Synopsis
The battle of Iwo Jima seen through the eyes of the Japanese soldiers.
The story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Imperial Japan during World War II, as told from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it.
2006 Directed by Clint Eastwood
The story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Imperial Japan during World War II, as told from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it.
Ken Watanabe Kazunari Ninomiya Tsuyoshi Ihara Ryo Kase Shido Nakamura Hiroshi Watanabe Takumi Bando Yuki Matsuzaki Takashi Yamaguchi Eijiro Ozaki Nae Yuuki Nobumasa Sakagami Lucas Elliot Eberl Sonny Saito Steve Santa Sekiyoshi Hiro Abe Toshiya Agata Toshi Toda Ken Kensei Ikuma Ando Akiko Shima Masashi Nagadoi Mark Moses Roxanne Hart Ryan Carnes Ryan Kelley
Bub Asman Charles Maynes Robin Harlan David E. Campbell Gregg Rudloff John T. Reitz Sarah Monat Alan Robert Murray David A. Arnold Walt Martin
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Clint took Spielberg’s money, tricked him and the audience into thinking he was making a Saving Private Ryan-esque No-man-left-behind O-say-can-you-see (literal) flag-waving propaganda piece, used 90% of it and made an anti-propaganda movie that criticizes all those things, and used the remaining 10% to make a personal, sorrowful, deeply moving character study on the Japanese "invaders" whom are simply young men forced to leave their families behind to die for people who believe they are doing what is right; just like us. All in the tender year of 2006.
Clint has a bigger set of balls than literally any director alive.
Letters from Iwo Jima begins in a state of solemn reflection. An examination of the brutality once exchanged at this iconic island. The remains of the battle are flipped through sombrely and in no time we are thrust back to their origins -- 1945, right in the thick of the coal-black soil.
This particular battle has been explored before, but what makes Letters from Iwo Jima distinctive is its perspective and the films affiliation with it. The Japanese soldiers aren't relative, but absolute. They aren't hidden in the shadows like most war epics, but brought to light and sympathetically investigated in depth. From the coarse beaches of 1945 to the remains of present day, Letters from Iwo Jima remembers this…
In the wake of American Sniper, I thought it would be prudent to reaffirm that Eastwood can do neutrality. I passionately consider Letters from Iwo Jima to be one of the best war films of all time; with the refreshing viewpoint and heart-rending sensitivity being the tip of the iceberg. It is intrinsically even-handed, movingly reasserting the notion that the enemies are not the foot-soldiers but the puppets masters who, out of nobility or vanity, expect their beliefs to be willfully encompassed by innocents.
All this thought-provoking pathos and profundity is heavily diluted in American Sniper. It's there, but it is astronomically inferior to Eastwood's magnum opus of great spirit and egalitarianism. Letters From Iwo Jima is more important now then ever, it seems.
waited for the right time. Clint’s best of the 21st century. was hoping it would mean the world to me which is why I saved it for so long, but it hit even harder than I expected. have never seen a film shot in colour look so devoid of it. witnessing the ghosts’ stories takes a toll. have no words for how emotional this is really.
I think the greatest characteristic of Clint Eastwood’s films is that they revive the highly developed “form“ of early Hollywood cinema (say, from the 1940s) without ever relying on nostalgic elements. His talent is his firm conviction that cinema is storytelling as well as his confidence that with any story, however he tells it, he can capture the heart of the audience. As a result, he has continually tackled various types of stories, and never tells the same story twice. Also, despite his avoidance of any superficial novelty, oddly enough, his films look like no other before it. Therefore, his films always feel like something entirely new beyond just the mere level of storytelling. I would say that right now…
one of the great war films precisely because it refuses to reduce its conflict to a couple of cheap action setpieces -- the battle for iwo jima was slow, grueling, protracted, and clint knows to spend that time on the human beings instead of the bullets -- i think it's really telling that this is among the few american WW2 pictures that portrays war crimes without narratively justifying them as 'necessary evils'. every death here is unnecessary, contingent, and lamentable -- regardless of nation or ideology, clint wants us to see all shades of the war, both the insanity and dignity.
Haunted caves and the forgotten men who still inhabit them. A slow march of doom that radicalizes the Fuller idea that there's no heroism even in surviving by just postponing death a while longer. An achievement of place, the island as this large symbolic grave at same time very empty and resonant. The film is spare, minimal, very physical, yet packed with mythmaking particularly when it comes to the idea of defeat (Shigehiko Hasumi once compared Watanabe's character to a confederate official out of a Ford western). It has two clear modes: one tactile recognizing of approaching death, another larger design when devotion to country is equated with same (and it is worth remembering both Eastwood's Iwo Jima movies are very much Iraq war movies). It also fulfills Eastwood's career long desire of making a film that is just ghosts and it does so admirably.
That feel when war is bad and it also happens to be the one and only constant in human history
What I liked:
The direction of this movie was great. Clint Eastwood directed this movie very well and he showed off what he could do so well here. It is, evidently, a technically great movie. From the editing to the sound design I was always impressed by the technical elements. The cinematography is nice but ill get into my problems with it later. Technically good movie and from a direction standpoint its really good.
Problems:
The story. There is nothing about this movie’s plot that I found to be very entertaining or interesting. It took to long to get into it and I was bored most of the time. None of the characters in this movie matter, and…
“We soldiers dig. We dig all day. This is the hole that we will fight and die in. Am I digging my own grave?” – Private Saigo’s letter to his wife
Possibly the most desaturated color film ever to be made. Borderline black & white, it captures the starkness, the cold and somber look of being on the beach of Iwo Jima during the pivot of World War II. It is such a dark film it feels like we’re sucked into a gloomy and endless black hole of the island. Those committed on the beach are Japanese and will be on the predicted losing end of this particular battle, and we fear for them (virtually all dialogue is in Japanese, with…
Letters from Iwo Jima is instinctively my favourite Clint Eastwood directed film. It's certainly the most evocative. It improves upon every aspect of Flags of Our Fathers, taking the most profound elements and expanding them, whilst having fewer annoyances to let things down. It lacks subtly and is too melodramatic and expositional to be a perfect film, but Letters from Iwo Jima is a masterful piece of cinema.
The film opens with a reminder that this is a film of the dead and the deserted, it instantly imbues a sense of history. The skies are constantly grey and the film quickly becomes a colourless haze. No one wins in war, so it is often only films about those on the…