Letters from Iwo Jima: Movie, DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray Review (2006)

(Originally published 2006)

Clint Eastwood's World War II movie, "Letters from Iwo Jima," recently was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Watching it, one might question how the current political climate and our war overseas affected the direction the movie takes. The same is true for Eastwood's companion film, “Flags of Our Fathers."

If “Letters” had been shot soon after the terrorist attacks of 2001, for instance, would the movie have viewed the enemy as honorably as it does here? Or in the isolating rush of patriotism that followed the attacks, would it have vilified the enemy, regardless of who they were, because doing so would have been more culturally acceptable? As for “Flags,” one has to question whether that movie would have had such a cynical edge if not for the cynical times in which it was made.

As with any popular art, movies about a specific historic event tend to reflect the current mood, which can skew the truth into a shape it didn't have. "Letters" and "Flags" are products of a climate fatigued by war, which shows in their reactionary, cautionary approach to war.

This isn't new and it doesn't dampen their appeal. Still, when one considers the World War II genre, the truth about the time it evokes is best mined from the collective whole rather than the individual film. It's here, in this cacophony of perspectives, that Eastwood's two movies will prove indispensable. While neither is a great movie, they are good movies, adding additional viewpoints to a period in history too complicated for any one film--or any two films, in this case--to fully capture.

Told almost entirely in Japanese with English subtitles, Eastwood's “Letters” is a careful balancing act that takes the high road in honoring the Japanese for their beliefs and their convictions as they launched into combat against American troops.

Just as "Flags" gave audiences the American perspective in our attack on Iwo Jima, "Letters" puts audiences into Mount Suribachi's caves with the Japanese and, by doing so, shows us their side of the fight.

As such, you come to know the troops intimately, particularly Gen. Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe, excellent), the Olympic gold medalist Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara) and the naïve soldier Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), who longs to be home with his wife and their new child. Each joins the other Japanese soldiers in realizing that for them, Iwo Jima is akin to a death sentence. They are so grossly outnumbered by the Americans, their thoughts of winning this battle quickly turn to the dark reality of suicide.

It's here, assisted by the film's narrow focus, that the movie finds its twist. Since it's the unlikely war movie that places you in the curious position of sympathizing with the enemy, that nevertheless is what Eastwood achieves.

What he mines from this war is the humanity lost within war, how reckless and unacceptable it is when there are other alternatives. That's his point. Some will make compelling arguments that Eastwood doesn't give us a complete picture of the Japanese or their atrocities, but the director still is betting that right now, perhaps the world could benefit from another perspective--especially if that perspective is derived by viewing the world through the eyes of one's enemy.

Grade: B+