Clint Eastwood on his new WWII saga, career

It used to be when you heard talk of a new Clint Eastwood movie, you'd expect to see him battling bad guys onscreen. These days you're more likely to see only his name at the top of the credits, as the director of the film. NBC's Tom Brokaw got a chance to sit down with Eastwood and talk about his new World War II movie, “Flags of Our Fathers.” Here's the extended interview:

This is a realistic war movie — “Flags of Our Fathers” depicts the brutality of combat with an unflinching view of the toll it takes on human lives. Unlike most war movies, the new Clint Eastwood film also looks at the effects of war long after the fighting is over.

Clint Eastwood: It was actually built for Steve McQueen.

I met Eastwood at his bungalow on the Warner Brothers lot to talk about his new film and the six men whose lives intersected during the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima.

Tom Brokaw: This story in the end is about the brutality of war, but it is also about the difference between perception and reality and how you find the intersection between those, and the conflict for that, really, for people who are combatants.

Eastwood: It's also the beginning of an era we're in right now, which is sort of a false celebrity. They got these men back and they put them in this position of being like a rock star or something.

Eastwood has made an astonishingly successful transformation ... from a big star on the screen to a big director behind the camera. A chance encounter with Steven Spielberg backstage at the 2004 Academy Awards led to Eastwood's current directing project.

Eastwood: I think I was there for “Mystic River,” and I ran into Steven and he said, “Have you read ‘Flags of Our Fathers’? Do you like it?” I said, “Yes, I do.” He said, “Well, why don't you come over and direct, and you and I can produce it.”

“Flags of Our Fathers” tells the story of the six men who raised the American flag on Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945. Three of those men were killed on Iwo Jima within a month of that picture being taken.

The other three — Navy corpsman John Bradley, and marines Ira Hayes and Rene Gagnon — were pulled from combat to take part in a nationwide tour to promote war bonds. The reluctant war heroes were the “American Idols” of their time, and their participation helped the government raise $23 billion for the war effort.

Eastwood: That unity was America at its greatest. Americans have always recognized that they have a lot to lose. They don't want to lose the lifestyle they've got. They don't want to lose the freedoms they've got, and so sometimes you have to fight for it and die for it.

The war bonds tour shifted the momentum of American opinion in World War II, but it took a psychological toll on the three men who were still haunted by the carnage they had witnessed on Iwo Jima.

Eastwood: They got these men back, and they put them in this position of ... of being like a ... rock star or something. Well, they felt like they were just guys that had done their job, and they had lost so many friends on the beaches of Iwo Jima, they didn't feel they were worthy of being wined and dined by presidents.

Just as it was in 1945, the real star of this story is the famous photograph taken by Joe Rosenthal.

Eastwood: Rosenthal's shot is just a beautiful shot.

Brokaw: It's a piece of art.

Eastwood: It's a piece of art. It depicts the comraderie, the working together of a military group, and it depicted the working together of a nation to finish World War II. And we don't have a shot like that. We probably need one, but we don't have one at the moment.

Brokaw: Do you think some people will look at this film and try to assign to it political overtones about the modern era, about the exploitation of people who are fighting and about trying to arouse patriotism at whatever cost?

NBC VIDEO 'Flags of Our Fathers' cast on new film Oct. 16: "Today" show host Matt Lauer talks to Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford and Barry Pepper, part of the ensemble cast of the new World War II drama, "Flags of Our Fathers." Today Show Entertainment

Eastwood: I think maybe there are certain things that are timeless, whether it's World War I, II, Korea or Vietnam or both the Gulf Wars. You cannot run Armies and Navies and Marine Corps without having a certain amount of miscalculation. They miscalculated on Iwo. The common thinking was that they would take the island in three or four days because it was very small, and a month later, they were still blazing away.

Brokaw: The fog of war was going on in World War II just like it is now.

Eastwood: Yep.

Brokaw: At home and abroad both.

Eastwood: It's the same everywhere.

Brokaw: In making this film, from both points of view, what did you learn for yourself about war and combatants and the emotion that comes with that?

Eastwood: When you've lived to a certain age, you start realizing that war has been there since the beginning of time and that it's going to be there until the end of time. It's the total waste of humanity, the total waste of life. A lot of these young men on both sides are there, trying to kill each other without really knowing anything about the other fella. And there's a certain ... a certain irony about all that.

Brokaw: Clint, it's no secret that you're closer to 80 now than 70. “Mystic River.” “Million Dollar Baby.” This film is getting the huge buzz already. Is there a new line in America that old actors don't die, they just ...
Eastwood: Fade away? [Laughs]
Brokaw: ... go on to become Academy Award-winning directors? [Eastwood laughs]

Eastwood: I just figure if you keep learning something new every day, you're going to have something new to offer, and you're going to have a larger library to bring to the project. And I enjoy working. I enjoy doing different projects. I'm slowly doing now what I anticipated doing years ago. I'm working my way to the back of the camera, where I will reside for the rest of my career.

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