Review of Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) by Peter P — 06 Oct 2012

With Letters From Iwo Jima and its companion piece Flags Of Our Fathers, Clint Eastwood has made some of the best war films I have ever seen. One of the things that really impressed me about Letters in particular was that it was filmed mainly in Japanese and totally from their perspective, it even premiered in Japan first before it did in America.

Hats off to Clint for this, not many film makers would make two huge pictures like this at the same time as he did. Letters is mainly filmed in black and white with English subtitles which works perfectly in this case, and although the only actor that I recognize is Ken Watanabe who is amazing as the lead, the rest of the cast does a great job too.

As for the rest of the film, it has great action, pace and is very true to the Japanese, in dealing with their struggle with maintaining honor and continuing fighting when suicide is being commanded them from their superiors.

Although it is hard to watch in parts, Letters From Iwo Jima is an incredible film and along with it companion piece should be considered to be very important films when looking at these wars and what they each meant to their countries.