FSR: I love my mother.
JB: If Mr. Eastwood is going to be totally accurate to the book; he has to do a 20 hour movie. Which I’m sure he would be happy to do, but the American public wouldn’t watch a 20 hour movie. What I look for as the author, and what I suggest people look for in a translation of book to movie, is emotional accuracy. Is it emotionally accurate, and is the emotional takeaway similar? I’d say Clint Eastwood did a one-hundred percent great job.
FSR: How well do you think that Paul Haggis and William Broyles Jr. did with writing your work into a screenplay?
JB: I read it once, and I cried. I read it a second time, and I cried. I thought it was and is brilliant.
FSR: I would have to agree, James, it was a great film. What was it like to see men like your father, Rene Gagnon, and Ira Hayes portrayed on the screen?
JB: In the book, I called them ‘boys’ and ‘kids.’ The marines that I interviewed in the 70’s said “son let me tell you, I felt like a man when I hit the beach.” I dedicated Flags of Our Fathers to mothers, and I don’t think mothers usually think of their boys at 17 or 18 as men. I saw boys up on that screen and I was very proud to see them, more so for the three who died on Iwo Jima.
Six boys raised the flag on Iwo Jima. Three of those boys are portrayed in the movie as going on a bond tour, but three of those flag-raisers were buried on Iwo Jima along with 6824 American boys. It was particularly gratifying to see their lives brought back.
FSR: What do you think of the choices of Ryan Phillippe and Thomas McCarthy for playing the roles of your father and yourself?
JB: Well, I’m the last one you should ask that. I’m very happy, but I don’t think that I’m a good judge of it. The casting was very good, but then again I’m so close to the subject.
When I look at the movie and see what Mr. Eastwood did and see what Ryan, Jesse, Adam, and everybody did, it’s just brilliant. I went to a shoot out in Chicago, and they shot a train that is probably in the movie for 45 seconds. That train came into Union Station, and was from a museum in Indiana and had not moved for over 40 years. That attention to detail is all because of Mr. Clint Eastwood. I could tell you a story about Clint Eastwood but you probably wouldn’t want to hear it.
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