Flags of Our Fathers

[Mister Tee]

Granted we'd all prefer to see/have seen this on a big screen, but...for those (like me) who were denied a chance to catch the film during its too-brief theatrical run, the film will -- according to ComingSoon.net -- be out in DVD Feb. 6th, in time to watch before the Oscars. (Marie Antoinette, another I missed and a seeming lock for sets/costumes nods, will be out the week after)

[dws1982]

I should've finished it by now, especially since I couldn't work for much of the last half of November. (Long story.) But I didn't feel like writing much, and it just kind of lay there on my computer. I have gotten back to work on it lately though; I'm trying to shape it into something coherent.

[Sabin]

Dan. Seriously. Still waiting. I see you've given it four stars. I looked at the critical mass on Film Comment and it's across the board raves, which I don't feel really represents the consensus of everybody I've read. So. Yeah. Help a brother out. Bring me in to the madness.

I read your points, and I will say that there is something beautifully humanistic to much of 'Flags of Our Fathers'. I can barely recall the scene that you're talking about, but I feel it was underscored by clunky attempts by Eastwood, Haggis, & Broyles to shove Hayes into a corner, depicting the racism and utter insensitivity surrounding him, and in the process the movie feels pretty racist itself by not really taking his dilemma seriously enough to flesh it out. Beach gives an interesting performance that really feels undercut by the most cardboard depictions of racism I've ever seen, and in turn falls into the realm of caricature.

There are wonderful human moments in 'Flags', such as the sight of Ryan Phillippe's Doc taking control of the situation early on shoving his knife into a tackled Japanese soldier, which is played almost mundane, in war the healers are called upon to do just as much killing as anybody else. 'Flags' has moments like these where it feels like an Eastwood masterpiece, but it feels equiparts a Howard/Haggis collaboration as well, especially in its endless useage of flashbacks, which must set some kind of record.



Edited By Sabin on 1165770968

[Damien]

Tee, Zach (Johnny Guitar) and I actually met up at the Lincoln Square to see Flags of Our Fathers, which the Time Out website indicated was showing at 7:05. Nope. There was a screening instead.

Good news: The film will be playing tomorrow (Thursday). But then after that, I guess, it gets the boot.

We went out for cocktails and then dinner instead, so we had a swell evening anyway. Still want to see the damn movie though.

[dws1982]

Marie Antoinette showed up the same day, and it's still around.

I haven't kept up with screen counts, but Marie Antoinette actually seems to have been expanding to some new theaters in my area.

Anyway, it's sad that Flags seems to be dying such a painful death. It's like NBC's new series Friday Night Lights--I feel like it's a quality product (a mainstream quality product, at that), the kind of film/TV-show people say there isn't enough of, and I'm one of the only people who cares about it.

-----------
Still working on a longform piece, Sabin. Or rather, the work on it has slowed considerably due to a hectic work schedule.

[Mister Tee]

Okay, I found this shocking. I thought maybe I'd duck into a showing of Flags tomorrow after work -- but it's gone from my nearby theatre (the Lincoln Square 14-theatre multiplex). Granted, I've delayed a bit getting to it (my recovering-from-illness wife had no interest in a war movie, and I've let her pick the past few times out). But...good god...this thing only opened four weeks ago. Marie Antoinette showed up the same day, and it's still around. What gives?

Partly this springs from the see-it-opening-day-or-forget-it mentality that has infected the industry (and, I believe, is halfway choking it). But it also seems to suggest the film is dying worse than I imagined.

[dws1982]

Here's a few paragraphs on True Crime from Senses of Cinema, excerpted from a longer article:

True Crime (Clint Eastwood, 1999) follows a similar trajectory. Eastwood plays Steve Everett, a former Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times investigative journalist in decline. After the death of a colleague, he is assigned to write a brief human interest story on Frank Beechum (Isaiah Washington), a death row inmate facing execution for a crime he claims he did not commit. Everett becomes rapidly convinced of Beechum's innocence but appears to lack sufficient time and resources to prove it.

True Crime is predictable enough. There never seems to be any real doubt that Everett will succeed against the odds and find professional redemption as a result (he receives another Pulitzer for his work). Moreover, as with Absolute Power, True Crime substitutes Eastwood heroic virtues for narrative details. This is particularly evident when Everett secures the vital breakthrough in the case. Although Beechum's death is imminent, Everett drives frantically to the governor's mansion when a telephone call would be far quicker. The necessary delays in explaining the new evidence, the mechanics of ordering a reprieve and so on are then all simply omitted. Accordingly, Everett's victory despite considerable adversity is that of a typical Eastwood hero. Intuition or luck, rather than any journalistic skill or dedication, are the decisive factors.

Where True Crime differs from Absolute Power is in the ambiguity surrounding Eastwood's character. Like Luther Whitney, Steve Everett is a rogue, but far less charming. Everett is a drunk, a womaniser and a bad father. While he expresses remorse, he continues to commit adultery with his boss's wife. Furthermore, his professional credibility has been compromised because he championed the cause of a convicted rapist who was actually guilty. The film also draws some interesting parallels and contrasts between Everett and Beechum. Both are married with a young daughter, but whereas there are touching scenes involving Beechum's last hours with his family, Everett spoils an outing with his child because he is preoccupied with his investigation. Everett is linked to Beechum by a number of graphic editing matches, especially while smoking. When he visits Beechum there are several shots of Eastwood either in shadow or creased by light. There is an implication that Everett is imprisoned in some way, and his attempts to free Beechum can be read as a quest for his own release. The perfunctory elision of the details of Beechum's stay of execution have an intriguing function in this regard. In the last shot we see of the gas chamber the execution has already begun and the lethal gases have been released. We never see precisely how he is saved. Instead, the film cuts to some months ahead as Everett encounters Beechum at a local shopping mall. There are no celebrations, no Eastwood witticisms or slow tracking shots of him disappearing in triumphant fashion. Although Everett enjoys professional success as a result of the case, there are no trite resolutions of his family or personal problems as with Absolute Power. Rather, the viewer is left to wonder if Everett redeemed himself after all.

