LET'S SEE WHAT'S NEXT
While Clint Eastwood has delivered some great films, he bores audiences with Flags of Our Fathers
BY LAUREN ALLEN

Flags of Our Fathers tells the story of the men in the famous picture, Raising of the American Flag on Iwo Jima, during World War II. The movie is based on the book of the same title by Ron Powers and James Bradley, son of one of the flag raisers. I haven't read the book, but after seeing the film, it's not exactly on my list of things to do.

Flags is directed and produced by Clint Eastwood. The fact that the film is co-produced by Steven Spielberg explains why the combat scenes (and much of the film) parallels those in Saving Private Ryan. 

As it turns out, the flag that's shown being raised in the photo was actually the second flag that was raised in 1945. The first was ordered taken down because some politician in Washington wanted to hang it in his office. The poll that was used to fly the flag was apparently so heavy that it took six men to hoist the thing up. As the soldiers struggled to plant the pole into the ground, an imbedded photographer snapped their picture and it soon ended up being circulated around the globe. 

A war-weary America became mesmerized and felt a sense of hope and pride from the image being plastered on the front page of every paper in the country. The men in the picture were true heroes as far as they were concerned, and the government was going to use this for all it could get to fund a war that was estimated to become bankrupt within a matter of weeks. Top brass from Washington demanded that the men in the renowned photo be brought home at once and sent out on a "Buy Bonds" tour. Unfortunately only three of the soldiers who hoisted that flag could be found. Not only that, but those three weren't even sure who the other men were. Of course, it almost didn't seem to matter at the time because everyone who they thought it could be had already been killed. 

Once the men arrived back home, they told their new tour manager that they didn't feel comfortable being treated as heroes and that the other three deceased men being credited with raising the flag may not be the right people. One soldier even said that all he wants to do is get back to his unit to help his friends in the Pacific. They are told that the story is going to stay the way the public believes it and that if they want to go back to their unit, they better bring along some rocks in their pockets because the country can no longer afford bullets and grenades to fight with. The soldiers eventually give in and are sent all over the country to raise money for the war. 

The movie dashes back and forth between the men being miserable on this tour and their own vivid flashbacks of the atrocities that took place on this little island. In the end, we learn that, for the most part, the three soldiers were pretty much ignored after the war was over and that none of them really amounted to anything. 

I wouldn't say that the movie is bad, but it is definitely disappointing. The audience is dragged through the same situations over and over again. I'm not even sure what the timeline was supposed to be. The movie doesn't flow well and at times is just plain boring. I guess this just goes to show that you can't be great all of the time, but considering all of the treasures that Clint Eastwood has given us over the years, I say we just nod our heads and wait to see what's next. LW