Movie Reviews

In his companion film to the World War II drama Flags of Our Fathers, director Clint Eastwood focuses on the enemy—the Japanese soldiers who fought the pivotal battle of Iwo Jima. Leader General Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) is an outcast among his colleagues; once an envoy to America who actually respects and understands the superpower, he discards old Japanese notions about the art of war.

Somehow, he must fight off Allied forces with few supplies, bad water and dwindling soldiers who insist on killing themselves in honor instead of fighting for survival.

Our eyes and ears to all this is Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), a baker torn from his wife and unborn child to serve his country. The character is a useful plot device; as Saigo races from one end of the island to the other, dodging bullets and enemies within, he connects the various characters' stories into one dynamic whole.

Throughout the well-choreographed battle, the general and Saigo remember the lives they left behind, in flashbacks that are unadorned and cleanly told, without any of the swelling music or indulgent close-ups that other directors rely upon. These moments are not enough to remedy the tedium that hits the movie about two-thirds in, but Eastwood picks up momentum before things come to a total standstill.

To say Letters from Iwo Jima is a heart-wrenching film is an understatement, but Eastwood directs with a simplicity that ensures the subject matter never becomes heavy-handed. The blanched-out cinematography and subtle computer effects heighten the realism instead of distract from it, and the acting—particularly by Watanabe—is superb.

Better than almost any other filmmaker, Eastwood understands that the story's words and actions alone get the point across that war is hell, even for the enemy.