Movie Review

Directed by Clint Eastwood, starring: Ryan Phillippe (John Bradley), Jesse Bradford (Rene Gagnon), Adam Beach (Ira Hayes), Screenplay by Paul Haggis and William Broyles, based on a book by James Bradley, Rating R (language and violence, 132 minutes, 2006.

The film weaves together three strands of story around a concept, the concept of "heroism". The screenplay has a complex structure that takes a while to get used to. It cuts back and forth in time. Initially, it is even hard to sort out one character from another, a device that reinforces the Everyman persona of the reluctant heroes.

On the fifth day, (February 23, 1945) of the invasion of the Japanese island of Iwo Jima a small group of six American soldiers raised "Old Glory" at the top of Mt. Suribachi. It became a celebrated moment of hope for the embattled navy and marines on the beaches below. However, this flag raising was not the iconic moment captured by Joe Rosenthal (Associated Press photographer) and preserved in statue and memory. That happened sometime later when the first flag was taken down in order to keep it from a politician who wanted to put it on the wall in his office. The second flag was raised rather hastily by a group of six soldiers, one navy corpsman and 5 marines and this was the photo taken by Rosenthal. The photo was immediately wired back home and became the focus of efforts to renew the war effort in the US which had become stalled and threatened to bankrupt the country. That there were two flag raisings led to painful confusion about who was actually there at the moment and who were the heroes.

Rosenthal, reflecting on the popularity of the photo says, "What we do in war, the cruelty is almost incomprehensible. But somehow we need to make sense of it. The right picture can win or lose a war." (a young Vietnamese girl fleeing American napalm bombs, toppling of Saddam's statue). "I took a lot of other pictures that day but none of them made a difference. Looking at it you could believe the sacrifice was not a waste."

Three of the six soldiers were flown back to the US to participate in War Bond fund raising efforts. The other three soldiers had been killed in action. This constitutes the second strand of the story as two of these soldiers, Hayes and Bradley, are deeply ambivalent about their role as "heroes". Gagnon embraces the role. He'd always said that he joined the Marines because 'he liked the uniform'.

The third strand is the writing of the book by James Bradley about his father John Bradley's experience. He interviews friends and fellow soldiers of his father and recounts incidents of John Bradley's flashbacks. John (Doc) the calm and centred Navy Corpsman had come home to be an undertaker and never talked of his experience. Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian had borne the off hand racism of his fellow heroes but became an alcoholic and died young on his home reserve. Rene Gagnon ("our own Tyrone Power") never was able to realize the promises for success made by various entrepreneurs when he was on tour. He worked his whole life in a factory.

Eastwood makes clear that "the fog of war" was not invented in Vietnam. He shows that these men were indeed heroes but not in the contrived and self serving manner exploited by the war bond fund raisers who needed heroes to make money and help make sense of the complexities of war, even a war whose cause and purpose were much less ambiguous and more just than current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. They were heroes in the chaotic, hidden and hellish circumstances of the battlefield.

For Christians, this might be called a Theology of Maundy Thursday or a Theology of Ambiguity. Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, in a truly human moment of self doubt and longing for escape, that "this cup may pass". While the victory is celebrated at Easter this really shines the light on what was already present in Gethsemane. Of course, Jesus is the hero of the story in the agony of Good Friday and in the triumph of Easter but his saving power is demonstrated in the truly human event of victoriously embracing the ambiguity of Gethsemane.