#ryanphillippe

Flags of our Fathers is not your typical war movie. It’s a lot more thoughtful and intelligent than your typical Hoorah! about those army boys taking down the evil Axis empire. This is a war drama, with a heavy emphasis on the drama.

Returning home after the historical flag-raising on Mount Suribachi, the “Heroes of Iwo Jima” reflect on what brought them to that singular moment and where they go will now. Marine Private First Class Ira Hayes (Adam Beach), Private First Class Rene Gagnon (Jesse Bradford), and Navy Corpsman John “Doc” Bradley (Ryan Phillippe) are applauded as champions and toured around the country to promote war bonds but none of them feel at ease with their newfound celebrity status.

The costumes, vehicles, special effects are all very good. Director Clint Eastwood convincingly transports you onto the battlefield that was Iwo Jima. The money is there on-screen, allowing you to see and feel the danger of the battlefield. There’s a lot of tension there and it's heightened by a sense that these people's lives extend beyond the conflict. The soldiers have families and contrasting opinions on what the war is, what they are supposed to do after, and about the propaganda campaign that sells them as heroes. You get a wide scope of what these people are really like, warts and all. This will leave you with mixed opinions about them, noticeable Native American soldier Ira. He has a lot of survivor’s guilt and his inability to deal with it becomes self-destructive. You sympathize with him, you understand his pain and you'll also get angry. The narrative that he and his comrades basically "single-handedly turned the tide" is exaggerated but their new “orders” to tour the country and raise money is important. It's made clear over and over. Can't he set aside his outrage for the greater good?

In a war film, you want that right mix of emotion and adrenaline. It's tricky to both show the excitement of dodging mortars and condemn war but it can be done. Just don't turn the military tactics and heroism into a video game where people dying is seen as good fun. This film achieves that delicate balance. Seeing all of these young men with bright futures get torn apart by bullets and explosions, tears you up inside because a part of you feels as though you know them. You know their exploits, you've "seen" them before. Finding out how most of their lives were so tragically cut short is eye-opening and a story worth telling.

You don't expect it going in but Flags of our Fathers has a surprising amount of hard questions for its audience. More than just the true cost of war. The screenplay by William Broyles Jr. and Paul Haggis examines the concept of heroes, of what they mean to us, and what getting elevated to mythical status can do to a person that - at the end of the day - is no grander than we are. It explores the harsh realities soldiers like Ira Hayes faced when they returned home and shows him as someone worthy of both praise and contempt. Individuals we've all "known" since we learned about the war in class are examined closely through ample character development and complex emotions. They're given new humanity we never knew existed. The war itself is shown in all of its inhumanity. There is one character whose life is brutally, cruelly, and violently ended and you're never given the relief of even knowing what actually happened to him. We see the consequences of it all through the eyes of those who were there, and those left to pick up the pieces, like the parents whose sons left home and then died heroes. Paired with Letters from Iwo Jima (the preferred way to see it) or on its own, it's a powerful experience. (On DVD, July 18, 2015)