Deep in the war

Rating: 7/10 (27 March 2015)

Recently, war movies have aroused great interest. Accordingly, a plethora of this sort of movies has invaded our cinemas. Maybe the two most popular war movies in recent years have been Saving Private Ryan, directed by Steven Spielberg, focused on the Normandy Landings, and Flags of our Fathers, directed by Clint Eastwood, focused on the battle of Iwo Jima (together with Letters from Iwo Jima, the Japanese view of the conflict, whose premiere in Spain will be held in few weeks). Both films show bloody scenes of fights and, as a result, the cruelty of the war. In addition, a large part of both films is focused on the miseries and attitudes towards death, danger and desperation of a small group of soldiers. Also common to both films is the fact that the main characters are actually antiheroes. The Spielberg's film takes place mostly in the battlefield and is perfectly linear. On the other hand, flashbacks are used in Flags of our Fathers in order to show both the war and the propaganda campaign undertaken by the main characters going across the United States. By virtue of this we can see a different drama in this film related to the feelings and problems of the soldiers when they come back home to undertake a mission they have not been trained for. Furthermore, we clearly identify with the leading actor in Saving Private Ryan (Tom Hanks). On the contrary, the three actors in Eastwood's film actually share the prominence. The strength of Saving Private Ryan lies in the intense representation of the war and it is a typical war film, maybe better than others, but a war film nevertheless. However, Flags of our Fathers is more complex. With his usual skill, Eastwood shows a combination of war and politics, death and propaganda.