Thematically ambitious and emotionally complex; Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers is an intimate epic with much to say about war and the nature of heroism in America. Based on the non-fiction bestseller by James Bradley (with Ron Powers); and adapted by Million Dollar Baby screenwriter Paul Haggis (Jarhead screenwriter William Broyles Jr. wrote an earlier draft that was abandoned when Eastwood signed on to direct); this isn't so much a conventional war movie as it is a thought-provoking meditation on our collective need for heroes; even at the expense of those we deem heroic. In telling the story of the six men (five Marines; one Navy medic) who raised the American flag of victory on the battle-ravaged Japanese island of Iwo Jima on February 23rd; 1945; Eastwood takes us deep into the horror of war (in painstakingly authentic Iwo Jima battle scenes) while emphasizing how three of the surviving flag-raisers (played by Adam Beach; Ryan Phillippe; and Jesse Bradford) became reluctant celebrities