movie review letters from iwo jima

Blood and sand

General Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe, far right), who is surrounded by Maj. General Hayashi (Ken Kensei, from left), Admiral Ichimaru (Masashi Nagadoi) and Lieutenant Fujita (Hiroshi Watanabe), surveys the oncoming Allied forces in "Letters from Iwo Jima," directed by Clint Eastwood. It's the companion movie to Eastwood's "Flags of Our Fathers."

For a fraction of a second at the very beginning of Clint Eastwood’s “Letters from Iwo Jima,” you may think that you are gazing overhead at a field of stars. In fact, you are looking straight down into the ground, at waves of black sand on the volcanic island where, over the course of five weeks in February and March, 1945, an invasion force of 100,000 Americans (two thirds of them U.S. Marines) fought 22,000 entrenched Japanese infantrymen. Only 1,083 Japanese survived the battle, while 6,821 Americans were killed and 20,000 wounded.

It’s a simple establishing shot: a tilt up from the beach where the Allied forces landed to Mount Suribachi, a rocky knob on the southern tip of the island where the Japanese holed up in a network of tunnels and bunkers, and on top of which the famous, iconic image of the raising of an American flag was taken. That classically heroic-looking photo, and the collateral damage from its exploitation as a propaganda tool to sell War Bonds, was the subject of Eastwood’s 2006 “Flags of our Fathers,” the companion piece (or other half) of “Letters From Iwo Jima,” though it doesn’t really matter which one you see first.

The opening moments of “Letters” have a cosmic zoom-like effect, taking us from the timeless and abstract (stars/sand) into a specific place and time: “Iwo Jima 2005,” as a title denotes. It was on this barren little sulfuric spec in the Pacific Ocean, only about five miles from one end to the other, that so many people fought and died 60 years ago.

“ Flags of Our Fathers ” ended with a similar motion, going from memory-images of surviving Marines frolicking in the surf, to the Stars and Stripes atop Mount Suribachi and the battleships in the harbor, and finally up into the sky (another reason you might think you’re looking up rather than down at the start of “Letters,” which begins with a view in the opposite direction from the close of “Flags”). The camouflaged artillery that proved so deadly and menacing in “Flags” are, by the start of “Letters,” just rusty relics at a war memorial site. Archeologists explore Suribachi’s caves and tunnels, still marveling at how the soldiers ever managed to build them.

And then we’re on the beach again, in 1945, as Japanese soldiers prepare for the invasion they know is coming by digging trenches in the sand. It looks like a futile, Sisyphean effort. In a letter to his wife (heard in voiceover) one of the diggers, a puppy-faced former baker named Saigo ( Kazunari Ninomiya , in a thoroughly winning performance), writes philosophically: “This is the hole that we will fight and die in.”

They might have died a lot sooner if they’d stuck with this ill-conceived sand strategy. When the new commander, General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (the always-commanding Ken Watanabe ), arrives at Iwo Jima, he immediately changes plans, ordering men and artillery to dig in on higher ground. These are the preparations for the massive ambush we see in “Flags of Our Fathers.”

The Japanese, who are seen as fierce, highly organized fighters in “Flags,” aren’t as well-prepared, or well-equipped, as we may have thought. Dashing Baron Nishi ( Tsuyoshi Ihara ), the Olympic equestrian star who once partied with Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford in Hollywood, appears on the island with his horse, as a symbolic morale-boost for the men. But in a conversation with Kuribayashi over a bottle of Johnnie Walker, Nishi approaches the military reality they face in an indirect manner: “When you think about it,” Nishi offers, “it is regrettable that most of the Combined Fleet was destroyed.” This is the first news Kuribayashi has had of that particular catastrophe — but he already knows he doesn’t have the manpower or weaponry he needs to resist the pending invasion. (Again, parallels to under-equipped American soldiers being asked to hold ground in Iraq without the necessary material support from their leaders at home is a part of the movie’s frame of reference.)

“The Imperial Headquarters is deceiving not just the people but us as well,” Kuribayashi says. It’s a line that could have been adapted from “Flags of Our Fathers,” which was also an examination of various forms of propaganda, codes of honor, and nationalistic symbolism that are among the primary weapons in any war.

