Review of Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) by Stuart M — 15 Jan 2019

What's so great about this film is how unique it is. War films are a dime a dozen and WW2 films can't be more than fifteen cents, but it's much rarer to see films told from the viewpoint of the losing side. Perhaps for that reason, when they do appear they tend to be good.

All war movies rely to some degree on archetypes. Letters is no exception. But what makes it so unique is that these are archetypes we've never seen before. Such as the kindly general planning the complete obliteration of his army. Or the secret policeman too sympathetic to do his job. Or the fanatical officer urging suicide for his command. The unwillingness to surrender makes even boilerplate archetypes such as the reluctant soldier aching to return to his family fresh. In a standard war film this trope would lead to discovering an inner strength in support of his brothers and a triumphant victory. This is never an option here. He and his fellow soldiers are there to hold up the enemy as long as possible before dying. And even the slightest hint of surrender would be enough to get him shot. Everyone here accepts death as inevitable, but they all have different motivations, desires, and reactions to it. Some embrace death before dishonor. Others try to pretend it's not happening until the last minute. Others try to approach matters intellectually.

Throughout, the good/evil narrative we're used to gets blurred. Yeah, the Japanese army doesn't come across that great. Filled with angry, short-sighted officers who use brutal violence as a first resort, obsessed with suicide charges and battles to the death, racist and malicious, and constantly lying to its own men, it's a bit of a nightmare situation. But there's a noble side as well. These men are defending their homeland and, no matter the cause of the war, there's nobility in that. The willingness to give their lives for a higher cause is astoundingly brave and if not so fanatically misguided and mercilessly imposed by their superiors it would be worthy of memory alongside Thermopylae or the Alamo.