A COMPLEX PRODUCTION

As always, Clint Eastwood has assembled a unit of dedicated professionals to bring his vision to the screen. Heading up this team as Eastwood’s collaborator is producer Robert Lorenz, who has overseen all aspects of development, production, post-production, marketing, and distribution for Eastwood’s five most recent films.

In this complex production, Eastwood relied closely on casting director Phyllis Huffman, who passed away after a bout with cancer while the film was in post-production. “Phyllis was Clint’s close confidante,” says Lorenz. “With well over one hundred speaking roles in ‘Flags of Our Fathers,’ she had her work cut out for her; she auditioned literally hundreds of actors in New York and Los Angeles and everywhere in between.”

During the production of the film, Eastwood relied on a team that has come to know well how the director operates. Michael Owens, who first worked with Eastwood on “Space Cowboys,” took on a central role during the production as visual effects supervisor and second unit director. Also serving on Eastwood’s production team were director of photography Tom Stern (5 films with Eastwood as DP, many more with him as chief lighting technician), costume designer Deborah Hopper (5 films with Eastwood as costume designer, 9 more Eastwood films in other roles), editor Joel Cox (20 films with Eastwood), and the late production designer Henry Bumstead (11 films with Eastwood). As a testament not only to their close working relationship but their friendship as well, Eastwood has dedicated the film to the memory of Huffman and Bumstead, as well as to the memory of Iwo Jima photographer Joe Rosenthal. Before his death at the age of 93, Bumstead said, “I still think it’s fun to sit down with a blank piece of paper, design a set, and see it built. That’s been my whole life; I get a lot of enjoyment from it.”

The winner of two Oscars® and a nominee for two more, Bumstead’s collaboration with Eastwood began on “Joe Kidd,” in which Eastwood starred, and “High Plains Drifter,” Eastwood’s second film as a director. Though Eastwood wanted Bumstead “to go steady with him” (in Bumstead’s words) at that point, Bumstead could not pass up the opportunity to work with such directors as Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Martin Scorsese, and George Roy Hill (for whom Bumstead won the Academy Award® for his work on “The Sting”).

It would not be until “Unforgiven” that Bumstead and Eastwood would reunite. “I can’t say enough about Clint,” he said. “Just the way he puts his camera on the sets shows we work together well: I know the way he likes to direct, how he likes to place the camera; I design the sets for that action, and he puts the camera in that spot. I think he’s the best director in the United States.” Before passing on, Bumstead completed his work designing the sets for “Letters from Iwo Jima,” Eastwood’s companion film to “Flags of Our Fathers.”

Tom Stern served Clint Eastwood as chief lighting technician for more than 20 years – since 1982’s “Honkytonk Man” – before becoming his cinematographer in 2002. Their long history together serves him well. “I like to call Clint the most articulate non-verbal person I’ve ever met. I can read him pretty well. I’ll start by showing him an image or a book with pictures I’ve selected, and we’ll talk about those. To a large extent, Clint leaves things malleable until the last possible moment. He encourages everyone to be flexible and spontaneous.”

Stern says that despite Eastwood’s reputation for making films with so few takes that they consistently wrap early, he never feels pressured. “In 25 years, I’ve never felt rushed,” he says. “We go very, very fast, and we shoot these films in record time, but during the day-to-day, things are very calm and quiet.”

With this film, Stern notes, the human, emotional connection to the story is the most important element. “It’s a grand canvas, but it’s a very personal story,” he says. “There were many visual opportunities to let that out. The look of the film was to try to represent that emotional content – this is something Clint and I tried to do on ‘Mystic River’ and ‘Million Dollar Baby,’ and both of those turned out okay. We’re playing with color, desaturization, and some very, very, very deep, solid blacks, to let that look reflect what’s happening with the characters.”

Deborah Hopper was responsible for all of the period wardrobe in the film, including designing costumes accurate to the era and constructing over 500 US Marine uniforms for the principals and extras. After locating the right cloth – a cotton herringbone twill no longer produced – Hopper dyed, aged, and constructed the costumes.

Just as Stern feels he is helping to tell the story in image and light, Hopper feels her role is to help tell the story through the costumes. “The actors have to feel their characters, and a lot of times, that starts with putting on their clothes,” she says. “John Bradley was a conservative guy, so I dressed him in Brooks Brothers in his civilian clothes. Rene is, in a way, the ‘movie star’ of the group, so he was always neat and tidy, and his clothes reflect that. With Ira’s problems, his clothes are aged and dirty, or not as well put-together. All of these elements need to work in harmony with the characters for credibility.”

