[patience]

SAN FRANCISCO (Aug. 21) - Photographer Joe Rosenthal, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his immortal image of six World War II servicemen raising an American flag over battle-scarred Iwo Jima, died Sunday. He was 94.
Excerpt:
Rosenthal died of natural causes at an assisted living facility in the San Francisco suburb of Novato, said his daughter, Anne Rosenthal.

His photo, taken for The Associated Press on Feb. 23, 1945, became the model for the Iwo Jima Memorial near Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. The memorial, dedicated in 1954 and known officially as the Marine Corps War Memorial, commemorates the Marines who died taking the Pacific island in World War II.

The photo was listed in 1999 at No. 68 on a New York University survey of 100 examples of the best journalism of the century.

http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a/famed...821052309990003

[patience]

This from the NYPost:
I read this article after just having heard a T.V. report that a teacher was teaching students "freedom of speech" , demonstrated by burning an American Flag.
You just can't make this stuff up.
But what really made my day was reading in the article that Clint Eastwood is making the film, "Flags of our Fathers", which is based on Mr. Rosenthal's photo.

JOE ROSENTHAL, 1911-2006

August 22, 2006 -- Despite a long career as a news photographer, Joe Rosenthal will always be remembered for a single image: his iconic picture of five Marines and a Navy hospital corpsman triumphantly raising the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima's Mount Suribachi during one of the climactic battles of World War II.

It remains the most famous wartime photograph ever taken. But it's more than just a gripping image: Rosenthal in a single instant captured forever the commitment and determination of what Americans have come to appreciate as "the greatest generation."

Joe Rosenthal was a combat photographer with the Associated Press in February 1945 when he took the photo on the fifth day of a furious 36-day battle - one of the bloodiest in Marine history - for control of Iwo Jima. It left 6,825 Americans dead and 19,026 wounded. One in three American servicemen on the scene was a casualty; 95 percent of the island's 22,000 Japanese defenders paid with their lives.

Despite later suggestions that the photo was staged, the truth was far simpler. A small flag had been raised on Suribachi's summit four hours earlier; Rosenthal came upon the scene as a second, larger flag - one visible across the island - was being lifted; he and a movie photographer captured the scene.

But it was Rosenthal's still photo that enthralled the nation with its raw, simple power. Published in almost every U.S. newspaper, it inspired a hugely successful War Bonds drive and has since appeared on a postage stamp and been cast in bronze at the national Marine Corps memorial in Washington. It's the subject of Clint Eastwood's next film, "Flags of Our Fathers," due out in October.

The photo also won a well-deserved Pulitzer Prize, with the committee hailing it as "a frozen flash of history."

Over the years, Rosenthal often seemed embarrassed that he was better known than the servicemen (three of whom would be killed in action on the sulphurous island) who hoisted the flag.

"I took the photo," he said. "The Marines took Iwo Jima."

He and they all deserve a proud salute from a grateful nation.

The following website has a photo and description of the memorial.
http://pages.arlingtoncounty.com/iwo_jima.htm

[Matt Wiser]

Three of the six Marines who raised that flag were KIA on Iwo; a fourth (Navy Corpsman John Bradley) was seriously wounded (he won a Navy Cross in the process). 27 Marine and Navy Personnel won the Medal of Honor on Iwo, most of them posthmously. Admrial Chester Nimitz, Commander-in Chief Pacific Fleet and Commander in Chief Pacific Ocean Areas said it best: "On Iwo, uncommon valor was a common virtue."
Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal told Fleet Marine Force Pacific Commander General Holland Smith: "The raising of that flag means a Marine Corps for the next five hundred years." The toll on Iwo was 6,821 Marines, Sailors, and Army personnel killed, 19,217 wounded, and 2,648 combat fatigue cases, for a total U.S. casualty figure of 28,686. This was 30% of the total assault force, and the only island battle (excepting the 1941-42 Philippines campaign) where the Japanese inflicted more casualties than they took
(20,000 of the roughly 21,000 defenders were slain, and 1,083 were captured). And yet, because of the Iwo Marines, some 27,000 AAF airmen in 2,400 B-29s were able to make emergency landings and save lives and aircraft that might have been lost to the Pacific had Iwo not been in American hands.

[patience]

name='Matt Wiser' date='Aug 23 2006, 01:20 AM' post='13514']
Three of the six Marines who raised that flag were KIA on Iwo; a fourth (Navy Corpsman John Bradley) was seriously wounded (he won a Navy Cross in the process). 27 Marine and Navy Personnel won the Medal of Honor on Iwo, most of them posthmously. Admrial Chester Nimitz, Commander-in Chief Pacific Fleet and Commander in Chief Pacific Ocean Areas said it best: "On Iwo, uncommon valor was a common virtue."
Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal told Fleet Marine Force Pacific Commander General Holland Smith: "The raising of that flag means a Marine Corps for the next five hundred years." The toll on Iwo was 6,821 Marines, Sailors, and Army personnel killed, 19,217 wounded, and 2,648 combat fatigue cases, for a total U.S. casualty figure of 28,686. This was 30% of the total assault force, and the only island battle (excepting the 1941-42 Philippines campaign) where the Japanese inflicted more casualties than they took
(20,000 of the roughly 21,000 defenders were slain, and 1,083 were captured). And yet, because of the Iwo Marines, some 27,000 AAF airmen in 2,400 B-29s were able to make emergency landings and save lives and aircraft that might have been lost to the Pacific had Iwo not been in American hands.

