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| Flags of Our Fathers (Widescreen Edition) | 
 enlarge | Director: Clint Eastwood
Actors: Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford, Adam Beach, John Benjamin Hickey, John Slattery
Studio: Dreamworks Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.99
Buy Used: $0.60
You Save: $14.39 (96%)
New (41) Used (132) Collectible (1) from $0.60
Avg. Customer Rating:  249 reviews
Sales Rank: 6615
Format: Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), Korean (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Running Time: 132 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: D117824D
UPC: 097361178240
EAN: 0097361178240
ASIN: B000M4RG42
Theatrical Release Date: October 20, 2006
Release Date: February 6, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Thematically ambitious and emotionally complex, Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers is an intimate epic with much to say about war and the nature of heroism in America. Based on the non-fiction bestseller by James Bradley (with Ron Powers), and adapted by Million Dollar Baby screenwriter Paul Haggis (Jarhead screenwriter William Broyles Jr. wrote an earlier draft that was abandoned when Eastwood signed on to direct), this isn't so much a conventional war movie as it is a thought-provoking meditation on our collective need for heroes, even at the expense of those we deem heroic. In telling the story of the six men (five Marines, one Navy medic) who raised the American flag of victory on the battle-ravaged Japanese island of Iwo Jima on February 23rd, 1945, Eastwood takes us deep into the horror of war (in painstakingly authentic Iwo Jima battle scenes) while emphasizing how three of the surviving flag-raisers (played by Adam Beach, Ryan Phillippe, and Jesse Bradford) became reluctant celebrities - and resentful pawns in a wartime publicity campaign - after their flag-raising was immortalized by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal in the most famous photograph in military history. As the surviving flag-raisers reluctantly play their public roles as "the heroes of Iwo Jima" during an exhausting (but clearly necessary) wartime bond rally tour, Flags of Our Fathers evolves into a pointed study of battlefield valor and misplaced idolatry, incorporating subtle comment on the bogus nature of celebrity, the trauma of battle, and the true meaning of heroism in wartime. Wisely avoiding any direct parallels to contemporary history, Eastwood allows us to draw our own conclusions about the Iwo Jima flag-raisers and how their postwar histories (both noble and tragic) simultaneously illustrate the hazards of exploited celebrity and society's genuine need for admirable role models during times of national crisis. Flags of Our Fathers defies the expectations of those seeking a more straightforward war-action drama, but it's richly satisfying, impeccably crafted film that manages to be genuinely patriotic (in celebrating the camaraderie of soldiers in battle) while dramatizing the ultimate futility of war. Eastwood's follow-up film, Letters from Iwo Jima, examines the Iwo Jima conflict from the Japanese perspective. --Jeff Shannon Beyond Flags of Our Fathers 
Other World War II DVDs | 
Essential DVDs by Director Clint Eastwood | 
Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley | Stills from Flags of Our Fathers (click for larger image)
Product Description
From Academy Award-winning director Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby, Unforgiven) comes the World Was II epic Flags of Our Fathers, produced by Eastwood, Academy Award winner Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List), and Rob Lorenz (Mystic River), and from a screenplay adapted by William Broyles, Jr. (Cast Away) and Oscar winner Paul Haggis (Million Dollar Baby, Crash).
February 1945. Even as victory in Europe was finally within reach, the war in the Pacific raged on. One of the most crucial and bloodiest battles of the war was the struggle for the island of Iwo Jima, which culminated with what would become one of the most iconic images in history: five Marines and a Navy corpsman raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi. The inspiring photo capturing that moment became a symbol of victory to a nation that had grown weary of war and made instant heroes of the six American soldiers at the base of the flag, some of whom would die soon after, never knowing that they had been immortalized. But the surviving flag raisers had no interest in being held up as symbols and did not consider themselves heroes; they wanted only to stay on the front with their brothers in arms who were fighting and dying without fanfare or glory.
