The film uses a combination of actual war footage and new footage (all in B & W) and was shot at Camp Pendleton.
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 ...
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.
The winter of 1945 huh? LoL.
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...
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.
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?
The film uses a combination of actual war footage and new footage (all in B & W) and was shot at Camp Pendleton.
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!
Cool
Now that would be funny
Major Paine was classic
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.
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.
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...
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.
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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.
26,000 Americans died? I don't think so. The Japanese dead is accurate I think all but 11.
February is winter. Spring starts in March, even in 1945.
Five Marines and a sailor. No soldiers.
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