Movie Review: Letters from Iwo Jima
May 1st, 2008 by admin
- Director: Clint Eastwood
- Genre: Drama/History/War
- Year: 2006
Ahhhh! This is what good movies are made of. The second part of Clint Eastwood’s Iwo Jima series actually tops the first one, which I already believed to be a spectacular film. Needless to say — if you have read my review of Flags of Our Fathers — you know that this two part series focuses on the Iwo Jima incident during World War II, though the first film finds it’s axis on the photograph that depicts six American soldiers lifting the flag atop the pinnacle of Mt. Suribachi. This time around, the viewer is placed on the Japanese side, with the Americans as the enemy and about as faceless as the first film makes the Japanese to be.
Without pulling punches, the film tries to explore the Japanese culture and mentality as it related to war, fighting with an honor code that ended up hurting them more than it helped and fighting an enemy they did not know any better than the Americans knew them. However, in Letters, there is no secondary plot to distract us from the accounts of Iwo Jima. While the first film takes us out of the war with regular consistency to explore the aftermath of that particular photograph, this film keeps us in the island, to witness the desperate efforts of a watered down army trying to hold back what was arguably the most powerful army in the world.
Knowing the end is not going to be favorable for the Japanese does not seem to matter in this epic, because the draw is really in the men that we have an opportunity of meeting and the dire situations in which these men end up standing their ground (in some cases…in others…well…watch the movie).
Taking what seems to be a rather fair point of view of both the Japanese and the Americans, Letters of Iwo Jima ends up highlighting the good and the bad aspects of both without sending judgment upon either. If you are a war and history film and if you have seen the first film, this is a must see. It actually utilizes some of the same shots as the first installment, which makes for a great tie in, and it heavily desaturates the colors to keep in theme.
Acting here is top of the line with mostly a Japanese cast led by Ken Watanabe and directing is once again top notch. As for the cinematography…I think you will find yourself thinking of this as visual candy. Somber, visual candy.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Notes: Violence, adult situations, graphic imagery. Japanese with English subtitles.
Quote: Shimizu: I don’t know anything about the enemy. I thought all Americans were cowards. I was taught they were savages.