As a Icelander i was surprised to read in the Reyjavik News that Clint Eastwood is filming is movie "The Flags of our Fathers" here on a remote beach, because of the Black sand on the beachs. The weather here is not exactly like the South Pacific. The film is about the flag raising on the beach in Iwo Jima i think.
It's already been in & out of the theaters. I saw it and was impressed. Didn't know it was filmed there though!
My father was there at the actual event. One of his friends was one of the soldiers raising the flag. Even if the weather isn't spot on, I hope they keep the glaring inconsistencies out. For example, in this one movie that was centered around naval combat in the North Atlantic, they used some newsreel footage, one piece of which was shot from my father's gun tub onboard his ship...which was in the Pacific...shooting at an airplane with a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig red spot on the wings and fuselage which was clearly visible in the footage. Hmm, I think ol' Tojo was little off course, eh? At any rate, my father always remembered that plane because it just wouldn't go down. It was on a kamikaze run, and every time we saw the footage, they'd cut it off early. We only saw a few moments of it, just enough to see the round that went into the cockpit and took off the pilot's head (his flight helmet is easily seen flying out of the now shattered cockpit window). We never got an appreciation for that event until they finally showed the whole thing. We saw the familiar tracers go into the cockpit, but then that SOB just hung there, closer, closer, and we saw the tracers lead from the engine and fuel tanks down to the torpedo strapped underneath. All the while that plane is just getting bigger and bigger. Finally, my father must have hit something. It wasn't the torpedo, because the plane didn't explode in mid-air. It just threw a sudden downward turn and splashed not very many yards from the ship. The actual splash was hidden behind the part of the view that was blocked by the bulkhead, close enough for it's splash to get the camera lens wet. It was terrifying to watch, not because the plane was headed right for my father's position, but just because the footage showed a first-hand look at what it was like to be on the receiving end of a kamikaze run. Whether it was courage or desperation, they were not something to be taken lightly. What was funny about the whole viewing of the full footage was that we were on the edges of our seats, utterly amazed at how that pilot seemed to refuse to die, and even when he did, it was like he was still going to finish the job. At any moment we expected to see the plane plow into the gun tub. We were so relieved to see it finally splash into the drink. Of course, if it hadn't, we wouldn't have been there watching it! But while we were caught up in it, we forgot that we were living proof of at least one failed kamikaze run.
Have you seen the movie? It was out a few months ago. The whole thing was staged for war bonds. They weren't fighting at the raising. Just posing.
There were actually two flag raising events. I don't recall if the first was actually taking place during fighting, but regardless, it wasn't photogenic enough so the photographer staged a reshoot.
In the film at least a commander saw men raising a flag on that mountain. The US hadn't even took the island yet. The commander said it looked good but to use a larger flag for the reshoot.
Hmm. According to Wikipedia, the posing controversy is false. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_the_Flag_on_Iwo_Jima It says that the second flag was raised, not so as to get a better photograph, but because the Secretary of the Navy got a huge hard on about the first flag so he wanted to take it for a war souvenir. The commander of the battalion wasn't about to let him have it as he viewed it as battalion property so ordered that it be replaced before he could get his hands on it. And, as an afterthought, ordered that it be a bigger flag. And, apparently, the photographer almost missed the photo. He set his camera down to pile up some rocks to stand on for a better angle, and saw them starting to lift it from the corner of his eye and he hurriedly picked up his camera, swung, and shot from the hip. Of course, you know how war stories are. (I had to wonder about Oxygen's old man maybe exaggerating a tad as well...)
Exaggerating about what? I'll be happy to clear things up. The flag raising that is commonly depicted and the original one that wasn't quite so photographically spectacular or the kamikaze run? (If he said he'd been one of the guys raising the flag, well... He wasn't big on self-aggrandizement. His war stories weren't so much worthy of John Wayne as they were worthy of Beetle Bailey, so I tend to give them some credit.) He never said much about the first flag raising, only that his friend was called in for the second one and that it was so the cameras could have a chance to capture the momentous event. It wasn't entirely staged, but it was done for the benefit of the cameras. There were several photographers there. If I remember what I've heard about the first raising, the flag was just kind of tied to a stick.
The kamikaze run. Sorry if I offended. Didn't mean to. Just had the image of the stereotypical old codger telling war stories where he basically took iwo jima single handedly. I guess I found it convenient that the footage was actually from his exact placement on the ship. However, you know him, I don't. So I can only accept your account. I guess I just have images of Abe Simpson or Cotton Hill in my noggin when it comes to WWII stories. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! (Couldn't find the image I wanted. Abe with his helmet underneath of him saving his squad from a grenade blast...)
Oh, no offense taken. He wasn't like Abe or Cotton, thank god! He'd rather tell about the times he looked like a fool than any time he might have looked like a hero. He only told his "Pill Box" story once or twice, but he never got tired of telling about him and his buddies failing to identify a Japanese soldier who had been starved out and took his chances in an Allied chow line. My older brother, on the other hand? Viet Nam veteran, yessiree. Naval Reserve, never left San Diego. Get a few drinks in him, though, and he'd sailed up the Mekong Delta and whupped a whole VC village single-handed. (He'd just had his mail rerouted through San Diego so as not to alarm Mom and Dad, you see. hic!) Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
