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Letters From Iwo Jima

Starring: Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Shido Nakamura, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryo Kase

Directed by: Clint Eastwood

RS: 4of 4 Stars Average User Rating: 3.5of 4 Stars

2006 Warner Bros. Pictures All Movies

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Having just won the Best Picture prize from the National Board of Review, Clint Eastwood's intimate epic Letters From Iwo Jima enters the Oscar race with banners flying, which is a good thing. The director's Flags of Our Fathers had to suffer the alleged indignity of being a box-office underperformer, as if that says anything about quality.

And Letters is quality from first frame to last, a war film that is almost a tone poem in how it reveals the minds and secret hearts of the Japanese soldiers defending the volcanic island of Iwo Jima against American forces over forty days of battle in 1945.

Working from a screenplay by Iris Yamashita (her first), Eastwood's companion film to Flags burrows deeply into Japanese culture, starting with Lt. Gen. Tadamichi (the soulful Ken Watanabe), once an envoy to the U.S., who led the defense and came up with the controversial plan to tunnel the island (eighteen miles' worth) and dig caves to take on the American forces that far outnumbered them.

Eastwood's direction here is a thing of beauty, blending the ferocity of the classic films of Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai) with the delicacy and unblinking gaze of Yasujiro Ozu (Tokyo Story). Characters are drawn with striking nuance and tender feeling, be they Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), the baker who dreams of seeing his wife and baby, or Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara), an Olympic equestrian who brings his horse to the island.

The scenes of combat, shot in desaturated color on the beaches of Iceland by the gifted Tom Stern and edited with grit and grace by Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach, gain in terror and complexity from what we learn of these men. We watch in horror as soldiers bang their helmets with live grenades, preferring suicide to surrender. Eastwood's film burns into the memory by striving for authentic detail. The result is unique and unforgettable.

PETER TRAVERS

(Posted: Dec 12, 2006)

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Letters From Iwo Jima

Review 1 of 2

RankyPanky writes:

Not Rated


For the longest time, the Japanese have been painted as sadistic heathens in WW2 films. This one tries to present a more human face and the notion that many were a victim of circumstance. I like this film better than Flags of our Fathers, it is much more introspective and much less of a pep rally for war. But the ultimate anti-war film still remains Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory starring Kirk Douglas.

Jun 23, 2007 17:40:53

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Review 2 of 2

Brastacks writes:

3of 4 Stars


Well this movie finally made it to Europe. I do not know why people are foaming at the mouth to see it. It is a standard WW 2 film. Nothing unusal except for the rarist time in American film history a human face is painted on the most fierce warriors of their time.There have been plenty of anti- war films, "All is Quite of the Western front -1929 and 1980`s version, Paths of Glory, with Kirk Douglas and Gallipoli.
They have the same common theme, war is a total waste of youth. Tell George Bush that!There is nothing spectacular about this show. It is an above average WW 2 film. If you have ever read the book "Prejudice and War" it simply explains to you the political machine which decpicted the Japanese soldier as a buck tooth idiot. Every American needs a Japanese hide on their door and the Japanese where born from the divine wind.The movie is good but not worth all of the hype it has been receiving. Can recommend.

Feb 25, 2007 11:29:31

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