Posted on 05/27/2006 7:18:26 PM PDT by Pokey78
Two new movies based on a bloody 1945 battle are stirring up memories and forcing both sides to re-examine their history
More than 60 years after it became one of the bloodiest battlefields of the Second World War, Iwo Jima's tragic history retains the power to overwhelm. As his plane prepared to land on the isolated Japanese island last month, the actor Ken Watanabe found he could not hold back the tears. Accompanying Watanabe, who shot to stardom playing a feudal warlord opposite Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai, was another hard man of Hollywood whose time on Iwo Jima would lead to something of a professional epiphany.
When Clint Eastwood's two films about Iwo Jima, one of the darkest periods of the Pacific War, reach cinemas this year, audiences could be excused for forgetting the man behind them was once the trigger-happy Dirty Harry.
The 75-year-old director has promised Flags Of Our Fathers and Red Sun, Black Sand will attempt to show for the first time the suffering of both sides during 36 days of fighting in early 1945 that turned the island into a flattened wasteland.
(Excerpt) Read more at observer.guardian.co.uk ...
No, it is not. That is a myth.
A smaller flag was first placed atop Surbachi. 
Later, a much larger flag was raised. It was this second flag raising which was captured in the famous photo. 
The photographer, Rosenthal, was asked if the photo was staged. He thought the question was in reference to a photo with Marines posing in front of the flag, as said it was. 
This is where the "controversy" comes from.
maybe because it was staged
Surbachi = Suribachi
doh. what holymoly said. bad choice of words with "staged" I guess, considering the rest of the back story
The relativist tells us that life is not simple--then he oversimplies. It has been part of American policy to forget Japanese atrocities in China and the Phillipines.
Hopefully he was just referring to the fact that it was the second flag raised there and not the first.
Wrong.
"Staging
Rosenthal has repeatedly been accused of having staged the picture, due to a misunderstanding which occured shortly after the picture was taken.
Following the first and second flag raisings, Rosenthal had the marines of E-company pose for a group shot. (Picture of Rosenthal taking the posed shot; The posed picture taken by Rosenthal).
Rosenthal then sent his film to the Marianas to be developed. The photo-developers, upon seeing the flag-raising photo, were greatly impressed by the photo and wrote Rosenthal to ask if he had staged it. Rosenthal mistakenly believed they were referring to the group shot, instead of the flag-raising shot, and replied that yes, it had been staged."
simmer down...the controversy, I believe, has nothing to do with what the Japanese thought about it but that it may have been staged -
Still a great photo tho -
As for Eastward, from what I know of him, this wont be a PC movie...Clint is a hard-line conservative -
It was not a reenactment. It was raising a larger flag that could be seen all over the island and out at sea. There is a perfectly good movie film from USMC fotog who went up with first group. There was no still foto of the first raising. Joe Rosenthal took the picture of the second flag with a Speed Graphic still camera. He admits the actual foto was luck as he snapped the shutter during the raising. The flag was not raised for any sort of photo op. The guys who raised the first flag got shortchanged by history, but three of the Marines in Rosenthal's foto died on Iwo. To call what they did a reenactment is insulting.
the issue is that people THINK its the first flag raised. so that opened up the door for people to say "oh it wasn't the first flag" instead of simply correcting everyone
>>>Maybe he has Alzheimer's or something, because this seems very strange coming from him.<<<
Sad, but I believe you are correct. The old man is losing it. Those of us who idolized him for his sphagetti westerns and his Dirty Harry movies, might find it hard to forgive this outrageous revision of history. But remember that dementia can lead to hallucinations, and it is obvious the old man is hallucinating. God have mercy on his soul.
I could be wrong, but I understood Clint's statement to mean the movie is not about winning or losing, but mostly about the interrupted lives of young people.
Exactly
I'm a bit dismayed at the rush to judgment.
Unless Eastward has changed from the man I knew when I Lived in Carmel - I will trust him and reserve judgment until I see it...
I just posted one link. Other can be found easily by using Google.
And remember, there was a film made of the second flag raising as well. IMO It'd be kind of hard to stage a still photo, while the flag raising is being filmed live.
All those face lifts seemed to haved squeezed the common sense out of his head.
"Das Boot" was about German U-boat crews and what they went through. I consider it to be one of the best war movies of all time. It did not excuse what they did, it merely showed it. Hopefully, these two movies will do the same.
Right about now, reasonable, no rush to judgment posts are only about 1 - 10
;o)
This is interesting, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0498380/
"Red Sun, Black Sand" (2006)
Directed by Clint Eastwood
Language: Japanese
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.