Flags of Our Fathers
April 2007 Reviewed by: Josh Barber Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Considering how many interesting and inspiring tales there are to be told about war in general, and World War II specifically, it seems almost redundant or even wasteful to make a movie about a battle that's been made into a movie before. Did Pearl Harbor really have anything to offer over Tora! Tora! Tora! and 30 Seconds Over Tokyo? After Saving Private Ryan, do we need to see another cinematic version of the D-Day invasion? And finally, do we really need two movies within months of each other about the same battle, both from the same director? But unlike the others, here we have one battle, two movies, and two very different stories.

Flags of Our Fathers is the true story of the most famous photo of World War II -- the raising of the US flag over Iwo Jima. It is the story not of the battle that got the soldiers to the top of the hill so much as what happened to them afterwards. With war coffers running dry, the government utilized the fame of the three surviving soldiers from the famous flag-raising by sending them on a nationwide tour selling war bonds. While Americans were interested in the carefully crafted image of these their newest heroes, the soldiers never thought of themselves as heroes and couldn't stop reflecting on what had actually happened on that island.

At a glance, this movie may seem to be the "Pacific Theater" equivalent of Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, what with the washed-out tones, the extreme yet realistic violence and the strobe-light cinematography, but there's actually much more going on. While Saving Private Ryan focused on the reluctant importance of one soldier, Flags of Our Fathers looks at three men who are made the unwilling center of national attention.

Based on the book by James Bradley, son of one of the survivors, Flags of Our Fathers offers an insightful look at how life progresses after the guns are put down. Just because these men were recognized as heroes doesn't mean life on the home front was golden. These are real people with real problems, and even the moments that seem most like Hollywood fantasy are taken from the historical record.

Flags of Our Fathers is the first of two films about Iwo Jima directed by Clint Eastwood. The second, Letters from Iwo Jima, looks at the same battle but does so from the Japanese perspective. Together, the films make quite an impressive reflection on this fight for a mere eight square miles of land.

The image quality of Flags of Our Fathers is superb. Eastwood tends to work with a muted color palette but proves that "muted" is not the same as "dull." The world as desaturated speaks to the mindset of the characters, not the limitations of the medium. The colors are reproduced faithfully and detail is exceedingly crisp. The only thing keeping this transfer from a perfect score is that the image is slightly flat. If they'd boosted the contrast a bit, this could be a reference-quality disc.

The sound quality is right on par with the image: presented well and detailed without being flashy. The dialogue comes through the center nicely, and the sound effects are positioned appropriately. The battle scenes may be quieter than you expect: Instead of going overboard to sell the fog of war, the movie takes a more realistic approach. These aren't action-movie gunshots; these are real-sounding WWII gunshots.

This disc offers no special features, unless you're wowed by a chapter select and trailers. On the plus side, that means there's plenty of disc space to make the image look as good as it does. But if you have any questions about what went on behind the cameras on this film, you're out of luck. Flags of Our Fathers is the companion piece to Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima, so there will probably be a new, feature-laden release of Flags when Letters debuts on DVD and probably a set of both films some time after that. For now, consider this a sure-fire rental, and wait for a better edition to hit the shelves.

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