When young Saigo is conscripted into the Japanese army, he and his pregnant wife are stunned at the response of his neighbors and friends who, like brainwashed cultists, keep repeating that he is fortunate to be chosen to die for his country. The emphasis here is on the honor conveyed by death itself — something we see later in the film when soldiers, aware that they’re engaged in a hopeless battle, choose to kill themselves rather than fight to the death. One can’t help recalling the words attributed to Gen. George S. Patton in 1944: “Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. You won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.”

In both his films, Eastwood empathizes with the “expendable” soldier on the ground, the “poor bastard” who is only a pawn in a war conceived by generals and politicians, some of whom have never come anywhere near a battlefield or a combat zone. And Eastwood fully commits to a boots-on-the-ground POV: The raising of the American flag, presented as a routine, off-hand task to the soldiers in “Flags of Our Fathers” (and which would have remained that way if a photographer had not been present), is only glimpsed obliquely from afar by the Japanese in “Letters from Iwo Jima.” Life or death, heroism or folly: It all comes down to which side you’re on, and which piece of ground you’re occupying, at any given moment in the battle.

Jim Emerson

Jim Emerson is the founding editor of RogerEbert.com and has written lots of things in lots of places over lots of years. Mostly involving movies.

Ken Watanabe as Gen. Kuribayashi
Shidou Nakamura as Lt. Ito
Ryo Kase as Shimizu
Kazunari Ninomiya as Saigo
Tsuyoshi Ihara as Baron Nishi

Directed by

Clint Eastwood
Iris Yamashita

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\| \| \| \| • CNN.com's Tom Charity: New Eastwood film "a masterpiece" • "Letters From Iwo Jima" tells battle story from Japanese POV • Film has strong performances, steady, reflective direction (CNN) -- There aren't many examples of war films made from the vantage point of "the enemy," but perhaps there should be more. Orson Welles told Sam Peckinpah that "Cross of Iron" (Peckinpah's 1977 film about Germans on World War II's Eastern Front) was the best antiwar film he had ever seen, and Lewis Milestone's 1930 best picture winner, "All Quiet on the Western Front," still holds up. Clint Eastwood's reverse angle on the brutal battle for Iwo Jima is a remarkable companion piece to and the better of the two films. It is also the only American movie of the year I won't hesitate to call a masterpiece. Shot almost entirely in Japanese, and even more monochromatic than its predecessor, the film has a more linear trajectory than "Flags," only leaving the barren Pacific island for a handful of brief flashbacks when a soldier swaps his rifle for a pen and reminisces to loved ones he never expects to see again. The device is a good one, permitting Eastwood to strike the same rueful, reflective key he found in "Unforgiven," "Bridges of Madison County" and "Million Dollar Baby," even in the midst of nightmarish combat scenes. It also allows us access to fears and sentiments proud Japanese soldiers would be unlikely to express aloud. Indeed, the first time we see Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), he is beaten by an officer for a casual defeatist remark. Saigo's fatalism is more honest than that of the Imperial High Command, which neglects to advise General Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) that the naval fleet has been destroyed and with it any hopes for victory. In any case, the general realizes that the best he can do is delay the Americans for as long as possible. He orders miles of tunnels to be dug out of the island's volcanic rock, and draws up plans to consolidate his beleaguered forces through a series of strategic withdrawals. The plans outrage his subordinates, indoctrinated in Bushido ("way of the warrior"): death before dishonor. None of the four characters we get to know best in Iris Yamashita's screenplay share this crazed militaristic mindset, but even the two relatively enlightened officers, Kuribayashi and Lt. Col Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara) cannot break free from its bonds. Ken Watanabe makes the general a shrewd and charismatic leader, but if the film has a hero, it's Saigo, the least conventionally heroic of the lot. He's an infantryman who still thinks of himself as a baker, and who is at greater risk from his own army's suicidal zeal than the American onslaught. In a pivotal sequence, Nishi -- a horseman who competed in the Los Angeles Olympics of 1932 -- orders his medic to treat a mortally wounded American GI with what remains of their morphine. Later he translates a letter from the dead man's mother for the benefit of his men. They are surprised and touched by its simple, heartfelt sentiments, and what they reveal of the enemy their rulers have systematically demonized: "Come home safe; do the right thing because it is right ...," she writes. "My mother said the same things to me," Shimizu (Ryo Kase), a disgraced military policeman, admits to Saigo. He deserts, but in the midst of battle, even surrender is dangerous. He sits, oblivious, with another POW, while two GIs callously decide their fate over a smoke. The Pacific campaign was tremendously hard-fought, culminating in the firebombing of Tokyo and the atomic blasts at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Twenty-one thousand Japanese troops died in the intense fighting on Iwo Jima, a volcanic island a mere eight square miles in area. Eastwood's spare, fluid, eloquent movie shows atrocities on both sides, squarely attributes the worst of these to Japan's military-Imperial dictatorship, and gently sifts the black sands of Iwo Jima for moments of solace, grace and mercy. \| \| \| \|	E-mail Alerts

