Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Spielberg, Eastwood raise 'Flags' (Flags of Our Fathers: Heroes of Iwo Jima)
Hollywood Reporter ^ | 7/8/04 | Borys Kit and Chris Gardner

Posted on 07/08/2004 11:58:55 PM PDT by BurbankKarl

Steven Spielberg and Clint Eastwood are teaming up to bring the story of the Battle of Iwo Jima to the big screen. Eastwood will direct an adaptation of "Flags of Our Fathers: Heroes of Iwo Jima" for DreamWorks that Paul Haggis will write.

The battle, which took place in the winter of 1945, was a turning point in the Pacific Theater. In one month, 22,000 Japanese and 26,000 Americans died, and one of the outcomes was one of World War II's most enduring images: a photograph of six soldiers raising an American flag on the flank of Mount Suribachi, the island's commanding high point.

One of the six was Navy corpsman John Bradley. Bradley never mentioned his experiences to his family, and it was only after his death in 1994 that his son James discovered his father's heroism. James Bradley wrote the book, which was published in 2000, with Ron Powers.

Producers are yet to be determined. At the studio, the project is being shepherded by DreamWorks prodction topper Adam Goodman.

The project is the second collaboration between Spielberg and Eastwood, following "The Bridges of Madison County," which Eastwood directed and starred in and Spielberg produced through his Amblin Entertainment.

Haggis is producing and writing "Million Dollar Baby," which Eastwood is writing, directing and producing, with Hilary Swank starring. He also is adapting "Honeymoon With Harry" for New Line.

Haggis is repped by CAA, Larry Becsey of Becsey/Wisdom/Kalajian and attorney Peter Dekom. Eastwood is repped by Leonard Hirshan and attorney Bruce Ramer.

(Excerpt) Read more at hollywoodreporter.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; US: California
KEYWORDS: flagsofourfathers; iwojima; movies; wwii
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-23 next last

1 posted on 07/08/2004 11:58:55 PM PDT by BurbankKarl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: BurbankKarl

One of Klinton's biggest donors is making a killing off the military that his idol dispised and gutted. The spoils of this movie will be spent to help elect people who stand diametricly opposed to everything I stand for, and I might add, everything that same military fought and shed their blood for.


2 posted on 07/09/2004 12:23:17 AM PDT by DoughtyOne
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BurbankKarl

The winter of 1945 huh? LoL.


3 posted on 07/09/2004 12:29:43 AM PDT by BlessingInDisguise (Vote Libertarian)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BlessingInDisguise

In all honesty, January of 1945 IS smack dab in the winter season, but I wonder if they will include what happened to the Marine who was in the same unit as the Flag Raisers. Remember? He was grabbed, dragged into a cave and slowly beaten to death with iron bars...


4 posted on 07/09/2004 12:40:56 AM PDT by jonascord (What is better than the wind at 6 O'Clock on the 600 yard line?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: jonascord

I have no interest in seeing any more WWII movies. At this point it's becoming so overdone that the genre is turning into a parody of itself.


5 posted on 07/09/2004 12:46:59 AM PDT by BlessingInDisguise (Vote Libertarian)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: BurbankKarl
The battle, which took place in the winter of 1945, was a turning point in the Pacific Theater. In one month, 22,000 Japanese and 26,000 Americans died, and one of the outcomes was one of World War II's most enduring images: a photograph of six soldiers raising an American flag on the flank of Mount Suribachi, the island's commanding high point.

The number of U.S killed is way off. It was more like 7500. While still a large number, it's not quite 26,000. Semper Fi.


SIC (Forward)
6 posted on 07/09/2004 1:08:44 AM PDT by SICSEMPERTYRANNUS ("Our responses to terrorist acts should make the world gasp." - When Devils Walk the Earth)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BurbankKarl
An accurate portrayal of the battle of Iwo Jima will not be something a lot of people could sit through for two hours. It was almost a month of the most horrific killing the world has ever seen. Anyone who has read "Flags of Our Fathers" has got to be struck by the horror of what happened there.

There are the stories of young Marines, being surprised at night by the Japanese in the dark and stabbed to death with bayonets. Their buddies heard these young men scream out for their mommas as they died. I wept when I read the book.

The U.S. Navy ships offshore had so many dead and wounded Marines aboard, blood was running along the decks and pouring off the scuppers into the ocean. I knew a sailor who saw this.

This movie is going to be shown to Americans who can't even watch the video replays of September 11, 2001?

7 posted on 07/09/2004 2:46:06 AM PDT by NoControllingLegalAuthority
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DoughtyOne; NoControllingLegalAuthority
Rent the real McCoy.......

Sands of Iwo Jima ( 1949 )

The film uses a combination of actual war footage and new footage (all in B & W) and was shot at Camp Pendleton.

8 posted on 07/09/2004 3:25:44 AM PDT by Robert Drobot (God, family, country. All else is meaningless.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: NoControllingLegalAuthority

Eastwood is a guy who I would trust to do a good job. I loved "Heartbreak Ridge." His "Gunny Highway" was a tremendous role, although I would love to see a sequel with Highway and "Major Payne" together!


