–The real…the real flag? There’s a ‘real’ flag?–Yeah, ours was the replacement flag. We put it up when they took the other one down.
A single shot can end the war.
And our good friends, the Arabs, are only taking bullion.
Ask any smart boy on Wall Street. He’ll tell you our dollar is next to worthless, we borrowed so much.
Every jackass thinks he knows what war is. Especially those who’ve never been in one.
Hank wasn’t in the picture.
I don’t make the rules. We don’t serve Indians.
I know it’s a good thing, raising the money and that, ’cause we need it. But, I can’t take them calling me a hero. All I did was try not to get shot. Some of the things I saw done, things I did, they weren’t things to be proud of, you know? Mike… Mike was a hero. You ever meet him?
I think this whole thing is a farce!
I was promised ten days of shelling. You’re giving me three and saying that’s the best you can do?… I don’t give a shit! My men hit that beach with less than ten, and I’ll be taking them home to their mamas in buckets!… Yeah, I know exactly why. Because every Navy man with scrambled egg on his chest wants to offload us here and sail to Japan so they can be there for the big finish, tell their kids they captured the Emperor all by themselves. Well, you aren’t going to Japan unless we take this piece of shit island! These little pricks are dug in…. Okay, appreciate that, Jim. Three days is a fucking beautiful thing.
If I were you, I’d think twice about waving a white flag
Look at Vietnam. The picture of that South Vietnamese officer blowing that fella’s brains out of the side of his head…Whammo! That was it. The war was lost. We just hung around trying to pretend it wasn’t.
Now, the right picture can win or lose a war.
Our target, Island X, is an ugly, smelly, dirty little scab of rock called Iwo Jima. It means ‘Sulfur Island,’ which accounts for the smell.
Politicians and actors. You put them in a restaurant together, they’d die of old age before picking up the check.
What we see and do in war, the cruelty, is unbelievable.
Where is he? Where is he?
Yeah, we’re in the goddamn picture.
You know what they’re calling this bond drive? The Mighty Seventh. They might’ve called it the “We’re Flat Fucking Broke And Can’t Even Afford Bullets So We’re Begging For Your Pennies” bond drive, but it didn’t have quite the ring. They could’ve called it that, though, because the last four bond drives came up so short we just printed money instead. Ask any smart boy on Wall Street, he’ll tell you our dollar is next to worthless, we’ve borrowed so much. And nobody is lending any more. Ships aren’t being built, tanks aren’t being built, machine guns, bazookas, hand grenades, zip. You think this is a farce? You want to go back to your buddies? Well stuff some rocks in your pockets before you get on the plane, because that’s all we got left to throw at the Japanese. And don’t be surprised if your plane doesn’t make it off the runway, because the fuel dumps are empty. And our good friends, the Arabs, are only taking bullion. If we don’t raise $14 billion, and that’s million with a “B,” this war is over by the end of the month. We make a deal with the Japanese, we give whatever they want and we come home, because you’ve seen them fight, and they sure as shit ain’t giving up. $14 billion! The last three drives didn’t make that much all together.
You’re in the picture, you raised the flag. That’s the story we’re selling, boys.
Page Topic: Movie Quotes from ‘Flags of Our Fathers’: Quotes from the movie ‘Flags of Our Fathers’
