestic Paramount release looks to parlay critical acclaim and its director's ever-increasing eminence into strong B.O. returns through the autumn and probably beyond. Conventional wisdom suggests directors slow down as they reach a certain age (Eastwood is now 76), become more cautious, recycle old ideas, fall out of step with contemporary tastes, look a bit stodgy. Eastwood has impertinently ignored these options not only by undertaking by far his most expensive and logistically daunting picture, but by creating back-to-back bookend features offering contrasting perspectives on the same topic; the Japanese-language "Letters From Iwo Jima," showing the Japanese side in intimate terms, will be released by Warner Bros. next year. |
| Posted by:Frank G |
| #7 The Americans also used a trick to reason with recalcitrant Japanese hidden deep in caves. They would roll a 55 gallon drum of gasoline down there, then throw a couple of hand grenades to perforate the drums. Then just a few shots with tracer... |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-10-10 17:29 |
| #6 Hmmm, Shieldwolf, perhaps my generalization was too ... general. According to Wikipedia - On July 17, 1944, napalm incendiary bombs were dropped for the first time by American P-38 pilots on a fuel depot at Coutances, near St. Lô, France.[2] Napalm bombs were first used in the Pacific Theatre during the Battle of Tinian. In World War II, Allied Forces bombed cities in Japan with napalm, and used it in bombs and flamethrowers in Germany and the Japanese-held islands. It was used by the Greek army against communist guerrilla fighters during the Greek Civil War, by United Nations forces in Korea, by Mexico in the late 1960s against guerrilla fighters in Guerrero and by the United States during the Vietnam War. If you're out to destroy a city, like Dresden, incendaries (thermite) will spread a lot farther than an equivalent weight of napalm, yes? But napalm does stick better, making it more horrific. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2006-10-10 17:00 |
| #5 Napalm was used against Tokyo, thermite against Kobe. What each city was hit with depended on what stores were on hand at the time of the bombing runs. |
| Posted by: Shieldwolf 2006-10-10 16:08 |
| #4 SpecOp35 - Firebombs were thermite, not napalm. The thermite bombs were more like flares - small and intensely burning - as opposed to a relatively large area of coverage with napalm. Folks might be able to dodge thermite bombs - a few pounds - or get out of the building before it burned to the ground; somewhat more humane than the jellied gasoline used on dug-in troops. Germans used thermite on London; allies used it on Dresden to create a 'firestorm'. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2006-10-10 15:18 |
| #3 Good Points SpecOps35. Those men were definate heroes. As I've heard, before Iwo Jima was taken any bombers had to do so without *any* fighter escort while over Japan - they suffered heavy losses. Iwo Jima allowed is to inflict very heavy damaage on the Japanese industreal base and greatly shortened the war. I shudder to think what Kerry, Murtha, Kennedy, the MSM and the rest would do after a modern-day Iwo Jima. "We did not win after 6 hours! QUAGMIRE! Bring out troops home NOW!". |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2006-10-10 12:54 |
| #2 Eastwood has impertinently ignored The writer is a bit too fond of his yellowed and tattered elementary school vocabulary lists, and a tad week on the grammar side, but it will be good for American audiences to see the ugliness of battle. SpecOp35, thanks for reminding us exactly why this battle was important -- it relates to why we must remain in Iraq militarily until the current war is won, regardless whether democratization of the Iraqis will turn out to be do-able. If someone who truly understands these things could expand on that thought, I'd be grateful. Thanks! |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-10-10 12:41 |
| #1 I look forward to seeing this film. One of the very few worth watching this year. A lot of young Americans sacrificed their lives on this volcanic spit. But, at this point in the war it proved to be invaluable for basing fighter escorts for the B-29's and as an emergency landing strip for returning B-29's whose fuel tanks or control surfaces were damaged in their runs over Japan. Most of these missions were providing the utter destruction of the Japanese industrial base, especially with the napalm missions which burned out the heart of many major Japanese cities. The early loss of the lives of the invaders made that possible. |
| Posted by: SpecOp35 2006-10-10 11:34 |