The Battle of Iwo Jima, fought from February 19 to March 26, 1945, was a key battle of World War II. The Japanese Army had two fortified bunkers there, which the American Army aimed to capture. The casualties were heavy on both sides, with the Americans ultimately suffering more losses than the Japanese. The island of Iwo Jima was eventually taken, and many Americans are familiar with the photograph (taken by a journalist named Joe Rosenthal) of American soldiers raising a flag at the top of Mount Suribachi. The photo was used as a model by sculptor Felix de Weldon to fashion a statue used at the Marine Corps War Memorial at the Arlington National Cemetery.
The battle is well-remembered by war historians, and taught extensively in history classes. The Battle of Iwo Jima has also been a popular subject for filmmakers, and many features have been devoted to the war effort. Perhaps most famously, Clint Eastwood made a pair of Iwo Jima films back in 2006, both released in the same year, and both told from a different army’s perspective. “Flags of Our Fathers” was released on October 20, and detailed the battle from the American perspective, while “Letters from Iwo Jima” was released on December 20, and held the perspective of the Japanese Army. The latter was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.
Of course, Hollywood was already adapting the Battle to film as early as 1949. That was the year Allan Dwan’s “The Sands of Iwo Jima” was released. In that film, John Wayne played a hard-as-nails army general who trained up a platoon of American soldiers before the Battle. “Sands” was the first time Wayne, a Hollywood icon and notoriously racist a-hole, was nominated for an Academy Award.
Clint Eastwood and John Wayne were both involved in films about the Battle of Iwo Jima
Like many World War II movies of the ’40s and ’50s, “Sands of Iwo Jima” is an up-with-America propaganda film, pointedly touting the greatness of the American military. The film featured three of the real-life military personnel — Rene Gagnon, Ira Hayes, and John Bradley — who were present to raise the flag on Mount Suribachi. Incidentally, Bradley’s son, James Bradley, would go on to write the book “Flags of Our Fathers,” on which Eastwood’s 2006 film would be based.
Other survivors of the Battle of Iwo Jima also appeared, including Henry Crowe, Harold Schrier, and David M. Shoup. John Wayne’s character, however, was a fictional construct, as were the other soldiers played by the likes of John Agar, Forrest Tucker, and Richard Jaeckel. Fun trivia: Wayne, Agar, Tucker, and Jaeckel all reunited for the 1970 Western “Chisum.”
It’s interesting watching “Sands of Iwo Jima” and “Flags of Our Fathers” back-to-back, as one can see the changing historical perspective on the Battle itself. “Sands” is a film about heroism and the bold actions the military felt they needed to take in times of war (even if the actual tactical value of Iwo Jima has long been debated). “Flag of Our Fathers” is more wistful, an intergenerational story of heroes long dead, and their calcification into the sterile pages of history.
And the three films mentioned above are hardly the only Iwo Jima tributes in Hollywood history. The 2010 HBO miniseries “The Pacific” covered the events of the Battle in its eighth episode. The 1945 documentary short “To the Shores of Iwo Jima” captured real footage of actual American soldiers on the job, although the battle sequences were recreated in Southern California.
Hollywood may come back to the Battle of Iwo Jima again, but between Eastwood and Dwan, we’re well-covered for the time being.
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