Flags of Our Fathers is based on the bestselling book by James Bradley with Ron Powers, which chronicled the battle of Iwo Jima and the fates of the flag raisers and some of their brothers in Easy Company. Bradley's father, John "Doc" Bradley, was one of the soldiers pictured raising the flag, although James never knew the full extent of his father's experiences until after the elder Bradley's death in 1994.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 244 more reviews...
 Beautiful! September 26, 2008
This is not a movie to entertain a bunch of blood thirsty action movie goers. If you find yourself getting bored because a lack of action or confused and disconnected because of the flashbacks then this movie is clearly above your intelectual level. It is almost like the movie isn't designed to entertain. Instead, it is more of a hommage to the thousands of veterans who were wounded or killed. This is an absolute masterpiece for anyone who is interested in WWII history. This is definitely one of the best movies I have ever seen. Thank you Clint Eastwood.
I cracked it August 31, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I WAS CLEANING IT, WHEN I ACCIDENTLY CRACKED IT. I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE ANOTHER FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS PLEASE. THANKS SO MUCH.
2nd to Saving Private Ryan July 14, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This flick is right up there with Saving Private Ryan as far as WW2 movies are concerned. Maybe the gore wasnt on the same level as SPR but the story was great. I am a Soilder my self and I was really touched and satisfied of the portrayal of the Corps, I realize this film has been uncarefully scrutinized by the likes of Mr Bruce Bains but I completely feel that his negative reviews are flawed and biased. This movie is a wonderful Eastwood masterpiece. It deserves 5 stars. The following is for Mr Bruce,
Bruce Bain you are defeating your purpose, you try to come across as some Intelectual Jarhead who is trying to educate the ignorant public. Well having said that you really portray yourself as some pompous leftwing narcissictic elitist scum of the earth that is probally in love with his so called writing abilities. Your message is so uncompelling and painful to read, you should try to be an editor for childrens books instead of dedicating your slimy fingers to contradict anyone and anything. Please quit hiding behind that you are or were a Marine, there are good and bad, smart and stupid, strong and weak, in every faction of society not excluding the Devil Dog society, you just happen to fall into the ladder category assuming you are who you say you are. But who cares? Probally just yourself, now go ahead and over analyze my comment and scrutinize every little character that I have written I will not be waiting for your egotistical response. Hooooahhhh!!!!!!!!!!
Flags of Our Fathers July 2, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. I like WWII movies since I have a connection to that era. Very well done.
 Worthy effort, scattershot result June 29, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is one of those movies of which each of the ingredients makes your mouth water, yet the sum of the parts leaves a slightly flat taste.
First of all, lets say, this is a film worth watching, with an interesting message, great cinematography and terrific acting. However, the decision to straddle two types of story weakens the stories impact, and the end result feels just a little too unfocussed to really work well.
The story follows 3 of the surviving men of the famous photo of raising the flag on Iwo Jima. The photo becomes an iconic image of victory, and the government seizes the opportunity to use the survivors to tour the US exhorting the public to buy War Bonds. To understand the film a little better, it is necessary to go in realizing that this is not a historical dramatization of the Battle of Iwo Jima in the traditional war movie sense, although scenes from that conflict are brutally realistically portrayed, in true post-Ryan terms. It really only shows those war scenes as scattered flashbacks of the veterans as they are paraded around America to help sell the war. In using the flashbacks to show the battle, we are being led to understand not what the moment of war itself is like, but how the memories of certain moments within a war can stay with you and haunt you, or in the case of Ira Hayes, drive you to drink. It's a different way of looking at the horror of war than we usually get - however the effect of that is weakened by layering another level of flashbacks to the same events, viewed as the son of one of the men interviews his fathers friends to find out more about what happened to him. It's an unnecessary complication which weakens the movie. A second theme is the obvious one about the role of propaganda - how the act of allowing a lie to sell the truth becomes its own form of corruption.
And so, we go bouncing between these two central ideas as we see how the 3 survivors react differently to their new found `fame'. The leads are all fine, and the cinematography as we have come to expect in an Eastwood movie is great - but the end result feels like it has just a little too much baggage to work efficiently - but flawed as it is, it is still worth a look.
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