The film was shot on location in Los Angeles and surrounding areas of southern California; Iwo Jima, Japan; Arlington, Virginia; Chicago, Illinois; Houston, Texas; and Iceland. In fact, the majority of the Iwo Jima sequences in the film were shot on location in Iceland, which features black sand beaches that could double for those on Iwo. “Nothing’s been done to Iwo Jima at all,” says Eastwood. “There’s a small Japanese military detachment and some U.S. airmen that come in once in a while to run operations. They have one good airfield that they fixed up quite nice, but the second, they just left to deteriorate, and the rest of the island’s much the same. There are a lot of memorials. It’s thought of as a very sacred area. We were invited to film there and we did film there, but the actual re-enacting of the invasion means a tremendous bombardment, a tremendous amount of troops running up, so we didn’t want to do a lot of pyrotechnics there.

“I know Iceland seems like an odd choice, but it isn’t,” Eastwood continues. “It’s a geothermal volcanic island, much like Iwo is. It’s got pure black sand, like Iwo has. They both have volcanic steam coming up out of the ground. They’re in different meridians, of course, but Iceland in August, while a little cooler, has conditions otherwise similar to Iwo in February.”

“The topography of Iceland is like being on the moon,” says Ryan Phillippe. “It was hard to shoot there, because the location was so remote and we felt isolated from the rest of the world. As a result, we in the cast bonded in a way that I don’t think we would have if we’d shot in Hollywood.” To make the experience of war as realistic as he could, Eastwood often did not inform his actors of when or where, exactly, the special effects team had rigged explosions to go off. The actors were never in danger, but always surprised. “We were caught off-guard constantly,” says Phillippe. “When something explodes right next to you, your reaction is very real.

“The whole experience was unique,” Phillippe continues. “I’d be on the beach, look to the left, and see 500 people firing guns. Our hearts were beating, our adrenaline was pumping, and emotion kicked in. You can’t help but be affected by that environment.”

One of the most emotional days on the set was, not surprisingly, the day the production re-enacted the flag-raising. For everyone in the cast and crew, there was, of course, a distinct desire to get it right – that is, to present the event as it’s pictured in the famous photograph. “When we raised the flag, you could sense a palpable energy in the crew – something special was happening,” says Barry Pepper. “We all shook hands and congratulated each other when we were done. Representing these men and telling their story – as well as the story of what the Marines accomplished on Iwo Jima – was meaningful to all of us.”

“This was one of the few shots that Clint decided to do more than once,” says Ben Walker. “We did four or five, just to make sure we got it right. The six of us rehearsed it the night before – we got the footage and slowed it down and practiced, to try to get it as close as we could.”

“When we were done, even Clint said we’d done a great job, and it’s rare for him to express that kind of emotion,” Pepper laughs.

Sgt. Maj. James Dever, who served as the military advisor for “Flags of Our Fathers,” was, of course, on hand for the shooting of the flag-raising scene. “It was outstanding, the way the actors represented the Marine Corps on that day,” he says.

In his role, Dever researched the historical period with the wardrobe, props, and special effects departments in order to ensure that everything seen onscreen was historically accurate. Dever was also responsible for training 500 extras playing Marines in the scenes detailing the invasion of the island. Dever’s most exciting moment during filming was the shooting of the invasion sequence: “I was watching 500 guys, all of whom we’d trained in how to carry their equipment and how to fire their weapon, moving in the background with explosions going all around, making sure no one got hurt and everything operated like it was supposed to. It was awesome.”

The film’s Marine coordinator, Jimmy O’Connell, obtained the use of 60- year-old LVTs (Landing Vehicle Tracked), the vehicles that can drive from the sea directly onto the beach using its tank-like tracks, and 60-year-old LCVPs (Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel, also called “Higgins boats”), which would bring marines up to a beach and drop a forward ramp.

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Flags actor represents his culture
Houston Chronicle, United States - Oct 20, 2006
By STEVE PERSALL. The most compelling figure in Flags of Our Fathers is Marine Pvt. Ira Hayes, whose participation in a historic

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Hub, MI - Oct 19, 2006
The battle scenes are harrowing in "Flags of Our Fathers," the black-sand beaches exploding again and again with artillery fire, filling the gray sky and ...