"Flags of Our Fathers" DVD Review

Flags of Our Fathers is being released on DVD without any bonus features. That's right - none at all. Unless you're into the film itself, Flags of Our Fathers won't be much of an addition to your DVD collection. However, if you pick out your DVDs based on the quality of the movie and don't care at all about the extra bells and whistles, then rent Flags of Our Fathers. I suggest you 'rent' this DVD only because there's bound to be a special edition released somewhere down the road or a 2-disc set when Letters from Iwo Jima hits stores.

Clint Eastwood explores the story behind the raising of the flag on Mount Suribachi in Flags of Our Fathers, the first of two movies Eastwood directed which focus on World War II and the Battle of Iwo Jima. Starring Ryan Phillippe, Adam Beach, and Jesse Bradford, Flags of Our Fathers brings to life the men behind one of the most iconic photos in military history.

In February 1945 the Americans had the upper hand in the war, however they needed to take the Japanese island of Iwo Jima in order to have a foothold on Japanese soil. Japanese soldiers weren't going to go down without an intense fight. The Japanese troups were entrenched in caves throughout the island and on the isle's highest point, Mount Suribachi.

It's atop Mount Suribachi where a photo is snapped that changed the way Americans back home viewed the war and made five Marines and a Navy Corpsman into national heroes. The photo, which features the group of men erecting the flag, was actually taken as a replacement flag was being raised in place of one originally put there days before. But that didn't matter. The aim was to get the men involved in the photo back to the States to help in the war effort no matter what it took to do so.

Tragically, some of the flag raisers fell in battle prior to gaining recognition back home. However the three who remained - Navy medic John ‘Doc’ Bradley (Phillippe), U.S. Marine Rene Gagnon (Bradford), and U.S. Marine and Native American Indian Ira Hayes (Beach) - were turned into heroes and paraded all across America in an effort to raise money for the war. Flags of Our Fathers follows their story as the men, for the most part reluctantly, were forced to deal with life in the spotlight.