Movie Review Letters from Iwo Jima

Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) 

Directed by Clint Eastwood

Written by Iris Yamashita 

Starring Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya 

Release Date December 20th, 2006

Published December 18th, 2006

Clint Eastwood's bold decision to take on both sides of the battle of Iwo Jima, one of the bloodiest and most devastating battles of World War 2, has paid off with not one but two extraordinary films. Flags of Our Fathers covered the American side of the war from the battle on the field to the battle at home. Now Letters From Iwo Jima has arrived with the story from the Japanese perspective. If Iwo Jima is slightly more successful than Flags it's because it is more battle focused with a cleaner narrative line. Together they mark a cinematic achievement that only a true master could have created.

With the Americans closing in on the Japanese homeland a tiny sliver of land is all that keeps the Japanese from being overrun. The tiny isle of Iwo Jima is a strategic spot in the pacific where the American forces hope to launch a full scale invasion of Japan. If the Japanese army can somehow hold Iwo Jima that may not win the war but they could stave off the invasion.

Leading the defense of Iwo Jima is the great General Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe). Having been trained by the Americans, General Kuribayashi is ideally suited to counter the American invasion. Rather, he would be ideal under better circumstances. On Iwo Jima, the general will find himself desperately outnumbered with no air support and reserve troops withheld to protect the next island in the chain.

On the opposite side of the command structure is a draftee named Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya) who was a humble baker and now finds himself facing death on Iwo Jima. Saigo is a terrible soldier. It's not that he doesn't love his country, just that he was never bred to be a soldier.

The General and the grunt tell the story of Iwo Jima in letters they mail back to the homeland. The letters of the real life General Kuribayashi were the basis of Iris Yamashita's book Letters From Iwo Jima. With an assist from Oscar winning screenwriter Paul Haggis, Yamashita adapted the letters into the story of this legendary battle in all of its terrifying, doomed glory.

The look of the film has the same washed out, dreary, grays of Flags of Our Fathers. The bleakness of battle is conveyed by the lack of color, aside from the red of blood which, while it isn't enhanced by effects, is the only color that really stands out. Working with cinematographer Tom Stern, who did the same job on Flags of Our Fathers, Clint Eastwood tells the story of Iwo Jima as much with his visuals as with his compelling human drama.

Ken Watanabe was a natural to play the honorable General Kuribayashi. His face is a map of dignity, grace and stern steadfast dedication, qualities that the real life General, no doubt, would have had. His voice overs in the letters begin with a resigned courage and patriotism and slowly evolve with the courage intact but an increasing amount of sadness and disappointment. These are all extraordinarily subtle touches and Watanabe makes them all count.

Setting the story entirely on the battlefield gives Letters From Iwo Jima a tighter focus than Flags Of Our Fathers which limped a little when telling the story of soldiers at home after the battle. The few brief sojourns off the battlefield, flashbacks to the General's time in America, are brief and serve the purpose of deepening this already fascinating character.

Taken together Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima are the kind of bold cinematic achievement that only a great master could conceive. Clint Eastwood was already a legend, now he is truly an auteur. Even those audiences that are opposed to war movies will be moved by the compelling and very human drama of both sides of the battle of Iwo Jima.

Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima are movies that demand to be seen.