Flags of Our Fathers - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[phyllis]

Costume designer Deborah Hopper had to come up with over 500 costumes for the stars and all of the extras.

[lynn]

At the Cannes Film Festival, filmmaker Spike Lee criticized producer and director Clint Eastwood for not displaying African-American Marines who had fought on Iwo Jima. Eastwood's response was that the movie was about the marines who raised the flag on Mount Suribachi. He went on to explain that although African-Americans did fight on Iwo Jima (some can be seen during the briefing scene), the Marine Corps was segregated during World War II, and none of the men who raised the flag were black. Eastwood finally told Lee to "shut his face". Through the media, Lee responded that Eastwood was being an angry old man. Lee was filming Miracle at St. Anna (2008) at the time, a movie about four black soldiers fighting World War II in Italy.

[tamara]

The scene with Bill Genaust (Kirk B.R. Woller) and Joe Rosenthal (Ned Eisenberg) just as the flag is about to be raised and the comment "I wish I could have seen their faces" is incorrect. According to the real Joe Rosenthal, it was Genaust that told him the flag was being raised as Rosenthal has his back to the flag, photographing the Naval fleet. In the movie, this is reversed. When told about the flag being raised, Rosenthal turned and snapped the picture. He did not know what he had taken until he was shown the developed picture after returning to the States.

[ruby]

The Marine Corps on October 17, 2019 again changed the identity of one of the six flag raisers. PFC Harold "Pie" Keller has been identified as replacing PFC Rene Gagnon. This comes just three years after the Corps determined that PFC Harold Schultz replaced Hospital Corpsman John Bradley. In the film, the mistaken identification of Hank Hanson for Harlan Block was explained. Only Sergeant Mike Strank, PFC Franklin Sousley, and PFC Ira Hayes remain as initial flag raisers whose identities have not been disputed.

[riley]

The original of the top photograph in the stack of Japanese atrocities is held in the Australian War Memorial. It is dated October 24, 1943, was taken in Aitape, New Guinea, and shows Sergeant Leonard G. Siffleet about to be beheaded with a sword by Yasuno Chikao.

[kyle]

In the song "Victory Polka" the trio of girls mention the United Nations, even though it wasn't established until later that year, by President Roosevelt's wife, Eleanor.

[alyssa]

Earned $2.7 million less than its companion piece, Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), which also had the disadvantage of being shot entirely in Japanese.

[leo]

Barry Pepper and Harve Presnell appeared in another World War II movie, Saving Private Ryan (1998).