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Ken Watanabe plays Gen. Kuribayashi in "Letters From Iwo Jima," Clint Eastwood's telling of the Battle of Iwo Jima from the Japanese point of view.

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Letters From Iwo Jima Reviews

One must give Eastwood a good deal of credit ... To make a film about the suffering "your" soldiers endure is one thing, to make one about the horrors inflicted on the "enemy" is something else again.

Full Review | Feb 14, 2021

Infinitely more compelling than its predecessor, yet equally lengthy and ill-paced.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Nov 21, 2020

A subdued masterpiece with a unique perspective on war.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Nov 21, 2019

In coming to understand the point of view of the opposing side, Eastwood has crafted two masterful and distinct films who are still inexorably intertwined that speak to the simple humanity in all of us.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 6, 2019

You realize how very young many of these men were, and how ill-suited to be turned into killing machines.

Full Review | Aug 23, 2018

Modern-day echoes of being snookered into a bad war aren't lost on Clint Eastwood, and "Letters from Iwo Jima" delivers an overwhelmingly powerful eulogy for the death of righteousness in combat on either side of the line.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 19, 2010

Not an anti-war tract or a glorification but, rather, a fair consideration of humanity that exists within the inhumanity of armed conflict.

Full Review | Oct 23, 2009

Eastwood's cinema is one of resolutely moral images

Full Review | Aug 28, 2009

Eastwood is a master of the extended look (this comes from the two directors he acknowledges as his own masters, Sergio Leone and Don Siegel), the look that stretches time and that is blinded by what it sees.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 23, 2009

The most important film of 2006 was Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima. In 20 years Letters from Iwo Jima will be a classic.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.0/5 | Feb 2, 2009

War is hell, always has been, and movies will continue to confirm it for anyone who might doubt. In this case, though, Letters only shows that for all the different perspective the other side of a war could have, it's the same old movie clichés.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 20, 2008

Eastwood's direction is a thing of beauty, blending unblinking ferocity with fragile delicacy.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Feb 28, 2008

Both technical grace and an efficient ensemble smooth over some...clunky plotting.

Full Review | Dec 1, 2007

A fine, textured study of war, one that considers the strategic side as well as the human side without sacrificing either.

Full Review | Original Score: A | Sep 24, 2007

Watching the film, I had admiration for what Eastwood and his writers were attempting, but I remained at arm's length. I'm not entirely sure why I could not buy into the film.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Jul 14, 2007

Much as already been made about the pride and honor of the Japanese, but as a people they have rarely, if ever, been depicted as fully human characters in American war movies. It's amazing to think what Clint Eastwood has done here.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 14, 2007

... Eastwood takes this film out of the realm of a typical war picture to illuminate the boundless nature of the human spirit, which extends far beyond race and nationality.

Full Review | Jul 11, 2007

In Letters, the glossy romanticism of history crumbles before our very eyes.

Full Review | Jul 3, 2007

Eastwood has made a film that is thoughtful, poignant, touching, and philosophical. It stands as one of the best works in his long, illustrious career.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 23, 2007

A Japanese war flick comprised of contrasting character portraits of soldiers torn between dying with honor and the very human instinct of self-preservation.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 22, 2007

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Movie review: 'Letters From Iwo Jima' - Culture - International Herald Tribune

Dec. 20, 2006

'Letters From Iwo Jima'Directed by Clint Eastwood (U.S.)

