|
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").
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.
The ensemble cast of "Flags Of Our Fathers" includes Ryan Phillip
("Crash"), Jesse Branford ("Happy Endings"), Adam Beach ("Windjammers"), Paul
Walker ("Into The Blue"), Jamie Bell ("Billy Elliot"), Barry Pepper ("Saving
Private Ryan") and John Benjamin Hickey ("Flight"). Clint Eastwood directed
"Flags Of Our Fathers" from a screenplay adapted by William Brogues, Hr. ("Cast
Away") and Oscar winner Paul Haggis ("Million Dollar Baby," "Crash").
|