Flags of Our Fathers, a novel detailing the lives of the men in Joe Rosenthal’s famous photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, was first published in May of 2000. Written by James Bradley, the son of flag-raiser John Bradley, and Ron Powers, an esteemed author and journalist, the book spent almost a year on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list; six of those weeks at number one. Almost immediately upon its release, Steven Spielberg optioned the movie rights for DreamWorks Pictures. A treatment was assembled by William Boyles Jr., the screenwriter behind Cast Away, Apollo 13, and Tim Burton’s 2001 Planet of the Apes “re-imagining”, but, in the eyes of Spielberg, the result was not ready for production. The project was shelved for another day.

Legendary filmmaker Clint Eastwood also read the novel and immediately saw the cinematic possibilities in it. When he looked to acquire the property, he found that DreamWorks already owned it. Eastwood mentioned to Spielberg that he would like to take a crack at it, and a couple years later, at the 2004 Governor’s Ball, Spielberg suggested a collaborative effort with Eastwood as director and Spielberg as producer.

Flags of Our Fathers appealed to Eastwood in its approach to the story. Instead of being a straight-forward war epic, Bradley and Powers instead chose to focus on the men behind the photograph and on how the brutality of the war and the unexpected fame affected them both professionally and personally. Eastwood succeeds in a creating a truly emotional and intense experience. The battle scenes are huge and breathtaking, but aren’t a crutch for the rest of the film. Flags of Our Fathers is both honest and patriotic, and is a perfect compliment to Eastwood’s Iwo Jima saga (which also includes Letters from Iwo Jima).

Scott and Matt of The Gods of Filmmaking
http://www.godsoffilmmaking.com/html/flags_of_our_fathers.html