‘Fathers’ falls short
By Eric R. Schmidt | Oct. 22, 2006Everyone has seen Joe Rosenthal's photograph of six American servicemen raising the American flag at Iwo Jima. But contrary to popular belief, the flag was raised at the start of the brutal weeks-long battle. After the Americans had taken the island and Rosenthal's picture had become a great patriotic symbol, three of those immortalized had been killed. The remaining three—Navy Corpsman John Bradley (Ryan Phillippe) and Marines Rene Gagnon (Jesse Bradford) and Ira Hayes (Adam Beach)—were persuaded (perhaps intimidated) to return to the United States for a nationwide tour to convince Americans to buy war bonds. Clint Eastwood's ""Flags of Our Fathers,"" based on the bestselling memoir by James Bradley and Ron Powers, is about the emotional toll this took on these three men.
