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Director Clint Eastwood has stirred up some controversy in the United States with his movie Flags of Our Fathers. Far from being another run-of-the-mill patriotic war flick, this multi-layered plot reveals that the photograph of the celebrated six men raising the US flag on Mt Suribachi before the battle for the Japanese garrison of Iwo Jima was not all it seemed.
Aside from a much-needed jolt of self esteem for America it was, more importantly, an effective propaganda tool for the US to bolster waning support of the war by urging Americans to buy war bonds.
Oscar-winner Eastwood's even-handed account of what subsequently happened to the three surviving men who raised the flag is a complicated issue. In short, Flags of Our Fathers is an example of how to sell a war at home.
Based on the best-selling memoir by James Bradley and adapted for the big screen by Oscar winner Paul Haggis, the image that would one day become a national monument and major tourist attraction is played out by a bunch of unknown Hollywood actors, with the exception of Ryan Phillippe (Crash, Gosford Park), who plays the lead character, Bradley's real-life father, Doc.
Phillippe, often dismissed as simply "Mr Reese Witherspoon" - until the separation announcement a few days ago - excels in this role as the quietly spoken doctor who bravely treated soldiers on the battlefield.
"It was the best work experience of my life," Phillippe says. "I loved that Doc didn't speak much. He was a very quiet, straightforward, folksy, simple, simple guy.
"He was also not a Marine and he's not carrying a weapon or grenades.
"He's a guy who is there to save lives. And, like many men of war, he didn't talk about it when he came home."
Jesse Bradford (Happy Endings, Swimfan) portrays fellow soldier Rene Gagnon, whose character was a runner for the soldiers on the frontlines. But because he was not engaged in combat he felt he did not deserve his heroic status.
Bradford says: "I was playing a complex person who was thrust into extraordinary circumstances.
"He went from hell on Earth on the battlefields to superstardom back at home."
There is also a parallel with contemporary celebrity, particularly those who have reached iconic status for reasons other than talent, hard work, or bravery.
Says Eastwood: "When these guys came home they were thrown into becoming the ultimate celebrity. "They were treated like a president but they didn't feel they deserved it. Especially when so many of their companions were killed in this ferocious battle.
"In those days there were a handful of men and women who were celebrities.
"But now everyone is a star. Even those who are just heiresses are stars now."
Bradford says: "I don't know to judge who deserves what, but I will say that celebrity culture was already imprinted.
"My character was ahead of his time in that way but he had a conscience about it and didn't buy into it.
"He didn't see himself as a hero.
"But now people are not penalised for that. Now people will sell their grandma down the river to get some fame and attention and nobody bats an eyelid."
Until now Bradford's work has been light fare, including Bring It On, and Swimfan. "I really liked the weight of this role and this movie," he says. "I was inspired by it. It was exciting and intimidating."
The most interesting of the three soldiers, both on and offscreen, is Canadian-born Native American Adam Beach (Smoke Signals, Windtalkers) who plays the tormented alcoholic soldier Ira Hayes (who was later immortalised in songs by Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan after he died at 32).
Hayes, the publicity-shy soldier who reluctantly returned to the US for fame and fortune, is an icon for Native Americans.
He wanted to stay where he felt he belonged - on the battlefield with his comrades.
Hayes wasn't interested in the perceived glory that was thrust upon him. Beach says: "Ira is a role model for Native Americans. There aren't many, but everyone young and old knows who he is." Eventually, Hayes died of alcoholism. "Ira was trying to bury his emotions through the alcohol and it's unfortunate that it later buried him." Beach is as intense off screen as he is onscreen. "It was a very emotional journey for me making this movie.
"I tried to fill my head with the images that Ira might have seen. It was hard to imagine these men seeing their friends dying in front of them. As a result, I'm not the same man as I was before making this movie."
There is much speculation that Beach will be the one to earn an Oscar nomination for this role, which will steer his career in a different direction.
Entrenched in his Native American heritage, he says: "I'm very traditional and do traditional ceremonies. I'm trying to learn how to sing the songs so I can pray better. I carry feathers and have a bundle of sage and sweetgrass. It's something that connects me to Mother Earth. Like my people, I have a connection to a tree or a rock."
Like Hayes, Beach has also come up against racism often in his life. "I've been in situations where I couldn't attend a wedding because I was Indian. There would be a sign reading: No Indians allowed.
"I know what racism is like. I was in gangs when I was younger and I fought a lot."
These days he's a world away from that Winnipeg urban gangland. "I knew once I started acting that it would be important for me to project a new image of who we are. The Hollywood image is wrong. We have to teach them that we're just a people. They have a romanticism that we're 'savage'.
"They think we always have dirty hands. Dances with Wolves was the first representation of who we are. The long hair of an Indian ... each strand is a memory of our past and every day you take care of those memories and you comb it and clean it. For people to think we're dirty and greasy is just plain wrong."
For these fledgling actors, working with Eastwood was a dream come true.
Bradford says, "He's terminally cool. He's a total badass. The best thing about him is that he has this mellow, infectiously calm energy so that he puts people at ease. Because of that I found it very easy to overlook his iconic status. He's just a hip mellow guy."
In summing up Eastwood's droll sense of humour on the set, usually an atmosphere of heated opinions and emotions, Bradford says: "When people would come up to him with a question, he'd say, really calmly, 'We've come this far. Let's not ruin it all by thinking'."
