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With Flags of Our Fathers (2006) and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), Clint Eastwood made a unique contribution to film history, being the first director to make two films about the same event. Eastwood's films examine the battle over Iwo Jima from two nations' perspectives, in two languages, and embody a passionate view on conflict, enemies, and heroes. Together these works tell the story behind one of history's most famous photographs, Leo Rosenthal's "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima." In this volume, international scholars in political science and film, literary, and cultural studies undertake multifaceted investigations into how Eastwood's diptych reflects war today. Fifteen essays explore the intersection among war films, American history, and Japanese patriotism. They present global attitudes toward war memories, icons, and heroism while offering new perspectives on cinema, photography, journalism, ethics, propaganda, war strategy, leadership, and the war on terror.
List of contents
AcknowledgementsNotes on ContributorsIntroduction: Know Your Enemy, Know Yourself, by Rikke Schubart and Anne Gjelsvik Part 1: History1. The Making and Remakings of an American Icon: 'Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima' from Photojournalism to Global, Digital Media, by Mette Mortensen2. The Forgotten Cinematographer of Mount Suribachi: Bill Genaust's Eight-Second Iwo Jima Footage and the Historical Facsimile, by Bjorn Sorenssen3. Flags of Their Stepfather? Race and Culture in the Context of Military Service and the Fight for Citizenship, by Martin Edwin AndersenPart 2: Flags of Our Fathers6. Following the Flag in American Film, by Robert Eberwein7. Care or Glory? Picturing a New War Hero, by Anne Gjelsvik8.Beyond Mimesis: War, History, and Memory in Flags of Our Fathers, by Holger Potzsch9. Clint Eastwood's Postclassical Multiple Narratives of Iwo Jima, by Glenn Man10. Haunting in the War Film: Flags of Our Fathers, by Robert BurgoynePart 3: Letters from Iwo Jima11. Eastwood and the Enemy, by Rikke Schubart12. Eat of Eastwood: Iwo Jima and the Japanese Context, by Lars-Martin Sorensen13. Humanism versus Patriotism: Eastwood Trapped in the Bi-polar Logic of Warfare, by Mikkel Bruun Zangenberg14. Suicide in Letters from Iwo Jima, by Robert BurgoynePart 4: War Today15. To Sell a War: Flags, Lies, and Tragedy, by Vibeke Schou Tjalve16. Banzai! Letters from Iwo Jima and Choosing the Enemy in Risk Society, by Mikkel Vedby RasmussenFilmographyIndex
About the author
Anne Gjelsvik is professor of film studies at the Department of Art and Media Studies at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She has written about popular cinema, film violence and ethics, and the representation of gender in the media. She is currently working on representations of fatherhood in contemporary American cinema. Rikke Schubart is an associate professor at the University of Southern Denmark. Her research concerns gender and genre in horror, war films, and action cinema. She is currently writing on women, horror, and emotions. Among her publications is Super Bitches and Action Babes: The Female Hero in Popular Cinema, 1970--2006.
Summary
Together, Flags of our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima tell the story behind one of history's most famous photographs, Leo Rosenthal's 'Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima'.
