“Flags of Our Fathers” focuses on the experiences of the three surviving servicemen – Marines Gagnon and Hayes and Navy Corpsman Bradley – in war and after they returned home. With the government eager to cash in on their celebrity, the men toured the country to raise money for victory as part of the Seventh War Loan Drive. The roles are played by Ryan Phillippe (Bradley), Jesse Bradford (Gagnon), and Adam Beach (Hayes).

For Phillippe, an emotional connection to the material attracted him to the role. “My family has a deep military history,” he says. “My father was in the Navy during Vietnam, and my uncles served there as well. Both my grandfathers fought during World War II. To be able to pay respect to them is a huge responsibility and an honor.

“John Bradley isn’t a complicated man – he is honest, simple, and straightforward,” says Phillippe, describing his role. “There’s a great freedom in playing a man like that, because he doesn’t lie, doesn’t pretend to be something he’s not. I felt a strong responsibility to make sure he was portrayed in the most honest and complete manner possible; he was a great man.

“I met his son, James Bradley, who wrote the book Flags of Our Fathers,” continues Phillippe. “It was strange for me to introduce myself to someone by saying I’d be portraying his father, but he was very enthusiastic and thought I was a good choice.”

Aside from his emotional connection to the role, Phillippe’s greatest challenge was to portray accurately the medical procedures that were James Bradley’s job as a Corpsman. “I learned how to do tourniquets, pressure bandages, and slings. I had a training dummy that I would take to my hotel room to practice – which was an odd experience for the people working there,” he laughs.

Jesse Bradford’s Rene Gagnon could not be more different from Phillippe’s Doc Bradley. As expressive as Bradley is taciturn, as outgoing as Bradley is introverted, Gagnon is the serviceman who (at first) cultivates the fame that comes with the bond tour and helps to coerce the others to go along with it.

“Rene was 19 when all this happened to him,” says Bradford. “He was something of a mama’s boy, maybe not quite cut out for war. On the other hand, he was also a kid trying to make good – he did everything that was asked of him and he was certainly tough enough to be a Marine, which is more than I can say for myself,” he laughs.

After the bond tour, Gagnon experiences a rude awakening. “He took to celebrity – plus, his girlfriend’s enthusiasm about it had a big influence on him,” says Bradford. “He’s a moth to the flame, and he gets burned a bit. After the bond tour, he tries to trade on his fame, but he doesn’t realize that he’s been cast aside. He doesn’t know how to deal with what’s happened to him.”

The actor says that the key responsibility he felt in portraying Gagnon was to try to show all sides of the character. “In some ways, there’s potential for the audience to come out of the movie thinking, ‘I don’t like this guy,’” says Bradford. “I talked a lot with his son about what kind of person he was. He was 19 years old, very much trying to do the right thing; I think he was fallible, but also a hero. Even though he’s more attracted to the celebrity than Ira or Doc is, I hope my portrayal of the character shows what a complex guy he was. I wanted to portray him in a positive light.”

In addition to his talent as an actor, it didn’t hurt that Bradford bears an extraordinary physical resemblance to the real Rene Gagnon. “It’s just uncanny,” says Eastwood.

The most complex role in the film is that of Ira Hayes, the flag-raiser who had the most difficulty adjusting to the celebrity and found himself unable to return to a regular life. Eastwood cast Adam Beach, who had starred in such films as “Smoke Signals” and “Windtalkers,” in the role. “I think Adam Beach succeeded in capturing the essence of Ira Hayes,” praises the director.

“Ira’s a classic war hero, in many respects,” says Beach. “He was in three of the bloodiest battles in the South Pacific, and survived them all. All he wants is to be back in the field, with his boys, fighting side by side – he can’t reconcile being safe while his friends, his brothers, are still fighting the horrors of war. He doesn’t know how to deal with that.

“Here he is with thousands cheering for him, and just the week before, he was watching his closest friends die,” says Adam Beach. “How could he do it? I couldn’t have… but he had a job to do. I think he thought if that’s what he had to do, then he was going to do it as best he could, and they raised more money than in any other drive.”

Beach says that working with Eastwood was a unique experience. “Everyone calls him ‘The Boss,’” he cracks. “Everything is quiet and well- organized, and I think that’s due to his leadership.”

* * *

The film also chronicles the fates of the three flag-raisers who did not survive the battle: Michael Strank, Harlon Block, and Franklin Sousley. Strank, the sergeant and leader of the unit, is played by Barry Pepper. “Every account by the men who served with him says what a great leader he was – a good man who led by example,” says Pepper. “He was the type of guy that inspired other people to dig deeper because of the amount he gave on the field.”

Ryan Phillippe says that Strank’s on-field persona was mirrored on the set by Pepper, noting that Pepper is the only member of Eastwood’s cast to have also worked with producer Steven Spielberg on his WWII drama, “Saving Private Ryan.” “Mike Strank was 25 years old when he served on Iwo Jima; the other guys in his unit were 18 or 19,” says Phillippe. “He was the battle-hardened vet. The funny thing was, when Barry came on to play the role, he took on a similar role with us; he’d been in ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and ‘We Were Soldiers.’ With his war film experience, he became the leader, teaching us what to do.”

Some of this came about because, unlike some other films, “Flags” had no boot camp to train the actors. Of course, the actors did receive intense military instruction from the film’s four military advisors in a more condensed setting; according to Pepper, the best interests of the drama of the film were served by this approach. “I think it was very much Clint’s idea for us not to have boot camp training,” says Pepper. “I think he wanted the scenes to be much like life on the battlefield, young men thrown into uniform and into confusion. The emotions arise organically out of a situation like that.”

Sgt. Strank died on March 1, 1945, from wounds received, it is presumed, due to “friendly fire” from an offshore Navy destroyer. Immediately following his death, Pfc. Harlon Block took control of the unit. Block had been Strank’s right-hand man and had looked up to the sergeant as a mentor; he, too, was killed, just hours after Strank, by mortar fire. Block was 20 years old. In early news reports on the photograph, Block was misidentified as another Marine (Hank Hansen, played in the film by Paul Walker); it was the testimony of Ira Hayes that finally brought the truth to light years later.

Benjamin Walker, who plays Harlon Block, says that the work he put in before production to get in shape paid off during the shoot in Iceland. “I thought it was necessary to get into shape,” says Walker. “Harlon had been a running back for his high school football team – he was in great shape even before he got to boot camp. When we got to Iceland, there were a couple of times we were working nights, the temperature was five below, and we were on the beach with the wind beating us to death. I’d be running as fast as I could through the sand, barely getting anywhere. It was physically trying, but it was still a fantastic experience.”

The final flag-raiser, Franklin Sousley, was killed near the end of the battle. On March 21, 1945, Sousley was shot in the back while strolling around the mostly secure island.

Joseph Cross plays Sousley. “Franklin was a very fun-loving, happy-go- lucky guy,” says Cross, “perhaps a little more naïve than the others. He provided a lot of entertainment for his unit -- they picked on him a bit, but it was all good-natured. He was seen as the ‘younger brother,’ in a way.”

Cross says that working with Eastwood was “one of the most incredible experiences of my life. He wants to see what you can do and with his calm, gentle quiet nature, he gives you the freedom to interpret the role in your own way. Because of that, you believe in Clint’s vision, and you want to give him the very best that you can.”

Visual Hollywood contents