Flags of Our Fathers (2006)
Eastwood almost succeeds in getting Paul Walker (The Fast and the Furious) to play a serious role. And Ryan Phillippe succeeds in faking a genuine smile. Okay, maybe not, as he seems to always be angry, or sad, but pretty much never truly happy. A true smile is said to be the most difficult to fake. But the script is a good fit, since war can be really maddening and sad. The movie has a certain realism, Paul Walker aside, and it tells the story of the flag raisings (yes, that’s plural) at Iwo Jima quite well. There is a certain good old fashioned style to the film and the period it depicts. A comparison to Saving Private Ryan might come to mind, but actually I think I like this film better. Something about Tom Hanks and his faked post trauma stress disordered shaking hand didn’t ring true about SPR.
