Flags of Our Fathers (2006)

In this epic film about the Battle of Iwo Jima, director Clint Eastwood triangulates three different viewpoints about the war. First are the soldiers themselves, normal human beings who resist the notion of being labeled "heroes" and who, in contrast to war sloganeers, know what combat means. These men are bravery and loyalty personified. Then, there is the vantage point of real war in all its vulgarity, degradation, terror, violence, and dehumanization. 70,000 Americans stormed the island and some 6,800 died. 22,000 Japanese defended their land and 20,000 of them died. Finally, there is the government propaganda machine back home that must manipulate public opinion to send its sons into that meat grinder. Almost every American will recognize the iconic photograph of the six soldiers raising the flag on top of the tiny island of Iwo Jima (by Joe Rosenthal). But very few Americans know the reality behind the image. Eastwood shows how the government manipulated the image, distorted the historical facts, exploited the unwitting soldiers who raised the flag (forced fund raising tours back home), and turned a mundane moment of wartime into a propagandistic farce. The film is based upon the book by James Bradley and Ron Powers, which tells the real story about the flag-raising (Bradley's father was the last survivor of the six soldiers). Eastwood's sequel, Letters from Iwo Jima, tells the story of this battle from the viewpoint of the Japanese.