Clint Eastwood's latest, 'Flags of out Fathers' seemed, at first glance, to be something falling into the 'Saving Private Ryan'/'Band of Brothers' niche--at least that's what I thought, or should I say, worried; 'Million Dollar Baby' was such such a heartbreaking, magnificent work, I was afraid of certain well-worn war movie cliches being employed to probable box office (but less artistic) success. In my more charitable moments, I'd think, well a guy's gotta to what he's gotta (or can) do. After all, the guy's 76.
I needn't have worried. 'Flags of Our Fathers' (the title itself seems to be used with more than a little irony) is, from what Ive gleaned from a number of reviews so far, a rigorous re-thinking of the war movie genre. Not surprisingly, Republicans are complaining that Eastwood has become a 'bleeding heart liberal'.
Moreover, there is a fascinating aspect to this 'corrective' (as the NY Times terms it) to the 'Saving Private Ryan' school; the character who, according to the LA Times, becomes the 'emotional heart' of the film is Ira Hayes--the same Ira Hayes that Johnny Cash sang about in 1964 in Peter LaFarge's song, 'The Ballad of Ira Hayes'. The NY Times says that the actor playing Hayes, Adam Beach, 'haunts' the film...'tears mixing with booze, he floods his scenes with a raw emotion that serves as a rebuke to gung-ho' war movies of the past.
