Flags of Our Fathers

Corrected entry: A picture of the real John 'Doc' Bradley taken of him with President Truman shows him using crutches (remember he had the leg wound and the operation took place after the war bond tour), however, in the movie 'Doc' did not have crutches when he met the President.

Joel Amos Gordon

Correction: True as that may be, this movie does not claim 100% historical accuracy, so consider this artistic license on the part of the filmmakers, for dramatic purposes.

Super Grover

Corrected entry: There was a point in the movie where an elderly Rene Gagnon told Doc's son that he'd seen Ira only once since he'd left the fundraising tour. That's when he passed him on the road and didn't pick him up. About 10 minutes later in the movie, the three were at the Marine Memorial dedication together, which would make it the 2nd time Rene had seen Ira.

Correction: That wasn't elderly Rene it was elderly Keyes Beech.

James Storck

Corrected entry: Toward the end of the movie, Doc's son was narrating and said he never knew about any of this until after his father died. Within seconds, he and his father (while on his death bed) are talking about the whole thing while he is obviously very much alive.

Correction: He was told all this while his father was on his death bed. It takes time to process information under stressful conditions, and saying he did not know any of this until after his father died is consistent with a person being unclear on things until stress is over. He also may have had to check on some facts to confirm what his father had told him, which also would not have been done until after his father died.

Factual error: When the Marines strip off and run into the sea in the final scene, Doc takes off a pair of white socks that would be more appropriate for a final at Wimbledon. Not only are they white rather than khaki, they are virtually spotlessly clean which would be impossible after a week of fighting on the black sands of Iwo Jima.

More mistakes in Flags of Our Fathers

Bud Gerber: People on the street corners, they looked at this picture and they took hope. Don't ask me why, I think it's a crappy picture, myself. You can't even see your faces! But it said we can win this war, are winning this war, we just need you to dig a little deeper. They want to give us that money. No, they want to give it to you.

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Trivia: This movie was filmed back-to-back with Letters from Iwo Jima, a fictional account of the battle of Iwo Jima that looks at it from the Japanese soldier's perspective.

Joel Amos Gordon

More trivia for Flags of Our Fathers

Question: Did the scene where Ira Hayes rages against police after a bartender refuses to serve him really happen?

Answer: Following WWII, Ira Hayes hated the fame and sensational publicity associated the flag-raising at Iwo Jima. Deeply depressed, Hayes descended into alcoholism over the next few years, and it eventually killed him. Director Clint Eastwood actually underplayed the true extent of Hayes' sad decline, and the scene you mention was no doubt dramatized for the screen. In real life, Hayes was arrested 52 times for public intoxication and disorderly conduct at various places across the country before his death.

Would that be a yes, or no? I've got autism.

It's yes, but he/she is saying that the incident was probably exaggerated for the purpose of the movie, to make it more dramatic. It likely combined a number of similar drunken incidents into the one scene.

raywest Premium member

Answer: Definitely yes :). The poor guy was a raging alcoholic who literally drank himself to death.

stiiggy

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