Director Clint Eastwood hides a delicate heart beneath his stoic exterior. The films he directed in the last phase of his career prove it. While Eastwood delivered the biggest hit as a director during this period, like American Sniper, he also made some of his most experimental movies. The 15:17 to Paris, which was based on a real-life incident and featured the actual people involved as themselves, pushed the boundaries of what could be achieved in scripted filmmaking. Around a decade earlier, Eastwood conducted what remains the most ambitious experiment of his career. In 2006, he released two war epics centered around the same historical incident, but presented from different points of view. The movies focused on the human cost of war, and dared to humanize the people who’ve historically been portrayed as the enemy in American films.
The two films — Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima — were released within months of each other, but had nothing in common besides the crew working on them and their shared thematic concerns. Letters from Iwo Jima was set entirely in Japan, and featured a cast of Japanese actors. It grossed about $70 million worldwide on a reported $19 million budget. Flags of Our Fathers grossed nearly $70 million but had a much higher reported budget of $90 million. The movie is now streaming for free in the United States, which gives fans of war movies a great opportunity to check it out. It holds a “Certified Fresh” 76% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “Flags of Our Fathers is both a fascinating look at heroism, both earned and manufactured, and a well-filmed salute to the men who fought at the battle of Iwo Jima.”
Here’s Where You Can Watch ‘Flags of Our Fathers’
A review published in The Palm Beach Post described the movie as “brawny” and praised Eastwood for highlighting aspects of war that go unnoticed, such as the public relations machinery behind it and the necessity of civilian support. Its Japanese counterpart, on the other hand, holds a superior 91% Rotten Tomatoes score and was nominated for four Oscars. Starring Adam Beach, Ryan Phillippe, and Jesse Bradford, Flags of Our Fathers is streaming on Pluto TV this month.
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