This entry was posted on Friday, April 13th, 2007 at 12:40 am and is filed under Academy Awards - best picture winners and nominees, Action, Drama, Foreign Language, L, War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Director: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryo Kase,
I reluctantly watched this film, feeling obligated to do a review. Like so many movie fans, I am strangely resistant to foreign language movies (this one is almost all in Japanese), even though I usually enjoy them far more than I expect. Letters From Iwo Jima is a spectacular film about one of WWII’s bloodiest Pacific battles in which over 20,000 Japanese soldiers died and less than 1,000 were taken prisoner. This is a terrible, but amazing war story told from the perspective of the Japanese defenders. Eastwood artfully directs this masterpiece and the muted colors camera work, so popular these days, is beautiful, and chillingly effective here. The performers are so natural that there doesn’t seem to be any acting going on. It is significantly better than its sister film, Flags of Our Fathers. It has greater focus on the battle, keeping the tension up, throughout. As well, having fewer characters allows the viewer more connection to them. This is the trickiest part of any war movie, where there are so many similarly dressed characters on screen.
Ken Watanabe is General Kuribayashi, who is given the impossible task of holding the island of Iwo Jima, which is vital to holding off an American invasion of Japan. He chooses an unconventional, resistance defense that, while effective, conflicts with many established ideas. With dwindling resources, and soldiers, the situation becomes more and more desperate. The story also follows a young, reluctant Japanese soldier named Saigo (Ninomiya), who is doing what he feels he must, though he, and others, feel more and more uncertain about their duty.
The story brilliantly contrasts brutality and humanity, and contrasts the deeply ingrained Japanese concept of honor with individual motivation. These themes are striking and memorable. Letters From Iwo Jima is emotionally charged, riveting and a must-see for those with any interest in historical films, war movies or fine cinematic efforts…and to think that I didn’t want to watch it.
