Flags of Our Fathers - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Flags of Our Fathers or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Flags of Our Fathers

[bryan]

Shot over a period of sixty-one days.

[leo]

The reason for taking the second picture is because they wanted a bigger flag so it could be seen by the Naval ships offshore and also used as a simple recruiting poster. It then became, and still is (seventy-two years later), regarded by photojournalists the world over as the most famous photograph ever taken. An early copy was given to the San Francisco Press Club. It is now displayed at the Marine's Memorial Club & Hotel in San Francisco.

[oscar]

The scene in which a sailor falls from a ship and is left in the water as the fleet steams toward Iwo Jima actually happened. The incident is described in "Iwo" by Richard Wheeler, himself a veteran of the fighting. "According to Coast Guardsman Chet Hack of LST 763, 'We got the man-overboard signal from the ship ahead of us. We turned to port to avoid hitting him and threw him a life preserver, but had orders not to stop. We could not hold up twenty-four ships for one man. Looking back, we could see him waving his arms, and it broke our hearts that we couldn't help him. We hoped that one of our destroyers or other small men-of-war that were cruising around to protect us would pick him up, but we never heard that they did.'"

[violet]

The iconic photograph that forms the basis of this movie is actually misleading. The flag was raised on the fifth day of the battle for Iwo Jima. It took another thirty-five days before the Americans could claim that the island was theirs.

[lynn]

Both flags (from the first and second flag-raisings) are now located in the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia.

[chad]

Ryan Phillippe prepared for his role by spending time with his character's son.

[eli]

The story about the flag raising being posed was true. It was started, ironically, by Joe Rosenthal. He did not know he had taken the famous photograph until he returned to the States. He did, however, take a second photograph of the five Marines and one Navy Corpsman gathered around the flag. When people asked if he had posed the photograph, he, thinking they were referring to the second photograph said "Of course". It was only after seeing the first photograph that he realized they were referring to that photograph and not the second one.

[gabriel]

Clint Eastwood chose to film a large part of this movie in Iceland.

[terry]

Clint Eastwood tried to option "Flags of our Fathers" after the book by James Bradley and Ron Powers was published in May 2000. However, producer Steven Spielberg had already bought the rights that summer, and in early 2001, had assigned its adaptation to screenwriter William Broyles Jr.. Spielberg wasn't satisfied with the resulting screenplay and it laid dormant until he met with Eastwood at the Governor's Ball after the 2004 Oscars. After that, Eastwood took charge as the director with Spielberg as the producer.

[carl]

Two actors in this movie have been linked before. Len Cariou (Mr. Beech) and George Hearn (Walter Gust). Cariou originated the title role of Sweeney Todd on Broadway, and was succeeded in the part by Hearn.

[claude]

This movie was shipped to theaters under the code-name "Montana". Also, the first reel was shipped separately from the other seven to further prevent piracy.

[chad]

Actual Marines from the 5th Marines were used as extras during filming aboard ship as well as the the training work up. The extras who were actual Marines can be best seen climbing up and down the cargo nets.

[harry]

The Marine Corps announced on June 23, 2016 that John "Doc" Bradley is not one of the flag-raisers in Joe Rosenthal's photograph. The Marine Corps also stated that after reviewing the identities of the six flag-raisers in the photograph, the sixth flag raiser was identified as Corporal Harold Schultz.

[carl]

Pre-production began on this movie when Million Dollar Baby (2004) was about to start filming.

[ronnie]

Some battle shots in the movie were made by placing Sony HVR-Z1U video cameras inside prop .50 caliber ammo cases and having extras run around with them. Clint Eastwood called these "trashcan shots".

[ken]

Originally intended as a vehicle for producer Steven Spielberg, even though he had covered similar territory with Saving Private Ryan (1998).

[stephanie]

Adam Beach nearly missed out on being cast as Ira Hayes as he was laid up in bed with flu when the call from Clint Eastwood came through. Only some frantic lobbying by Beach's lawyer helped him secure the role.

[claude]

David Rasche appeared in this movie in a cameo role as a Senator. Rasche is famous for his lampoon of Clint Eastwood's "Dirty Harry" character in the sitcom Sledge Hammer! (1986). Eastwood is known for his sense of humor and apparently liked the show.

[eli]

Jared Leto turned down a key role in order to commit his time to his band, Thirty Seconds to Mars.