Letters from Iwo Jima by Clint Eastwood (2006)
20 January 2007Winner of Best Foreign Language films at the 2006 Golden Globes, this is one of the best war films I have ever seen in my life, easily topping Eastwood’s sister piece FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS. Not only is this film done nearly perfectly technically, but the performances of these men is amazing, especially the fact that they know they will die, and yet they continue on, and it is the cowards the vote for suicide which is the easy way out. I highly recommend this film as one of the best films of 2006.
This is the story from the Japanese perspective of the battle for Iwo Jima island in World War 2, the island that was so important to the American’s as a base for planes for hitting the Japanese mainland, so the soldiers were basically given the suicidal task of defending this barren rock in order to slow the advance of American soldiers. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) arrives on the island to take up his post, and finds the island in a dreadful state. The Army and Navy aren’t even coordinated, and the soldiers are being beatings from leaders who don’t know how to defend the Island properly.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
One of those soldiers who left his wife home when he was chosen to go to war is Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), he loses his best friend to dysentery, and then doesn’t trust Shimizu who he knows is from the Kempetai (though he doesn’t know he was kicked out for not killing a dog).
General Kuribayashi mostly abandons plans to defend the beach, except a few pill boxes, and instead has the soldiers dig tunnels not only only in the mountain, but also at the north end of the island where his headquarters are. He wants the troops to survive or at least not give their lives in useless suicide attempts, but his orders go unheeded, and the defenders of mount Suribachi are ordered to kill themselves, which many of them do. Saigo convinces Shimizu not to and they escape toward the north of the island, where the have a run in with the suicidal Lieutenant Ito (Ryo Kase), though they make it past him. The two then plan on surrendering, but only Shimuzi makes it out, and the Americans capture him, but the soldiers set to guard him kill him. Saigo is crushed, but he goes on, and ends up at the headquarters of the General, who saved his life from Ito, and on the beach, and does so again when they decide on a final attack on Americans, leaving him behind to burn the papers. Saigo instead buries the letters from Iwo Jima (which are found in the beginning and end of the film by modern archeologists), then heads and again finds the General, and helps to burry his body when he kills himself. He then attacks the Americans, but is taken prisoner, along with Ito who wanted to get run over by a tank and explode.
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This is film is so powerful because we see the Japanese leaders like the General who spent time in America, and knows all the propaganda is not true. And Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara) who was an Olympic horseback-rider in the Los Angeles Olympics, and has them treat an American soldier who they shot, and talks to him, and reads his letter to the troops, which makes them realize they are all the same. This aspect of respect for ones enemy is what makes this film so incredibly powerful, along with the incredibly moving performances of these men, who expect to die, and yet want to get home to their families and children that they have never seen.
Eastwood has really pulled it off here, and has made 2 incredible war films. He is really one of the greatest directors of all time, and films like this will help him be remembered that way for many many years in the future.
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