This was a 36 day battle that took place in Feb. and March, 1945 which is what makes the statistics so staggering. The Marines fought in World War II for 43 months. In one month on IWO JIMA, one third of their total deaths occurred.
I'd like to add a few quotes from the book, "Flag Of Our Fathers", without a doubt, one of the saddest, that I've ever read. It was written by James Brady, son of Navy Corpsman, John Bradley, with Ron Powers. James Brady, and his family, visited the cemetery on Iwo Jima and placed a plaque there in remembrance of their father. He had this to say:

When I think of Mike, Harlon, and Franklin there, I think of the message someone had chiseled outside the cemetery:
"When you go home
Tell them for us and say
For your tomorrow
We gave our today

Tell your readers," Corpsman William Hoopes advised me, that I was wearing Marine Corps green dungarees. Mine were stiff with dried blood and they cracked. And it wasn't my blood.

Tex Stanton: If you got a medal your citation read that you did something 'above and beyond the call of duty.' Well. I saw plenty of heroes on that island. And I figure if you spent just 24-hours there, you were doing something 'above and beyond' just to survive.

The only thing new in the world is the history you don't know. Harry Truman

The film will be in theatres the 12th of Oct. Clint Eastwood has his work cut on fo him on this one. Spielberg is one of the producers.

[patience]

Reviews of film," Flags of our Fathers."
There are alot of them.
Ebert and Roeper review is on video.
http://tvplex.go.com/buenavista/ebertandro...20OUR%20FATHERS
Jessica and Pat Tillman are mentioned in this review.

For an in-depth review, I'll post another link which captures the essence of the book. It is lengthy.
Excerpt:

One way to think about "Flags" is as "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" of this generation. That 1962 John Ford Western is famous for its central maxim, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend," and "Flags" resonantly holds the notion up to the light. It is also a film about the Greatest Generation that considers why its members are, or were, reticent to speak much about what they did in the war, to boast or consider themselves heroes

http://www.variety.com/VE1117931805.html

[starr]

One way to think about "Flags" is as "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" of this generation. That 1962 John Ford Western is famous for its central maxim, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend," and "Flags" resonantly holds the notion up to the light. It is also a film about the Greatest Generation that considers why its members are, or were, reticent to speak much about what they did in the war, to boast or consider themselves heroes

There definitely seems to be a profound resonance in how the vast majority of WW2 vets quietly blended back into society and did not like to publicly reflect upon the war experiences. I have observed similar attitudes in Korean War vets.

During the Vietnam War, the questions of what effect the extreme stress has upon the mental well being of military members were thrust into the spotlight. It took quite a few years, yet the stigma that used to be associated with a PTSD type disorder was viewed in a more humanistic manner. There were certainly cultural differences in terms of sociological attitudes as the years progressed. For example, I saw today on the news that a Woman vet who lost both her legs is running for political office. There were a few more examples in today’s news story of returning vets running for political office. For various reasons, time seems to have made the voice of the vet louder. Such changes are very interesting and being studied by sociological and psychological researchers.

P.S --- Patience, I bet the film will be both educational and interesting to see. Perhaps it is time to hear the previously silent story.

[patience]

There definitely seems to be a profound resonance in how the vast majority of WW2 vets quietly blended back into society and did not like to publicly reflect upon the war experiences. I have observed similar attitudes in Korean War vets.

During the Vietnam War, the questions of what effect the extreme stress has upon the mental well being of military members were thrust into the spotlight. It took quite a few years, yet the stigma that used to be associated with a PTSD type disorder was viewed in a more humanistic manner. There were certainly cultural differences in terms of sociological attitudes as the years progressed. For example, I saw today on the news that a Woman vet who lost both her legs is running for political office. There were a few more examples in today’s news story of returning vets running for political office. For various reasons, time seems to have made the voice of the vet louder. Such changes are very interesting and being studied by sociological and psychological researchers.

P.S --- Patience, I bet the film will be both educational and interesting to see. Perhaps it is time to hear the previously silent story.

According to Mr. Eastwood himself, that was one of his interests in making the film. To quote him:

The N.Y. Times tried to imbue the film with modern political relevance, describing it as “a study of the callous ways in which heroes are created for public consumption, used and discarded with the news media’s willing cooperation.”

But Eastwood sees the film in more basic terms.

“I just want the people who see the picture to feel how the story happened, how these skinny kids were affected, and how they were a lot tougher than we are today,” he said during filming.

