Professor Elam

Flags of our Fathers  debuted October 20 and the Chicago Sun Times review  is here.  Roger Ebert is recovering from medical treatment so another chap wrote it.  I mentioned in class that  Eastwood is famous for budgeted movies that come in on budget and on time. Here is a link to an interview with
Clint who directed the movie.

This movie is based on book by the son of  a Marine who was in the battle.  The real story is that the three Marines who survived the battle were brought home as ‘heroes’ to sell War Bonds to a war weary United States.  They recoiled at the idea of being labeled heroes when so many of their comrades had been killed. 

I started this blog so that we could visit about more than just accounting.  I said that college should be a larger experience of finding oneself and examining the life we move through.  We are still bombarded with images of manufactured heroes.  Just recently the Army would have us believe that Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman were heroes in Iraq. The truth was that Jessica was the unfortunate victim of a car wreck and a ‘staged’ rescue.  Pat Tillman, who gave up an NFL career to enlist, was killed by ‘friendly fire.’  Friendly fire is the euphemism for being killed by our own troops by mistake.  But that would hardly make a great story so the Defense Dept changed it to suit their needs.  And that is Eastwood’s point in making the movie. 

Oliver North will examine the Iwo Jima campaign tonight on Fox in his War Stories series.  It was the most costly Marine campaign ever.  Virtually every Japanese solider died on the island, 22,000.  It was a battle  for a volcanic islands smaller than Manhattan. The straategic reason was that Iwo Jima would be an airfiield for an invasion of Japan.  Next year Eastwood will debut a film from the Japanese point of view.  Making the first film, he realized there were two stories to be told.

Chevy posed a question and I will answer it here.  The book was written by James Bradley , the son of one of the original six soldiers who raised the flag.  Oliver North detailed the actual true story last Sunday evening and I did see War Stories .  This short article does not do justice to the coverage in the television show.  First, a colonel had ordered the original flag raising atop the only hill on the island.  Dissatisfied with the size of the flag, he ordred another flag raised.  Only three of the six soldiers left the island alive.  One, Ira Hayes,  a Pima Indian, was the subject of a song by Johnny Cash.  Tragically he drank himself to death, dying in 1954 after being arrested dozen of times for drunk and disorderly.  The second fellow never went beyond odd jobs and being featured in parades as a hero.  Both men were overcome at the memory of all their comrades that were lost on the island and resented being called heroes. The third solider lived to the age of 70 and was James Bradley’s father.  His dad never spoke of the battle  even though he had earned a Navy Cross, the second highest medal the USA awards.  I have not seen the Eastwood movie but the War Story report was one of the best I have seen Col. North produce.

Here is a good account of the actual battle.   The Normandy invasion lasted one day on the beach.  This fight went on for a month and took 25,000 lives from both sides in one month, and that is just the number dead.  All for one island smaller than Manhattan…..

A review of Eastwood’s work appears in this link.

DLE