Editing Sands of Iwo Jima (section)

==Production==
===Writing===
The film was based on a screenplay by Harry Brown and James Edward Grant from a story by Harry Brown.

The script is the first known work to use the military idiom "[[wikt:lock and load|lock and load]]", an expression meaning "get ready to fight". Although the original use and implied meaning are disputed, it typically described the action of arming an [[M1 Garand]] rifle by first locking the bolt back by pulling the charging handle rearward and then loading an 8 round [[Clip (firearms)|clip]] into its [[Magazine (firearms)|magazine]].<ref>{{cite web | title=Saving Private Ryan: "Lock and Load" | website=Saving Private Ryan Online Encyclopedia | date=2009-04-11 | url=http://www.sproe.com/l/lock-and-load.html | access-date=2021-06-06}}</ref>

===Casting===
The production used actual combat veterans from Iwo Jima in the film. The three survivors of the five Marines ([[Rene Gagnon]], and [[Ira Hayes]]) and a [[Hospital corpsman|Navy corpsman]] ([[John Bradley (Iwo Jima)|John Bradley]])who were credited with raising the second flag on [[Mount Suribachi]] during the actual battle appear briefly in the film just before the flag raising scene. Hayes was made the subject of a film biography, ''The Outsider'', and Bradley the subject of a book by his son James, ''[[Flags of Our Fathers]]''. Subsequent research has established that the figures identified in the flag raising photograph as Bradley and Gagnon were actually Marine PFC [[Harold Schultz]] and Marine Cpl [[Harold Keller]].

Also appearing as themselves are 1st Lt. [[Harold Schrier]], who led the flag-raising patrol up Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima and helped raise the first flag, Col. [[David M. Shoup]], later [[Commandant of the United States Marine Corps|Commandant of the Marine Corps]] and recipient of the [[Medal of Honor]] at Tarawa, and Lt. Col. [[Henry Pierson Crowe|Henry P. "Jim" Crowe]], commander of the 2nd Battalion 8th Marines at Tarawa, where he earned the U.S. [[Navy Cross (United States)|Navy Cross]].<ref>{{cite news|author=T. M. P.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9502EFD61E3EE03BBC4950DFB4678382659EDE |title=Movie Review - Sands of Iwo Jima - At the Mayfair |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=1949-12-31 |access-date=2014-02-16}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zB8J2ho-0k8C&q=%22Sands+of+Iwo+Jima%22+shoup&pg=PA122 |title=Guts & Glory: The Making of the American Military Image in Film |first=Lawrence H. |last=Suid |page=121 |publisher=[[University Press of Kentucky]] |year=2002 |isbn=0813122252 |access-date=2014-02-16}}</ref> Additionally, "nearly 2,000 Marines were used as extras" during filming.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Sands of Iwo Jima |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/23383/sands-of-iwo-jima |access-date=2023-02-13 |website=Turner Classic Movies |language=en}}</ref>

The cast of John Wayne, John Agar, Forrest Tucker, and Richard Jaeckel would reunite in the 1970 western ''[[Chisum]]'' .

===Filming===
The movie was made on location in California. Scenes were filmed at the Marine Corps Base at [[Camp Pendleton]], [[Leo Carrillo State Beach]], [[Santa Catalina Island (California)|Santa Catalina Island]], Channel Islands, Janss Conejo Ranch, Thousand Oaks, Republic Studios and Universal Studios. Actual combat footage from the [[Pacific War]] was also used in the film.