By Tim McGroarty
Letters From Iwo Jima is actor/director Clint Eastwood’s latest work. It opened at limited release but is already being hailed by many critics as Eastwood’s newest “masterpiece.” In recent years, Eastwood has produced a string of films that have been not only box office hits but also, Oscar gold. First Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby and now, Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, which is the counterpart to Flags of Our Fathers. It seems we’ve seen a lot of Eastwood lately.
Letters from Iwo Jima shows us the battle of Iwo Jima, but from the Japanese standpoint. The two and a half hour film is provided with English subtitles, except the small instances an American is actually on screen. The film’s length leaves plenty of time for good character development. We see the men bond before the battle and the men bond throughout the battle. Small flashbacks also give us a sense of character and shed some light on General Tadamichi Kuribayashi’s past (played by The Last Samurai star Ken Watanabe, who gives yet another powerful performance).
The more time we spend with these men and the more we see of their past, the more involved we become as an audience. We watch the men we’ve spent the last hour and a half with enter a battle for which they are not prepared. The film tackles courage and loyalty as most war films do but more importantly, takes us along as these few men are tossed into a war in which they do not want to be.
Letters has already been nominated for several Academy Awards. The film is nominated for Best Achievement in Sound Editing, Best Original Screenplay, Best Achievement in Directing and Best Motion Picture of the Year. This is screenwriter Iris Yamashita’s first nomination and Clint Eastwood’s fourth (with two wins which make him the oldest person to win an Academy Award and one of three directors to have won twice in the past two decades).
But do all these Oscar nominations and reviews accurately represent this movie? Yes. This is a film that, better than any other, shows that there’s really no good guys or bad guys when it comes to war – that war is simply pointless. The movie is accurate in showing that there are people on both sides of a war who, at times, show kindness. Eastwood and Yamashita also deserve credit for telling both sides of the war. Too many war movies always show the enemy as a heartless monster when it reality, it is quite the opposite.
The film does have a few slow moments and its lack of music might be to blame. But if you are willing to sit through two and a half hours of subtitles and the film’s occasional slow moments then this movie is for you and comes both highly recommended and praised.
GRADE: A-