"We All Have It Coming, Kid": Clint Eastwood And The Dying of the Light

[Mister Tee]

I like alot of Eastwood's stuff, but I could never be so auteurist as to praise True Crime, which I thought was godawful, or Breezy, which I saw by accident in the 70s and hooted through (Damien, could you really keep a stright face through the over-the-credits song, with lyrics like "I carry in my pocket, Pumpkin seeds...and time"?)

But to go to dws's initial point: to judge Eastwood's two Oscars (for very good films) as the most stinging indictment of Academy taste is ludicrous. Go to Oliver Stone's two, or Milos Forman's, before you get to Eastwood. Or just stick to the singletons won by Ron Howard or Mel Gibson (or John Avildsen, or Frankling Schaffner, or Richard Attenborough...)

[flipp525]

It also features the incredible Julie Walters in a performance that served as the progenitor for many Evelyn-type characters to follow.

Nope, it was Jessica Walter.

Oops! My bad. Thanks for catching that Magilla. I've edited my original post.

No, Sonic. My parents only just met then. I actually was conceived after they saw "Jaws" together five years later .

[Damien]

If it's between Scorsese and Eastwood, it would be a similar no-brainer for me - Scorsese all the way. That said, I find it interesting that Damien included True Crime over Blood Work in his list. I find the latter to be much more interesting.

Oh I wasn't trying to be all-inclusive, I was just listing some Eastwood films off the top of my head. I like True Crime and Blood Work both very much, the former probably has greater moments but the latter works better as a whole.

[Big Magilla]

It also features the incredible Julie Walters in a performance that served as the progenitor for many Evelyn-type characters to follow.

Nope, it was Jessica Walter.

[dws1982]

If it's between Scorsese and Eastwood, it would be a similar no-brainer for me - Scorsese all the way. That said, I find it interesting that Damien included True Crime over Blood Work in his list. I find the latter to be much more interesting.

Even though you prefer Scorsese, unlike Nathaniel Rogers, I doubt you would suggest that Eastwood winning Best Director while Scorsese never has is an example of why the Academy shouldn't be taken seriously. I know it was written in the context of a Flags of Our Fathers/The Departed double review, but on a list of reasons why the Academy shouldn't be taken seriously, I doubt any serious critic would include Eastwood winning.

Re, True Crime: Can't speak for Damien (or myself, as I haven't seen it...I've had the DVD for awhile though), but I know a few people who've said that True Crime contains what may be the greatest moment in an Eastwood film in the way that the execution is stopped by an anonymous hand, because in Eastswood's world everyone in the room had the decency in them to stop it.

Segue into part of my Flags of Our Fathers defense (spoilers for those who haven't seen the movie)...

This inherent decency in the characters shows up in Flags of Our Fathers, too, and it's one of the clearest signs that it is very much an Eastwood film. This is apparent in the way Rene Gagnon--the opportunist--run past a potential emplyment opportunity to comfort a fallen comrade's mother; and even though Hayes and Gagnon didn't get along in the film, we also see the compassion that Gagnon exhibits to Hayes as he leaves the tour. It's also apparent in the way the government bureaucrat is obviously relieved that he doesn't have to be the one to kick Hayes off the tour, and in the way John Benjamin Hickey's character (can't remember the character's name) gently, reluctantly drops the axe.

There's also a thing in the movie that's an Eastwood trademark, something that I've never seen mentioned in pieces on him. It comes right after the family takes a picture of Hayes in the field. That scene, conceptually, is a bad idea, but Eastwood redeems it, and after the family leaves he ends the scene on a fairly short (maybe 3-5 seconds) shot of Hayes, framed alone, standing in the field with his small pocket flag--in his hands--flapping in the wind. To me it's a beautiful, moving shot--suggesting that Hayes has (even if only temporarily) accepted his place in history. Eastwood also gives a sublime moment of silence to Judith Ivey's Belle Block, right after she learns that her son was, in fact, in The Photograph. This shot would never make the final cut in most films, but Eastwood has always been generous, even with the incidental characters, and the shot of her quietly weeping was one of the most moving in the film for me. And it most definitely feels like an Eastwood moment--great Eastwood, even.

There's a lot more to say about this, obviously, but I have to be up fairly early in the morning. I'll try to add more in the next few days, Sabin.

[Sonic Youth]

As out-of-fashion as it is, I've always held a special place in my heart for Eastwood's Play Misty for Me. It was the movie my parents saw together on their first date in 1972.

And then flipp525 was born!

Lord help me, but that WAS funny...

[flipp525]

As out-of-fashion as it is, I've always held a special place in my heart for Eastwood's Play Misty for Me. It was the movie my parents saw together on their first date in 1972. It also features the incredible Jessica Walter in a performance that served as the progenitor for many Evelyn-type characters to follow (including Glenn Close's Alex Forrest fifteen years later in Fatal Attraction). Stylistically, the movie as a whole may appear a bit dated today but it certainly holds up on its own as a psychological thriller.

"Misty" is a great old sentimental song, too.

[Okri]

If it's between Scorsese and Eastwood, it would be a similar no-brainer for me - Scorsese all the way. That said, I find it interesting that Damien included True Crime over Blood Work in his list. I find the latter to be much more interesting.