Eastwood's Iwo Jima ― Critical Engagements With Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima

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.

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.