There are certain assumptions that American audiences, perhaps without realizing it, are likely to bring to a movie about World War II. The combat picture has been a Hollywood staple for so long — since before the actual combat was over — that it can sometimes seem as if every possible story has already been told. Or else as if each individual story, from GI Joe to Private Ryan, is at bottom a variation on familiar themes: victory against the odds, brotherhood under fire, sacrifice for a noble cause.

But of course there are other, contrasting stories, a handful of which form the core of "Letters From Iwo Jima," — that was set to open Wednesday in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco — Clint Eastwood's harrowing, contemplative new movie and the companion to his "Flags of Our Fathers," released in autumn. That film partly about the famous photograph of American servicemen raising the flag on the barren volcanic island of Iwo Jima, complicated the standard Hollywood combat narrative in ways both subtle and overt. It exposed the heavy sediment of individual grief, cynicism and frustration beneath the collective high sentiments of glory and heroism but without entirely debunking the value or necessity of those sentiments.

"Letters," which observes the lives and deaths of Japanese soldiers in the battle for Iwo Jima, similarly adheres to some of the conventions of the genre even as it quietly dismantles them. It is, unapologetically and even humbly, true to the durable tenets of the war movie tradition, but it is also utterly original, even radical in its methods and insights.

In December 2004, with "Million Dollar Baby," Eastwood almost nonchalantly took a tried-and-true template — the boxing picture — and struck from it the best American movie of the year. To my amazement, though hardly to my surprise, he has done it again; "Letters From Iwo Jima" might just be the best Japanese movie of the year as well.

This is not only because the Japanese actors, speaking in their own language, give such vivid and varied performances, but also because the film, in its every particular, seems deeply and un-self-consciously embedded in the experiences of the characters they play. "Letters From Iwo Jima" is not a chronicle of victory against the odds, but rather of inevitable defeat. When word comes from Imperial headquarters that there will be no reinforcements, no battleships, no air support in the impending fight with the U.S. Marines, any illusion of triumph vanishes, and the stark reality of the mission takes shape. The job of these soldiers and their commanders, in keeping with a military ethos they must embrace whether they believe in it or not, is to die with honor, if necessary by their own hands.

The cruelty of this notion of military discipline, derived from long tradition and maintained by force, is perhaps less startling than the sympathy Eastwood extends to his characters, whose sacrifices are made in the service of a cause that the American audience knows to be bad as well as doomed. It is hard to think of another war movie that has gone so deeply, so sensitively, into the mindset of the opposing side.

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Letters From Iwo Jima Review

23 Feb 2007

140 minutes

Letters From Iwo Jima

Hollywood is often criticised for dehumanising its enemies, reducing them to shadowy shapes behind bursts of gunfire and the occasional Wilhelm scream. Somewhat understandable for a 1940s propaganda pic, but more recent examples (Black Hawk Down springs to mind) have left a sour taste in the mouth. Had Flags Of Our Fathers — Clint Eastwood’s account of the US servicemen photographed raising Old Glory at the peak of Mount Suribachi — been Eastwood’s only Iwo Jima movie, then no doubt it would have drawn similar critical heat.

But Clint couldn’t leave it there, with what he saw as half an untold story. So now we have something rather unprecedented: an entire, separate movie, released only a few months later, devoted entirely to the other side of the conflict. Not a sequel, but a companion piece — a parallaquel, if you like.

And a movie that’s considerably superior to Flags Of Our Fathers. This is partly because, given the shift of perspective, it feels fresher. But mainly it’s because the story’s simply better . Where Flags’ plot meant constant hopping from the battle itself to the flag-raisers’ publicity tour to modern-day segments, Letters is tight and focused, both feet planted firmly in the island’s black sand, with restrained use of flashback to flesh out key characters.

The Japanese half of the story is also more inherently dramatic. With no air or naval support, Iwo Jima’s defenders were vastly outnumbered, not to mention scantly provisioned, and facing the full, hi-tech might of the US war machine. Furthermore, they were all men who were told they’d be meeting their end on this unhospitable, sulphurous spit of volcanic rock — and assured that it was an honour for them to do so. They were expected to hold out for no more than five days. Under the sly command of Lt. General Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe), who’d lived with and befriended Americans before the War, and who thought up the controversial tactic of digging into the rock and carving a network of tunnels and 5,000-odd caves, they held out for 35.

