Original subtitles

you get it I don't know I wish I could have seen their faces this is an amazing story that so few

people know about that was swept under the carpet for 60 years there are plenty other photos taken

that day but none anybody wanted to see the right picture can win or lose a war it's far

greater than any sort of fiction that you could ever read okay let's do it again Clint is able

in his movies to do this thing where he both makes a great war movie and he kind of deconstructs the

idea of a war movie this is primarily a British operation I'm an American I don't even know why

the hell I'm here Li tenant you're here because you're an American when he gets into a project

he gets into a project and he's just completely involved with all the details of the research

and so you know it's pretty good we have Clen with being a researcher and then you look back

and say oh there they go yeah that's the great thing about Clintwood he wants to

make sure it looks 100% authentic and real and it feels like it's World War II and it [Music]

did Clint Eastwood's diverse career includes dramas action films westerns and even a

musical but no stories are closer to his heart than those that portray the plight

of a soldier in Wartime his dedication to authenticity inspires his collaborators

it was an incredible experience to be able to do this with him I mean if you ask me who the

ideal director is you want Clint Eastwood cuz Clint just had a great way of casting

people that understood the responsibility how you doing you okay oh [ __ ] it's good to see

you you're my hero bro yeah you always have been let's go KL Colonel's waiting the legend

huh what happen you all right I'm just tired man I'm going home I'm proud of you everybody

felt so honored to be there to do service to Seal Team 3 they took it very seriously very seriously

and they just wanted to get it right lieutenant in the next 15 minutes we have to create enough

confusion to get out of here alive major right now you got me about as confused as I ever hope to be

Eastwood's history with war movies dates back to the earliest days of his film career when he was

cast opposite a cinema Legend I had never done a picture with wellknown people in it and Richard

Burton was going to be in the thing and my agent thought oh God it'll be you and Richard Burton

it'll be a thing so I went to Austria and so I met Richard Burton who was uh with Elizabeth Taylor at

that time and they all invited me up to cocktails of which they were more accustomed to than I was

Austria was very cold we shot it in the winter time but Austria was great great food not a good

Austrian beer and with Richard you had to stop quite a few times in the picture we try this one

behind us we'd be driving along to go somewhere and he'd say there's a nice little hostel down

here that has great brandy or something like that so he had to stop and it was interesting

conac make that too certainly unusual wearing war uniforms as opposed to pontios and Stetsons

and so forth we've been up in the mountains uh shooting from cable cars and hanging from cables

and sliding off the roofs and shooting Germans thought I shot a lot of people with a SI shooter

you should see how we can do with a machine gun the film like this I think it's very apt casting

to cast Clint Eastwood and myself because we such enormous contract in type he's tall and slow and

drawly sort of all Gary Cooper and as good as Gary Cooper perhaps even better and I'm short

and thick and fast talking is that it major yes that's it do me a favor will you next time you

have one of these things keep it an all British operation Eastwood's Early Education in war films

continued when he was cast in Kelly's Heroes along onside another group of Veteran performers we had

Don Rickles on the picture who was constantly entertaining I uh I got a little favor to ask

of you well you stop crying I haven't even asked you yet the hell's the matter with you we had a

crew of austrians we had a crew of English we had a crew that had Americans and he would do

skits every morning he'd do thing and he'd insult every one of those groups I just mentioned and uh

everybody was lying on the floor laughing so it was a kind of an interesting picture this

is of course ladies and gentlemen Clint a with a wonderful star Clint we've been on the picture now

for with you about two days and I want to say I'm be here for the whole cast Clint fed up you don't

know this Clint started out in raw high he was the one that kept saying yaha yaha and a producer

one day said get the dumbbell that's yelling yah then he met Brian Hutton our 9-year-old director

who was not here today unfortunately then at the end after he insulted all these people he

insult some Austrian people who you know didn't quite know what they were hearing and they they

going of laugh like what are we do now pick up our equipment and get out of here before

a German Patrol comes along oh that's great as his career progressed Eastwood moved behind the

camera where his War films became a canvas for powerful personal stories of Honor commitment and

patriotism look look at

[Music] that no wartime image in American history passes the photograph captured by

AP photographer Joe Rosenthal of the raising of the flag on iima the film inspired by that image

came to Eastwood through another director with a long history of War films we were

both talking with our tux John backstage after an award ceremony and Clint said I

hear you've got this book called Flags of Our Fathers really an interesting book I read it

and I believe I said yeah I haven't quite been able to crack it I haven't quite gotten an ADD

ation to a screenplay that I'm happy with yet do you want to take a crack at it he said yes

send it over the flag raising of course and the and the famous photograph became the the most

important photograph of World War II the power of the image was not lost on a teenage paper boy

living in Sacramento I was 11 years old when World War II broke out and uh it was in every

newspaper that I saw I delivered newspapers and it just sort of symbolized the war effort

it was the biggest battle in Marine Corps history more casualties and more Medals of Honor given out

in that battle than any other Battle in History to bring the gritty reality of War to the screen