This above quote is taken from "The Carmel Pine Cone."
This is a very good article.
http://www.carmelpinecone.com/060929-1.html

Author: Eastwood's Iwo Jima film is a 'masterpiece'

- Flags of Our Fathers to open even as work continues on second film

By PAUL MILLER

[patience]

As Colombo says, just one more thing.
This should complete the topic. It's an interview by Katie Couric with Eastwood about the film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvBIZILnA3o

[Laracroft]

http://en.wikipedia....adley_(Iwo_Jima)

Here is a sight were you can read about the individuals who did the second flag raising. there is a picture of them raising the flag click on the picture or on there name and read brief BIO. I like this info before i go to the movie

[patience]

http://en.wikipedia....adley_(Iwo_Jima)

Here is a sight were you can read about the individuals who did the second flag raising. there is a picture of them raising the flag click on the picture or on there name and read brief BIO. I like this info before i go to the movie

Thanks, Laracroft. Had I not read the book I doubt I'd have even thought about seeing the movie. It does give so much more meaning to the film to have some knowledge of the flag-raisers and the story, beforehand.
James Bradley, John Bradley's son, made this the focus of his book, Flags of our Fathers, on which the movie is based. After his father died, James Bradley found some letters, photos, and documents that his father had stored away in several boxes in a closet in his office. He says:

"Reading my father's letter made the flagraising photo somehow come alive in my imagination. Who were the boys with their hands on that pole? I wondered. Were they like my father? Had they known one another before that moment? Did they joke with one another? Did they have nicknames? Was the flagraising the happiest moment of each of their lives?"

And further on,

"The quest to answer these questions consumed four years. At the outset, I could not have told you if there were five or six flagraisers in that photograph. Certainly, I did not know the names of the three who died during the battle.
By it's conclusion, I knew each of them like I know my brothers, like I know my high-school chums. And I had grown to love them.
What I discovered on that quest forms the content of this book.

And a very good book it is.

[patience]

One more review, this one by Liz Smith.
Excerpt:

The Cinema Society screening of the movie on Monday night included Reese Witherspoon (wife to the film's star), Barry Diller, Lauren Bacall, Sarah Jessica Parker, Johnny Galecki, Aidan Quinn, Olivia Wilde. The audience was urged to please stay seated during the credits. They did. And the credits are as powerful, perhaps more so, than the film itself. As Clint Eastwood's melancholy music plays, the screen offers actual Army photos, and it shows the stunning accuracy with which Eastwood replicated the battle ground, the weapons, the bodies, the great ships approaching Iwo Jima. They were real men. It was real war. These final moments stop the heart and break it.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/10192006/gossi...mith.htm?page=1

[patience]

After all the hype about the FOOF movie, for me, it turned out to be a huge disappointment.
I've read the posts on the Flags Of Our Fathers forum. It's a WWII History forum board. There were some disagreements amongst the posters about the film but this one that came pretty close to my own feelings. His response was given in reference to another poster's comments who had a different POV. These are only 2 of the paragraphs from his response, and about the mildest. I left out most of the political statements. The bolded print is my own emphasis and are my own reasons for disliking the film.

They set out to do a hatchet job, they told everyone they were going to do a hatchet job, they did a hatchet job and now the apologists are trying to figure out how their Hollywood gods could have screwed up the magical story told in one of the greatest WWII books ever written.If there was no other audience but those who read the book, that would have been huge, and then if they had done a decent job of telling the story as it was told in the book, and if they hadn’t gone out of their way to create what may be the most negative pre-release publicity in the history of Hollywood, the word of mouth would have been so hot after the opening that the lines would have been around the block. That’s the way c--- works in real life.

They utterly fail to develop the characters, and then they had a story on the screen that failed to even once to show edge-of-the-seat action, and then they insult America every chance they get, and when there weren’t enough chances they invent a bunch of fiction and label the movie “true.”
long ago I posted here that I have stood on Mt. Suribachi and marveled that the United States Marines could have taken Iwo Jima. If you ever stand there you will feel the same. Yet, in the movie, there was zero, Z E R O, emotion. There was no attempt to relate even an ounce of what this battle was about. For that matter, Eastwood, who claims to be a historian, apparently forgot the Japanese were the enemy. It’s possible a fifteen-year-old could watch this movie and not know we were fighting the Japanese.

I'll post a web address for a short music video (about 3 minutes), that a poster from the same forum did as his own tribute to the Flag Raisers on IWO JIMA. It's very sad and quite dramatic but puts a face on the poster and monument of the Flag raisers. He uses some photos from the book.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYu2eKQ8_Wk

[starr]

After all the hype about the FOOF movie, for me, it turned out to be a huge disappointment.

So you are saying we should wait for the video or dvd to come out ehhh? Oah well…-don’t worry-… they make so many films that there is bound to be a good one sooner or later.

P.S. I wonder how the film Borat will do...it seems pretty funny....

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