Review of Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) by Michael C — 27 Nov 2010

Easily the best war film since Saving Private Ryan, and deserves to rank as one of the best war films in general. There have been several American films depicting the Japanese during World War II. However, few or none have ever depicted the events from the perspective of the Japanese, which this film does.

And what is the perspective that is given? We see a group of honorable men, frightened but proud and patriotic, who are forced to watch their friends die and their country falter around them, and struggle to comprehend what they are being exposed to.

In most films the Japanese forces is a sinister force meant to kill honest American men, but this film shows most of them were decent people thrust into a situation that they weren't ready for, and many of them were scared and merely hoping for one more day of survival.

And the film doesn't attempt to portray the Americans as the "enemy" either. The purpose of the film isn't to suggest the Japanese were right and the Americans were wrong, or vice versa.

If anything it tells the audience that there were honorable, decent people on both sides during the war, and it is a tragedy that so many of them perished. This may or may not be my favorite Eastwood film, but it is certainly one of the best directed.

The action sequences in this film are amazing, whether it be airplane attacks or hand-to-hand combat. And Eastwood has a knack for driving home a horrific moment in an honest and realistic manner; the scene where the Japanese soldiers are committing suicide with grenades in the name of honor was chilling and saddening, or the image of the lonely injured soldier on the field, hoping to be rescued from among the dead.

With this film Eastwood crafts a war masterpiece that is both haunting and very respectful to the historical figures it reflects, showing their flaws as well as the elements that made them admirable.