Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by rico (A) on October 21, 2006 at 10:47:35

In preparation for seeing the new Eastwood directed film, "Flags of our Fathers", I dug out this 1949 effort, one of the few times that a still photograph inspired a movie. By 1949 there was a budget move on iin certain elements of Congress to eliminate the Marine Corps (the feeling being that other specially trained units could handle their traditional mission) and The Corps practically BEGGED Hollywood to make the film, based on the flag raising during the taking of the Pacific island of Iwo Jima. The reasons fo the taking of Iwo are many, but chief among them was the need for a landing /refueling spot for returning B-29's on bombing runs to Japan (other reasons were the elimination of radar sites and Japanese fighter plane bases)
The Corps provided a huge U.S. Pacific coast base for the film to recreate battles at both Tarawa and Iwo, as well as a huge amount of equipment, Matines, and technical advice (paid for by the Republice PicTures studio. John Wayne stars a Sargeant John Striker, a hard bitten veteran who has been busted three levels to his current rank.
The film starts on a New Zealand island base after the battle of Guadalcanal. Wayne is assigned a platoon of mostly newcomers, with only three combat veterans in the group. He is tough and uses a number of means to weld the group into an effective fighting force. There are the usual collection of "types" from all over the U.S. as in most war films of the times and of course many predictable sub-plot situations.
The two battles cited above are very realistically staged and the film ends with the historic flag raising (even though the fighting contiued and three of the six men who raised that flag were killed).
Dated but still effective. It became a hit and helped save the Marine Corps.