9 posted on 07/09/2004 5:29:41 AM PDT by LS (CNN is the Amtrak of news.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Robert Drobot

Cool


10 posted on 07/09/2004 6:44:52 AM PDT by DoughtyOne
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: LS

Now that would be funny

Major Paine was classic


11 posted on 07/09/2004 6:51:43 AM PDT by erinjohn (“There was a guy in a headscarf with an AK47 standing there looking at me, so I shot him.”)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: NoControllingLegalAuthority
Remember the reaction to Spielberg's "Saving Pvt. Ryan"? I would hope that this time he actually asks about such things as how to handle an M-1, or a carbine, or not to assign a bolt action to a southpaw, You could sit there all day and find things to knock. And perhaps, this time, he will try and cast no one over 19 years old. I would be interested in knowing how many boys lied about their ages to join the Marines? Remember what Elenore R. said about Marines? "Baby-faced killers!" If I were to cast the movie, I'd clean out the Sophomore and Junior classes of a local High School. Also, have a long sit down with the writers, and inform them what an 'effen everything is. They would use the "F" word as noun, pronoun, adjective, adverb, and extra syllable with every word, along with bulkhead, deck, pogiebait, '782 gear, piece, rifle, rear-rank field music...

Marines are different. Little things, like firing two rounds near a spiderhole and dropping an empty Garand clip on the coral so it rings, so that when the jap comes out of the hole, thinking your rifle is empty, you can shred him with six rounds... Taking a jap POW "back to the beach", two miles away, and returning 10 minutes later, alone... When the Navy doesn't steam out oil drums before filling them with drinking water and floating them ashore... Clean out a cave by first shooting a basic issue of ammo into the mouth to suppress fires until you can get a Zippo in close, to burn out the entrance so you can seal the cave with satchel or pole charges, And then repeat it on the next cave twenty feet away...

It's those little things that spoil it for me. Perhaps if they were to actually bear down on how bad it can get, and Iwo is about as bad at it ever was, maybe it would either shut the lefties up, or make them squeal so bad that the rest will realize how bad they are.

12 posted on 07/09/2004 11:14:34 PM PDT by jonascord (What is better than the wind at 6 O'Clock on the 600 yard line?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: SICSEMPERTYRANNUS

I may be one of the few people around who say this...but I would have preferred to nuke the island and use that as a demo model for Japan to observe. We would have killed the 22k Japanese soldiers anyway....and it would have been worth the effort.


13 posted on 07/09/2004 11:22:36 PM PDT by pepsionice
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: DoughtyOne

Look up the writer, Paul Haggis, a 'progressive' if there ever was one. I'm sure he will give a honest portrayal of a US Marine...


14 posted on 07/10/2004 8:07:36 AM PDT by jonascord (What is better than the wind at 6 O'Clock on the 600 yard line?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: jonascord
Read "The Bloody Battle for Suribachi" Navy Press by Richard Wheeler. Wheeler was a rifleman in the platoon that carried the first flag up. He was hit before the patrol. His book is simple, straight forward and dramatic.

I worked NYPD in the early 70s. One of my supervisors was a 45 year old Sgt. who was on Iwo as a 18 year old rifleman. He knew my uncle, also USMC in WW2 and took me under his wing. His buddy was a Guadalcanal veteran. I loved these guys, both now gone.

15 posted on 07/10/2004 8:17:53 AM PDT by wtc911 (moderate islam is the swamp where evil festers)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: pepsionice
I may be one of the few people around who say this...but I would have preferred to nuke the island and use that as a demo model for Japan to observe. We would have killed the 22k Japanese soldiers anyway....and it would have been worth the effort.....

_____________________________________

Number one, we didn't have a working bomb in February 1945. Number two, it took two mainland drops to get the Japs to quit, vaporizing Iwo would have had no effect and cost us a forward base.

16 posted on 07/10/2004 8:20:17 AM PDT by wtc911 (moderate islam is the swamp where evil festers)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: pepsionice
A. In January, 1945, the first bomb wasn't ready yet.
B. We needed the island as an alternate for B-29s that had been damaged, although it wasn't big enough for the runways and taxiways we built on Saipan and Tinian. A fully loaded B-29 needed nearly 10,000 ft. of runway. Iwo also did not have a harbor to supply the logistics of a bomber campaign.
C. It was close enough to provide plenty of loiter time for fighter support. Turning it into a radioactive cinder seems like an idea whose time is not yet.
D. Buried as deeply as they were, I would bet that at least half would not have been so much as rattled...
17 posted on 07/10/2004 8:26:13 AM PDT by jonascord (What is better than the wind at 6 O'Clock on the 600 yard line?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: BurbankKarl

26,000 Americans died? I don't think so. The Japanese dead is accurate I think all but 11.


18 posted on 07/10/2004 8:57:03 AM PDT by xone
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BlessingInDisguise

February is winter. Spring starts in March, even in 1945.


19 posted on 07/10/2004 9:55:02 AM PDT by A.A. Cunningham
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

a photograph of six soldiers raising an American flag

Five Marines and a sailor. No soldiers.

20 posted on 07/10/2004 9:56:21 AM PDT by A.A. Cunningham
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-23 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson