LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA

Director: Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River)
Starring: Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara

It's unfortunate (and unlikely for me) that I managed to miss Flags of our Fathers, the matching bookend to this World War 2 film set on the lonesome, barren Pacific island of Iwo Jima. Of course all of the talk is that these films are intended to show war through the eyes of the combatants on either side. I assume the end result is to show that war itself can be ridiculous, and that there is a big difference between those fighting in war and those who actually start them.

Morally speaking it's more than obvious that not all wars are wrong, and I assume Mr. Eastwood chose World War 2 as the setting for his movie(s) because there are few clearer examples showing the "good guys" and the "bad guys" in recent history. Japan was an expansionistic and ruthless power that barbarically ravaged many of their conquests (see China). The US had to stop them, especially after it was itself attacked by the Japanese.

The unique joy of this film is seeing how within this broad (albeit quite accurate) framework of good and bad there are still many shades of gray. The joy is in seeing that even though Japan was one of the "bad guys" in WWII, the Japanese were not necessarily so. Every culture is a million individuals, and generalizations, while valuable, are still just generalizations.

Letters from Iwo Jima follows a handful of Japanese soldiers, and their supreme commander (Watanabe), through the days leading up to, and through, the US assault on the tiny Pacific Island. These Japanese men are part of the most group-oriented culture in the world, but they're still individuals underneath. Each has their own attitudes and morality. Each struggles through the battle in their own way.

Watanbe is made commander soon before the battle. He likely knows that this is a suicide mission, but he takes on the role nonetheless. Once he fully realizes that this battle is not winnable, he formulates a strategy that will delay the inevitable, and kill the most Americans in the process. He has his men dig miles of tunnels throughout the island, which forces the attackers to move slowly, cave by cave across the small island. As he understood, there was no chance of victory in this battle, but he still fought it. For him, this battle was worthwhile if only to postpone the day when a foreign army would be bombing his children in Japan. I think that reasoning is understandable to most, regardless of ethnicity.

The Japanese soldiers struggle through dysentary, lack of food and water, and a horrible American bombing campaign even before the battle begins. In the end they lose, but they fight bravely. Through it all we see how each man reacts to the horrible circumstances differently. Many of the survivors are ashamed and offended by the defeat and choose an honorable suicide. Many do so from a terrifying passion of duty, bordering on religious. Some simply choose to do so for their own honor. A few are too scared, or simply have different beliefs on what that sort of sacrifice really means, to do so. In the end, these men are simply men, caught up in events that may or may not have been of their choosing. Whether the individuals were right or wrong in their beliefs on the war we don't really know, we only see them as men struggling through difficult times, worth knowing and respecting. This was one of the better films of 2006, and I'll certainly go out and see Flags of our Fathers to better see how this film relates to Eastwood's take on the American perspective of the battle.

I hope someday we'll figure out some better method of solving differences than war, but given our nature, I'm not optimistic.

Standouts: The direction, writing and acting was all superb.
Blowouts: Nothing failed per se, although at times the film did drag on slightly. The worst for me was sitting next to some guy who felt the need to talk to his wife during every scene. "I think it's the kid, honey." "He's gonna do it." "He wasn't meant to die." Those are real quotes and there are dozens more. I hated him.

Grade: A-