I wrote the other day about sly ways to sneak "educational moments" into leisure activities such as travel, movie-watching, etc. My 14-year-old daughter Annie and I seem to like similar movies and I sometimes pick them as a fairly painless way to learn history.
This year, Annie has world history and the U.S.'s many wars loomed large in the classroom. I have my own opinions about everything from Daniel Shays' Rebellion to Iraq, but I wanted to see what she came up with question-wise. I waited through the first semester and into the second. I heard hardly a peep out of her. Finally, I started to watch history-based dramas I like, such as "Jarhead," "Born on the Fourth of July," "Chinatown," "The Godfather," parts 1-3. She watched too, although some of these films are rough in language and in violence. But they are rough subjects: gang wars, political corruption, Vietnam, and Iraq War I. But I feel that she has to know about these subjects, especially with the ongoing scandals of the Bush administration which includes sins against the First Amendment and various wars (and rumors of war).
That's why "Flags of our Fathers" is such an interesting movie to watch with a 14-year-old. I hadn't seen the Clint Eastwood World War II flick, which is about the famous flag-raising on Mount Suribachi and its aftermath. The battle scenes are realistic and gruesome, but the real story is about those six men who raised the flag. Three were killed on the island. The survivors went on a war bond fund-raising tour in the U.S. The Marines were told it was their patriotic duty to leave their unit and conduct the tour. They obeyed, of course, but Ira Hayes was not happy about it.
One surprising thing: the war had cleaned out U.S. bank accounts. Unlike now, other countries (such as China) weren't solvent enough to borrow from. The global war had cleaned them out too. Money had to be raised from citizens who weren't all that flush either but they were patriots and so they gave until it hurt -- then gave some more. One wonders if the CEOs of armament companies were also doing their share. Did they give until it hurt? I doubt it.
"Flags of our Fathers" features some memorable scenes. It opens with explosions lighting up the sky and soldiers climbing a mountain's rock face. When they reach the summit, the camera reveals that the exploding ordnance are fireworks and that we are in a baseball stadium full of cheering crowds. The three soldiers are the Marine flag-raisers, commemorating their feat on a fake mountain. Ira Hayes is drunk, supported by the other two.
The film ends with the Marines, exhausted from days of fighting the Japanese on Iwo Jima, get a swim break. It broke my heart to see that they are all young, the age of my 22-year-old son -- and younger. The camera pulls back as the Marines, stripped to the waist, dive into the ocean and splash each other. The narrator speaks about the men, noting that they were like all young soldiers, motivated more by cameraderie than by nebulous terms such as glory or patriotism.
So what was Annie's first question? "Was that true?" I said that it was, as far as I knew. It's based on a nonfiction book and I speculated that the writer had done his homework and so had Clint Eastwood. I await further questions, as some of this stuff has to percolate until it returns as questions. I do hope it helps her think about war and its consequences. If I can help her think about it, maybe she won't be one of the consequences later on, as leaders continue to take us to war for nebulous reasons.
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