As the monstrous American force approaches and commences belching its deadly hail of fire and lead, we view the inexorable disintegration of Japanese resistance via a handful of compelling points of view. Most of the runtime is devoted to the opposite ends of the military hierarchy. At one, we have Watanabe’s Kuribayashi, a man of unflinching purpose, nonconformist strategies and paradoxical ideals, who will reflect with misty eyes on his happy days carousing with the American brass, then bark an order that not one man on his side is permitted to die without first killing ten Yanks. It’s a similar character to the one Watanabe played in The Last Samurai (sensitive, doomed warrior who displays sparkly curiosity and unconventional tolerance for his Western foes), but one less obscured by Hollywood gloss.

At the other end is the film’s true star, Kazunari Ninomiya’s Saigo,a conscript whose desire to stay alive for his wife and baby daughter outweighs his willingness to expire for his Empire. Unlike Kuribayashi, Saigo is untouched by Western influence, just a common footsoldier. Yet, with a bitter sense of humour and a determination to survive — even if it means surrender — he’s a deeply likeable antithesis of the harakiri/kamikaze stereotype.

Predictably, Eastwood’s key message is that there are good guys and bad guys on both sides; each is responsible for atrocities. On the Japanese side we see, in one particularly distressing scene, soldiers forced to commit suicide by clutching hand-grenades to their chests; on the American we witness captives executed because they’re too inconvenient to guard. But also, like Flags, it’s about what constitutes heroism, although in this case it’s better expressed, pondering the difference between dying for your country and fighting for it.

Movies | 23 01 2007

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Letters From Iwo Jima

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

Having just won the Best Picture prize from the National Board of Review, Clint Eastwood’s intimate epic Letters From Iwo Jima enters the Oscar race with banners flying, which is a good thing. The director’s Flags of Our Fathers had to suffer the alleged indignity of being a box-office underperformer, as if that says anything about quality.

And Letters is quality from first frame to last, a war film that is almost a tone poem in how it reveals the minds and secret hearts of the Japanese soldiers defending the volcanic island of Iwo Jima against American forces over forty days of battle in 1945.

Working from a screenplay by Iris Yamashita (her first), Eastwood’s companion film to Flags burrows deeply into Japanese culture, starting with Lt. Gen. Tadamichi (the soulful Ken Watanabe), once an envoy to the U.S., who led the defense and came up with the controversial plan to tunnel the island (eighteen miles’ worth) and dig caves to take on the American forces that far outnumbered them.

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Eastwood’s direction here is a thing of beauty, blending the ferocity of the classic films of Akira Kurosawa ( Seven Samurai ) with the delicacy and unblinking gaze of Yasujiro Ozu ( Tokyo Story ). Characters are drawn with striking nuance and tender feeling, be they Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), the baker who dreams of seeing his wife and baby, or Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara), an Olympic equestrian who brings his horse to the island.

The scenes of combat, shot in desaturated color on the beaches of Iceland by the gifted Tom Stern and edited with grit and grace by Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach, gain in terror and complexity from what we learn of these men. We watch in horror as soldiers bang their helmets with live grenades, preferring suicide to surrender. Eastwood’s film burns into the memory by striving for authentic detail. The result is unique and unforgettable.

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Letters from Iwo Jima

W ith this film, we can get the full measure of Clint Eastwood's bold and in its way remarkable two-part tribute to the fallen warriors of both sides at the Battle of Iwo Jima in the second world war. This second movie takes place entirely within Japanese ranks, with Japanese actors speaking subtitled dialogue, and whom the non-Japanese-speaking Eastwood presumably addressed through an interpreter. It is very different; despite some spectacular battle scenes, it is more muted, more restrained, even faintly anti-climactic.

Flags of Our Fathers (the first film) ranged freely from the field of battle to the manipulative political scene on the home front. Letters from Iwo Jima, however, sticks mostly and grimly to the action on the island itself, pictured in a grainy near-monochrome, supposedly summoned up from a cache of troops' poignantly unsent letters unearthed there by 21st-century researchers many years later.

Eastwood, perhaps in a spirit of gallantry, or simple caution, evidently does not care to ironise or call into question Japan's civilian beliefs the way he did with his own side. And he is extravagantly positive about the best qualities of the Japanese fighting man: tough, manly, courteous, good-natured. All this is personified in the Japanese commander, Lieutenant General Kuribayashi, very well and intelligently played by Ken Watanabe.

There is a horrible sequence in which a group of trapped Japanese soldiers in their dugout commit ritual suicide one by one, by snapping open a grenade against their helmets, and pressing it to their chests with a scream of "Banzai!" When Kuribayashi confronts his own terrible destiny, it is in much less claustrophobic, stomach-turning circumstances. And the spectacle of Axis-power soldiers committing suicide in defeat is very different from that in, say, Oliver Hirschbiegel's Downfall, about the Hitler bunker. These, you see, are the good bad guys. Just as Noël Coward told us not to be beastly to the Germans, so Eastwood is suggesting something similar with the Japanese.

In the end, I felt that Eastwood's attempt to find a way inside the mind of the Japanese troops was high-minded and generous, but lacking in real passion and flair. It was confined, not by political correctness exactly - who could ever accuse Clint Eastwood of this? - but by a kind of Eastwoodian reticence, and a need to reach out to the vanquished enemy in very American terms. Kuribayashi's men are finally reduced to tears by a letter found on a dead GI from his mom, realising that she is no different from their mothers. It is a powerful moment, and yet the awful, un-Hollywood truth was that most Japanese troops probably died on Iwo Jima with their fear and hatred of the American enemy quite intact.

There is another reason for this reticence and self-blinkering, I suspect. When some of the troops talked about their home towns, I found myself digging my nails into my palms with anticipation. Would anyone now say the H-word? Or the N-word? No. The terrible denouement of Japan's second world war - the great defeat to which this is leading - is not alluded to and yet this unthinkable nightmare is surely one thing which colours Eastwood's tribute to the fallen enemy. His diptych is concluded with muscular conviction and decency, but it is subdued and respectful: a floral tribute presented at a celluloid memorial.

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Letters From Iwo Jima

Drama , War

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Ken Watanabe as Gen. Kuribayashi; Kazunari Nimomiya as Saigo; Yuki Matsuzaki as Nozaki; Ryo Kase as Shimizu; Tsuyoshi Ihara as Lt. Col. Nishi; Takumi Bando as Capt. Tanida; Shido Nakamura as Lt. Ito; Hiroshi Watanabe as Lt. Fujita

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Clint Eastwood

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Warner Bros.

Movie Review

In Letters From Iwo Jima , director Clint Eastwood returns to the same Pacific island that served as backdrop for his war epic Flags of Our Fathers . That movie told the story of the American Marines who raised the flag that became an iconic symbol for the U.S. war effort. This one portrays the battle from the Japanese perspective—in Japanese.

The narrative revolves around Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi, who’s been assigned the unenviable task of defending Iwo Jima against the imminent American onslaught. It’s 1944, and Japan is losing the war in the Pacific. Kuribayashi arrives on the island to find a rag-tag detachment awaiting its doom.

As Kuribayashi readies his troops, we get to know several soldiers. Chief among them is the melancholy Saigo, a baker drafted into the army against his wishes and those of his pregnant wife, Hanako. Letters from Saigo to his wife (and Kuribayashi to his son, Taro) help us connect with these men not as soldiers, but as loving fathers and husbands.

Day by day, they await the arrival of American troops. Despite months of preparation, their fortifications prove insufficient to defend the island from the mammoth landing party that finally arrived early in 1945. As the Americans advance, Kuribayashi, Saigo and their fellow soldiers all struggle to deal with the inevitability of their defeat.

Positive Elements

At the heart of this story is the question of what it means to fight with honor. For most of the Japanese soldiers, that means dying in battle. There’s no way they can win, and most have resigned themselves to their bitter end. The film offers little commentary on the motives or morality of the Japanese war machine. Instead, we simply see the values of these soldiers being put to the ultimate test. Countless war movies have depicted Japanese soldiers as soulless automatons or crazed kamikazes. But Eastwood’s depiction humanizes them, showing many to be brave men committed to fighting for their country, even when they’re not wholly aligned with its goals.

