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Clint Eastwood's film tells the story behind a famous snapshot of US soldiers lifting a flag over Iwo Jima during world War II. Thanks to the iconic force of that image, the flag raisers - played by Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford and Adam Beach - were whisked home to sell war bonds. Cutting between their whistlestop tour of America and the fight they left behind, the film effectively contrasts the public face of war with the bloody reality.

Flags Of Our Fathers is the first of two Eastwood projects tackling the battle of Iwo Jima. While the next movie will be told from the Japanese perspective, this one is a very American affair, respectfully examining the sacrifice of a lost generation. It's no surprise to see Steven Spielberg's name in the producers' credits - Flags Of Our Fathers shares many of its preoccupations and tone with Saving Private Ryan. Both films portray the thunderous terror of battle with brilliant expertise, and both films are in some measure about propaganda, with Flags in particular hammering the point home with its alternating scenes of the Iwo Jima veterans, reluctantly drumming up business at home against their grisly memories of butchering the enemy.

"IT'S HARD TO KEEP TRACK OF WHO IS WHO"

But these concerns eventually take a back seat to the more personal concept of heroism: Eastwood is interested in that old, old movie chestnut: what is a hero, really?, In Flags of our Fathers he is, unsurprisingly, an ordinary joe coping with horrifying circumstances. Clint's marines are not especially memorable - it's hard to keep track of who is who - but their disgust at being whored by a cash-hungry government is vividly portrayed. It's an intelligent and sincere movie, if a little stodgy.

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