Eastwood's Fine Art Of Filmmaking

"Flags of Our Fathers" dramatizes the biggest battle in Marine Corps history. A third of all marines who died during World War II were killed on Iwo Jima.

The horrific battle produced perhaps the most memorable military photograph of all time, the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima.

"The irony, of course, of the image is that there was two flags and that was a second one raised," the film's director Clint Eastwood told The Early Show correspondent Hattie Kauffman. "You just saw … it sort of symbolized American unity … all these hands … all working towards one effort. It just sort of captured the imagination of the public. And somebody in the government was clever enough to say, 'Oh, well maybe we could exploit these boys and use them as … to sell, go on a huge bond raising.' "

But within a month, half of the flag raisers were killed in battle. The remaining three were brought back to the United States and hailed as heroes. Though they raised $28 billion in war bonds, they were never comfortable with their celebrity

"They felt very complex because they — they're there and they're alive," Eastwood said. "And everybody who walked away from that felt like, 'I'm lucky — one lucky person.' It's hard to go back and have people call you a hero; standing in rooms with cocktails and waitresses and beautiful ladies and presidents and what have you, and sit there and say, 'Why me? Why me?' "

The film is based on the book by James Bradley, son of john "Doc" Bradley, one of the flag raisers. Steven Spielberg originally hoped to direct, but he asked his friend to step behind the camera

"I couldn't crack the book. I couldn't figure out the cinema. Clint cracked it," Spielberg said. "Clint was able to come in with a wonderful writer named Paul Haggis. They figured it out."

"There's a lot of luck that goes into these things," Eastwood said.

But the film's stars feel like they are the lucky ones

"It's tremendous, a once in a lifetime experience, unless I'm lucky enough to work with him again," actor Jesse Bradford said.

"He's bigger in my mind now than I would have ever imagined," actor Paul Walker said.

Eastwood, who won Academy Awards for "Million Dollar Baby" and "Unforgiven," has already heard Oscar buzz for "Flags of Our Fathers," which hasn't even opened yet.

"I haven't been involved with any expectations," Eastwood said. "All I do is just go ahead and do the film the best I can. The larger a picture becomes, the more people start anticipating it. So you hope that the anticipation doesn't set you up … to be preconceived along the way."

With a career that dates back to 1955, Eastwood knows not to have any preconceived notions. He said he never thought he would still enjoy such a vibrant career in Hollywood.

"When I started out as an actor, I just thought this was fun. I like doing it," he said. "Wouldn't it be great to be able to make a living doing this? But, fortunately for me, one thing lead to another and a lot of fate — fate traveled with me on that. Fate travels with everybody. Fate was traveling with me and sent me to Italy to do films. So, yeah, and here I am at an age when a lot of guys are looking for where they're gonna tee it up that day … I'm still working."