Gen. Kuribayashi is a complex blend of old Japanese attitudes and new. He, like many of his peers, believes in giving his all to defend the island. Still, before battle, he tells Saigo, “I promised to fight to the death. Family makes it difficult to keep that promise.” Yet he will not be deterred from leading the charge, and he promises his men, “I will always be in front of you.” Unlike several other generals, Kuribayashi isn’t afraid of a tactical retreat. He’s committed to fighting as intelligently as possible, and he refuses to waste lives on obviously suicidal counterattacks in the form of banzai charges.

The general stops a junior officer from executing two soldiers (who are considering desertion), admonishing that man not to kill his soldiers needlessly. Kuribayashi also confronts a mean-spirited officer who treats his soldiers like slaves. In a nod to civility, Kuribayashi orders the island’s few civilians to flee before hostilities commence.

Saigo, meanwhile, embodies the idea that there’s no shame in surrendering a battle that’s unwinnable. And it’s primarily his love for his family that compels him to consider surrender as a viable option, one that represents sanity, not dishonor. An early letter to his wife sets the stage for that message with the haunting question, “Am I digging my own grave?” He recognizes the inherent value of human life, which is reinforced by a tender flashback scene where he whispers to his unborn son, “Your dad is going to come home for you.”

In the big picture, Iwo Jima demonstrates that both the Japanese and the American armies included both noble men and men who made selfish and morally repugnant choices. In doing so, it makes the statement that men in war everywhere are ultimately similar. That point is driven home by a letter carried by a captured American. In it, his mother tells him, “Always do what is right because it is right. I pray for a speedy end to the war and your safe return.” After a Japanese soldier who speaks English translates and reads the letter to his troops, one man exclaims, “His mother’s words were the same as my mother’s.”

Examples of good done on both sides of the front line include Japanese soldiers treating the wounds of that captured American, and Americans sparing the life of a Japanese soldier even though his wild actions could easily have been considered threatening.

Spiritual Elements

Before hostilities commence, Japanese soldiers bow before a small shrine. References to prayer for safety and deliverance pop up about half-a-dozen times. In a speech to rally the troops, an officer tells them he’ll see them on the other side. And, indeed, several soldiers anticipate an afterlife. Some wear a specially embroidered “1,000 stitch” belt that they superstitiously hope might offer protection.

Sexual & romantic Content

Violent content.

Iwo Jima was, of course, one of the hardest-fought battles of WWII. The violence is generally depicted here in two ways: Most battle scenes are raw and intense, but not gory; they show men falling down after getting shot or being hurled into the air from explosions caused by bombs, grenades, mortars, etc.—similar to many other war movies made in the last 60 years.

Several lingering camera shots do, however, focus on the battle’s carnage in viscerally detailed ways. We see a man whose arm has been blown off in an explosion, with blood pulsing out of what’s left of it. A Japanese soldier stares at the face of another who has been badly mangled in an explosion. Several times, soldiers in enclosed spaces are set on fire with flamethrowers and writhe in agony.

One of the film’s most heartbreaking scenes shows two lazy Americans killing two Japanese POWs—because they can’t be bothered to guard them. When the Japanese later find the bodies, it reinforces to them the idea some have that Americans really are savages. (“Let this be a lesson to those who surrender,” says an officer.) Another Japanese deserter is shot in the back as he runs away from his position.

We watch in agony as a small group of Japanese commits suicide by arming grenades and clutching those weapons to their chests. (We glimpse a room full of disfigured corpses.) An officer ends his own life by putting a pistol to his head. (The blast blows blood onto the face of the man next to him.) Still another commits suicide by shooting himself in the stomach after he’s already been wounded.

A particularly zealous Japanese officer straps two bombs to himself and lies down among the dead in a battlefield, awaiting an American tank to blow up. In Japan, an officer shoots a civilian family’s dog needlessly for barking too much. Back on the island, a horse is killed in the crossfire. A cruel Japanese tactic we hear about (and saw in Flag of Our Fathers ) is the order to shoot American medics on the beach. An American is repeatedly bayoneted.

