Directed by
Clint Eastwood
141 minutes
Rated MA
Reviewed by
Andrew Lee
Letters From Iwo Jima
Synopsis: The story of the battle of Iwo Jima from the side of the Japanese soldiers sent to defend the island.
War is ugly, stupid and pointless. This is pretty much what any war film made in the past 30 years has told us. But they keep getting made, possibly because nobody seems to get the point. This time, however, we have the refreshing approach of looking at war through “the enemy’s” eyes. And it’s about time, because the fault in so many war films, regardless of their “war is hell” message, is that the enemy is a faceless mass that exists for no other reason than to be shot at and to kill our heroes. Clint Eastwood realised this as he was making Flags Of Our Fathers, and decided to do something about it.
We see the defence of the island of Iwo Jima through the eyes of several soldiers. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) is their leader. A man who knows he is hopelessly outnumbered, that the battle will be lost, but nevertheless is determined to give it his best shot, so to speak. He is constantly undermined by subordinates who think his tactics are cowardly and that he wants the Americans to win. But he keeps at it, honourable and determined. Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya) is the heart of the story though. A baker, drafted into the army and sent to the front, he would like nothing better than to return home to his wife and their baby girl, who was born after he left for war. He is there at the battle of Mount Suribachi, and survives the slow retreat until he is one of the few left standing for the final assault. His story, and the stories of the people he meets, form the backbone of the film.
The use of letters to broaden the narrative underlines the common humanity between friend and foe alike. A captured American solider has a letter from his mother. When Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara) reads it aloud to his men, they are all made suddenly aware that they are fighting people like themselves. Shimizu (Ryo Kase) comments that it’s exactly like a letter his own mother wrote to him.
The film is not big on battle. The bruising and bloody displays in Flags Of Our Fathers are not found here. There is nasty battle but not nearly on the scale found in the companion film. I had expected some kind of tie-in, linking it to the other films events, but Eastwood steers clear of any kind of crossover. Instead, this is a film focussed on the people, the effects war has on them, and how they conduct themselves in spite of the war. Letters From Iwo Jima shows the contradictions. A beautiful scene tells of when General Kuribayashi was an envoy to America. His love for the people of America is clear, he has friends in their army but now they’re at war. It’s just sad.
The performances are uniformly excellent. The washed-out nature of the cinematography creates a desolation appropriate for war, the colour bleeding in and out subtly, adding strength to moments of human frailty. Everything works together to make this a very human experience of war although it doesn’t feel so much like a war film as it does a collection of character sketches. Letters From Iwo Jima puts a human face on the idea of “the enemy”. In so doing, it makes a far stronger damnation of war than most other films before it.
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