Flags of Our Fathers (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition) |  | Director: Clint Eastwood
Actors: Ryan Phillippe, Paul Walker, Adam Beach, John Benjamin Hickey
Studio: Dreamworks Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $34.99
Buy New: $8.54
as of 3/21/2010 16:38 EDT details
You Save: $26.45 (76%)
New (33) Used (28) from $2.40
Seller: inetvideo
Rating:  278 reviews
Sales Rank: 47087
Format: AC-3, Collector's Edition, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number Of Discs: 2
Running Time: 132 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: PARD123514D
UPC: 097361235141
EAN: 0097361235141
ASIN: B000NDJOO2
Theatrical Release Date: October 20, 2006
Release Date: May 22, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Chronicles one of the bloodiest battles of World War II, focusing on the men who raised the flag at Iwo Jima and were subsequently hailed as heroes and used to raise money for the war effort.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 22-MAY-2007
Media Type: DVD
Amazon.com
Thematically ambitious and emotionally complex, Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers is an intimate epic with much to say about war and the nature of heroism in America. Based on the non-fiction bestseller by James Bradley (with Ron Powers), and adapted by Million Dollar Baby screenwriter Paul Haggis (Jarhead screenwriter William Broyles Jr. wrote an earlier draft that was abandoned when Eastwood signed on to direct), this isn't so much a conventional war movie as it is a thought-provoking meditation on our collective need for heroes, even at the expense of those we deem heroic. In telling the story of the six men (five Marines, one Navy medic) who raised the American flag of victory on the battle-ravaged Japanese island of Iwo Jima on February 23rd, 1945, Eastwood takes us deep into the horror of war (in painstakingly authentic Iwo Jima battle scenes) while emphasizing how three of the surviving flag-raisers (played by Adam Beach, Ryan Phillippe, and Jesse Bradford) became reluctant celebrities - and resentful pawns in a wartime publicity campaign - after their flag-raising was immortalized by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal in the most famous photograph in military history. As the surviving flag-raisers reluctantly play their public roles as "the heroes of Iwo Jima" during an exhausting (but clearly necessary) wartime bond rally tour, Flags of Our Fathers evolves into a pointed study of battlefield valor and misplaced idolatry, incorporating subtle comment on the bogus nature of celebrity, the trauma of battle, and the true meaning of heroism in wartime. Wisely avoiding any direct parallels to contemporary history, Eastwood allows us to draw our own conclusions about the Iwo Jima flag-raisers and how their postwar histories (both noble and tragic) simultaneously illustrate the hazards of exploited celebrity and society's genuine need for admirable role models during times of national crisis. Flags of Our Fathers defies the expectations of those seeking a more straightforward war-action drama, but it's richly satisfying, impeccably crafted film that manages to be genuinely patriotic (in celebrating the camaraderie of soldiers in battle) while dramatizing the ultimate futility of war. Eastwood's follow-up film, Letters from Iwo Jima, examines the Iwo Jima conflict from the Japanese perspective. --Jeff Shannon Beyond Flags of Our Fathers 
Other World War II DVDs | 
Essential DVDs by Director Clint Eastwood | 
Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley | Stills from Flags of Our Fathers (click for larger image)
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 278
 Flags of Our Fathers (Full Screen Edition) March 15, 2010
Arnita D. Brown (USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
In 1945, the Marines attack twelve thousand Japaneses protecting the twenty square kilometers of the sacred Iwo Jima island in a very violent battle. When they reach the Mount Suribachi and six soldiers raise their flag on the top, the picture become a symbol in a post Great Depression America. The government brings the three survivors to America to raise funds of war, bringing hope to desolated people, and making the three men heroes of war. However, the traumatized trio has difficulties to deal with the image build by their superiors, sharing the heroism with their mates. Clint Eastwood paints a thought provoking piece on heroism and war-propaganda. This movie tells three stories: first it is the WW II battle of Iwo Jima where thousands of soldiers (Japanese and American) died 'conquering' that island. Some of the movie is graphically violent and shows the dark side of war, and the effects war has on our returning soldiers. The story is realistic and very compelling by not glorifying war.
Blu Ray Flags of our Fathers - Clint Eastwood as an amazing director February 28, 2010
Timothy Imholt (Methuen, Mass)
I have been a fan of Mr. Eastwood for a long time. He, as an actor, I think is amazingly talented and can play a diverse set of roles. He is very comfortable in front of the camera.
With this movie he made me understand that he is just as comfortable behind the camera. I was shocked and amazed at his talent for telling the story and I believe telling it right. If you haven't seen this even though its about 4 years old now I think you'll be as taken by this film as I was. I only gave it four stars and I don't like to just dish out five star ratings. There were a few bits I felt could have been better from a technical standpoint of film making but from the story telling side. VERY good.
[...]
 Huge disappointment! January 30, 2010
Fred Smith (SF Bay Area)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I bought this DVD after reading the book and anxiously waited for it to arrive. I guess great anticipation leads to great disappointment because this is one of the worst movies I have seen in a long time. I even watched it again just to be fair thinking maybe I had had a bad night. No, it was even worse the second time.
Let me say that I was incredibly moved by the book. It made the human experience of WWII real to me in a way that no History Channel documentary ever could. I felt I knew the characters and was moved to tears by their stories.
The screenplay and direction of this film is so muddled and disjointed that, if I hadn't read the book, I don't know if I could have even figured out who the characters were. There is virtually no character development so it's hard to know who the people are or why they are doing what do in the film - or why you should care. The battle scenes are intense but the grey, jerky, surreal filming technique is distracting and annoying.
I'm a huge fan of Clint Eastwood's movies but this time he just fell down flat.
Flags of our Fathers December 8, 2009
Beth Hughes (Seeley Lake, MT USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This product came to me in a timely manner, Thank You for getting this dvd out to me so quickly!
 EASTWOOD CRACKS A TOUGH NUT! November 21, 2009
drkhimxz (Freehold, NJ, USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Just had a look at a description of the book on which this film was based. Made understandable the structure of the film which somewhat puzzled and a little disturbed me as I saw it. Felt the interweaving of combat with later events weakened the impact of each. However, turns out the book was an extensive study of the lives of 6 men and the combat which united them at the pole on which they placed and raised the American flag on a hill in Iwo Jima. Not having a mini-series of 10 or more hours at their disposal and yet having to, (by contractual arrangement), or wanting to, they had to cover both facets of the book in one two hour movie. They did a fine job. The combat scenes stand up very well, the civilian scenes less so since the personalities formed in the early years prior to service might have explained better the situational accommodations made to post-combat conditions. At any rate, this is a film worth seeing mostly for the thesis that men (and, now, women )in combat are mostly ordinary people who have to adjust to extraordinary circumstances and react often in extraordinary ways. While the brutality of war is suggested, no film can convey the extent to which fear, hatred, the close bonds of the primary group in the military, the shattering of bodies and souls, and sheer necessity create a boiling cauldron out of which anything can emerge.
Certainly, a notable film despite minor flaws.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 278
|
|
|
