Anne Gjelsvik

This is the anthology of the papers presented in a seminar for the two films at the University of Southern Denmark in 2010. Fourteen essays were printed and they represent a number of points of view regarding the pair of films covering the same battle, but from differing contexts. Eastwood did attempt to add a dimension to the war film by going this route, and from an historian's point of view it was a valuable effort. To examine war from the modern context where it appears to be a steady drain on the emotional life and resources of the most prominent country is laudable. The process of declaring a large number of wars, with the resultant loss of life and resources that could be used for probably better efforts for advancing health and education, strikes me, and many others as futile.
Admittedly, airplanes, weapons and financial manipulation are the primary drivers of the North American economy but the direct sacrifice of lives both physically and financially to increase the revenue of the Military-Industrial complex is self defeating. Eastwood attempts to show that a simple "us" versus "them" stance will not suit the real world, with its greater web of communications and general level of education.
While the Japanese fight knowing that the best they are doing is to buy time for the Allies to become war-weary, the Marines are fighting to end the war, and also to gather money to keep the industries creating profits. Both groups of soldiers are trapped by the methods of coercion favoured by their governments, the Japanese by a brutal system of direct violence exerted by their secret police and a severe code of military discipline, valuing death in battle even above success in that battle, while the Americans are trapped in a web of group welfare and promises of preferment when the war is over.
The collection allows the opening of a broad debate, and, I hope will encourage many viewers of "Flags of Our Fathers" to view "Letters From Iwo Jima", and review in their own minds what the two films say.… (mehr)