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Kudos to Clint Eastwood for his film adaptation of “Flags of Our Fathers,” the book by James Bradley.

I think the majority of people who view the film will want to make the obvious comparisons to “Saving Private Ryan,” and rightly so. What Spielberg (who by the way co-produced “Flags”) did for the U.S. Army vets who fought their way across North Africa and Europe during World War Two, Eastwood does for the sailors and Marines who gutted-out the campaigns against the Japanese in the Pacific. Note: one shouldn’t forget that there were plenty of soldiers who fought alongside those sailors and Marines in the Pacific. My Uncle Bob was one them, serving as a medic with the 77th Infantry Division in Guam, the Phillippines and on Okinawa, where he received his Purple Hart and Bronze Star.

Similar in some ways, yes, but what I think was most striking and memorable about “Flags” was the obvious difference. Eastwood’s emphasis on the tragedy that befalls Ira Hayes is more than worth noting. It is quite telling of us as a society, and how we give lots of lip service to “supporting the troops” but more often we fail to walk the walk.

The noisy rhetoric of verbal support comes from both sides of our political spectrum. But it is their actions that speak the truth of their convictions. The College Campus Democrats and the Country Club Republicans. Elitism comes in both red and blue, and seldom, if ever, wears the uniform of military service. Show me one example from the post WWII generations on either side where there is a son or daughter currently in uniform or an inkling of past military service amongst them. Think I’m off base ? Try reading “AWOL: The Unexcused Absence of America’s Upper Classes from Military Service” by Frank Schaeffer and Kathy Roth-Douquet. Frank and Kathy get it, and so does James Bradley.
Somewhere in between lies the ghost of Ira Hayes, and many, many more like him, from World War Two all the way to the current “War on Terrorism.”

For me those were the most painful scenes to watch in “Flags,” the tragic downfall of PFC Ira Hayes. From the horror of his battlefiled experiences to the blatant racism and lack of regard for Ira’s Native American heritage to the simple fact that he was simply used and then cast aside like garbage. Shame on the Marine Corps. Shame on us. What kind of person wouldn’t desperately try to find an escape when faced with odds like that, and who the hell is anyone to judge ?

I think the message that Eastwood wanted to get across was the same as Spielberg’s - that it is the individual soldier, sailor, airmen and Marine who pays the most and receives the least when it comes to war, and the real reason why they put their lives on the line is for each other. But Eastwood takes it one step further and really brings the point home, not only through the aftermath story of Ira Hayes but through the tragic loss of all the other Marines and sailors who fought and died with him on Iwo Jima and the aftermath of their survivors. And he still has more to teach us with the upcoming release of “Letters from Iwo Jima,” telling the real-life horror story from the vantage point of the some 20,000+ Japanese who died on that island.

On the 4th of July during the summer of 1983 my platoon was marched into the Parris Island movie theater and given a holiday treat of watching “The Sands of Iwo Jima,” the old black and white version starring John Wayne (“is that you John Wayne? It’s me“). Pretty corny stuff, of course back then I would have sat through “When Harry Met Sally” if it meant two hours of air conditioning in a soft padded chair with no screaming drill instructors.

I’m wondering if they still show “Sands” to recruits, and if so, will it continued to be shown now that we have Eastwood’s “Flags?” My guess is that the Marine Corps will stick to John Wayne in black and white. It’s nice and safe with not much thinking involved.

“Flags of Our Fathers” will keep you thinking and asking questions, and more importantly, not forgetting.