Eastwood avoided over rehearsing his actors prior to battle scenes it was Clint's idea from

the beginning to have us not prepared to have it be very much like it would be on the battlefield

all of these young men just sort of thrown into uniform and be ambushed as they were what a hell

of an experience i' had never seen anything like that um where things were exploding all around

you I'd look to my left and see a line of 500 Marines firing guns I mean it was so immersive

your adrenaline and your emotion is kicked in you can't help but be affected by that

environment Go Go you were caught off guard constantly and your reactions were very real

action once action was called and and you were running through the field it was it

was electric you really didn't have to act you just had to be there and live it stop

when the time came to recreate an indelible moment of American History the actors needed

no prompting to feel the gravity of the moment shooting the flag racing scene was

really incredible the night before we all sat in our hotel rooms and we just watched it over

and over uh watching exactly what our guys did like I noticed that Franklin for some reason he

puts it up and he looks down in his hand twice and I and nobody has any idea why he does it

and I don't think anybody really would have noticed if you hadn't seen it like 75 or 80

times it was a really emotionally charged day you could sense this sort of palpable energy

in the crew and and the rest of the cast of something very special was happening and then

we just did it and for some reason when we did it it happened like it happened it's just kind

of what happened Mike's hand fell right over mine uh Irish hands went up in in the way that

they went up it was really an incredible moment I think for everybody it's a Monumental moment

we raise the flag and then literally the whole island just explodes in in cheers and forz and

and the the ships off the island all you know hug their horns and stuff and you know the the

Marines all over the rest of the island thr the rifles and they felt like that they'd won the

battle for iima to see that flag fluttering in the wind and everything being cograph down to

the exact Nuance of how it happened Clint told us that we'd done a great job and that was uh rare

for him to express that kind of emotion with us and so it was it was a good day jeez look

at [Music] that for his young cast Flags of Our Fathers would become an unforgettable experience

I will never look at the flag the same way again uh I will never think of war the same way again

and and if anyone kind of romanticizes the idea of War boy this project in particular will change

that Viewpoint I think yeah I'm very proud to be part of something like this the movie completely

honors these young marines and the people who sacrific so much for war but it also says in a

very Unapologetic way that you know war is Hell first and foremost move on Mike m can you hear

us to be able to explore what these guys did and what they went through I will walk away

with having had one of the most incredible experiences of my life something that always

stuck with me throughout filming the movie as well was the wars are always fought by the boys

you know the boys and it's he makes a point of that at the end of the film and we're all running

around and we're all just splashing around in the surf you know just being what we are [Music]

as he was shooting Flags of Our Fathers Eastwood found himself wondering about

the plight of the men on the other side of the battlefield in the middle of Flags

of Our Fathers he came to me one day and he said I'd like to talk to you about an idea

I just had I'd like to also tell the story of iojima from the Japanese point of view I want

to tell the story of kobashi the general who was defending EO while I was was still

putting Flags of Our Fathers together I would went off and shot letters from

uima I became curious about General kurabayashi especially when American generals were saying he

was one of the smartest generals on the island so I figured what was so smart about him so I

went back and started reading a book and the only book available was a book on some letters that

he had written home to his family while he was an Envoy here in the United States in 1928 and

[Music] 30 you [Music] are he was so interesting man and uh he had studied in United States and

Canada and he totally understood about the American and the feelings and the culture

and the Customs he sent 41 letters from this island and so it's a very family man in his

letters home he was concerned about his his kids and I just found a very sensitive man

with the exact same concerns that I have or any father has you break it down to the coming from

the different walks of life and how it's a life Interrupted uh just as it was for the Americans

[Music]

Eastwood's decision to make two films rather than one enabled him to illuminate Common Ground shared

by soldiers on both sides knowing he was with you that day and seeing him in that photograph

I don't know why it makes me feel better but it does it's so silly isn't it no it's not when you

boil it down to the emotions of the people they're dealing with the same thing you're

dealing with a young man who is conscripted to be sent over to iima knowing that the odds of him

getting back are going to be really remote and then finally believing he's never going to get

[Music] back I think what Clint is doing in telling the Japanese side of this story is

revolutionary I think it's been something that is long overdue I must say I had a great time

doing it because to visit another culture and do it in another language it was great

to to look at the same battle the same war from two different perspectives it all boils down to

young men being sent off to end their lives prematurely no matter what side you're on

[Music]

no hero I'm I can't take them calling me a hero

all I did was try not to get shot Mike was a hero [Music]

n

[Applause] [Music]