As America flinches at the cost of war, three "heroes" from the Pacific are sent home and fêted by thousands. Even after surviving the hell of a frontal assault on fortified Japanese positions, the shell-shocked trio are bewildered by the media manipulation.
Medic "Doc" Bradley (Ryan Phillippe) keeps quiet, Rene Gagnon (Jesse Bradford) smiles and imagines the post-war parties, while Native-American marine Ira Hayes (Adam Beach) descends into alcoholism: "I can't take them calling me a hero," he says. "All I did was try not to get shot."
Clint Eastwood nearly lost out on directing his most ambitious project to date. He bid for the rights to the bestselling story (written by the son of "Doc" Bradley) only to find that they'd been snapped up by Steven Spielberg. In the end it worked out nicely, with Clint directing and Spielberg producing. This is a fine film about the horror of war and the tragic need for heroes.
Flags of Our Fathers is a Film programme that first aired in 2006 and has been classified a 15 certificate.