[ Spoiler Warning ] A badly wounded Kuribayashi orders his personal attendant, Lt. Fujita, to kill him by decapitation. Fujita is shot and killed himself as he raises the sword.

Crude or Profane Language

Subtitles reveal that the s-word is said twice (as a descriptive term), and “d–n” is said a half-dozen times.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Gen. Kuribayashi has a bottle of Johnny Walker. He pours drinks for himself and other officers several times. Many men on both sides of the conflict smoke cigarettes.

Other noteworthy Elements

We learn along with Kuribayashi that reports of Japanese successes and promises of reinforcements have been falsified. A soldier lies to his superior. A manipulative radio broadcast from the Japanese homeland has a children’s choir singing a song encouraging the men to sacrifice their lives (“Pride and honor at any price/Our proud island, Iwo Jima”).

A soldier is ordered to carry a steaming chamber pot full of excrement out of a cave—during heated combat—to dump it out.

With the possible exception of Terrence Malick’s 1998 movie The Thin Red Line , I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a war movie quite like Letters From Iwo Jima . The Japanese defeat is, of course, a foregone conclusion. But the way Clint Eastwood explores the Japanese psyche during World War II is what this story is really about. The battle scenes, while frequent, are secondary to how various characters respond to the rigor of a battle they know is lost before it begins.

The film’s two protagonists, Kuribayashi and Saigo, supply complex, compelling answers to the question of what it means to live and die with honor. Their responses, though different, are completely believable and clearly courageous (with one glaring exception). Building a story around these two men, Eastwood has captured the awfulness, arbitrariness and sheer horror of individual battles within a war.

That sheer horror comes vividly to life onscreen, forcefully removing the film from any “entertainment” category, and as such, it shouldn’t be encountered without some thoughtfulness. Still, compared to Flags of Our Fathers , Iwo Jima ‘s gory violence and harsh profanity are less frequent.

More frequent has been the praise film critics have heaped upon Eastwood’s second look at this bloody battle. Entertainment Weekly ‘s Lisa Schwarzbaum placed it at the top of her best-of-2006 movie list, calling it “an austere, radiant stunner—a soaring achievement, as Eastern in its appreciation of group discipline as Flags is Western in its contemplation of individual responsibility. … With calm and utmost respect, a quintessentially American director has made a war picture that honors every soldier.”

Indeed, every soldier—and every kind of soldier—gets screen time in Iwo Jima . While Kuribayashi, Saigo and others display moral fortitude in different ways, some of their compatriots do not. Likewise, the Americans’ decision to kill two surrendering Japanese made me at first feel as if Eastwood had crossed the line from making an anti-war movie to an anti-American movie. But then he mitigates the broad-stroke symbolism of the scene by including another in which a different group of Americans does the right thing in the face of much harsher circumstances.

Perhaps, then, Iwo Jima feels so different from other war movies, especially those of yesteryear, because its ultimate reason for being is not to wave the flag of a particular country or cause. Instead, its twin morals are that the individual acts required of warriors in war are often utterly unspeakable, and that there are good and bad men on both sides of any conflict.

Adam R. Holz

After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.

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Letters from iwo jima.

Common Sense Says
Parents Say 4 Reviews
Kids Say 11 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

By Cynthia Fuchs , based on child development research. How do we rate?

Eastwood offers a profound perspective on WWII.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 16+?

Frequent conversation about death and suicide; captain beats his men to make the

Cigarette smoking; occasional, formal drinking by officers.

One use of "s--t," in subtitles.

Flashback discussion of Hanako's pregnancy (Saigo leans into her belly and s

Any Positive Content?

The soliders are mostly noble, though they're confronted by impossible order

Violence & Scariness

Frequent conversation about death and suicide; captain beats his men to make them work harder; battle images are rough, with explosions and bodies flying, as well as close-range stabbings and shootings; Japanese soldiers kill themselves by holding grenades to their chests (explicit effects); a horse is found dead following a bombing raid; blood effects are jarringly red, as most other imagery is in washed-out greys and blues.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Flashback discussion of Hanako's pregnancy (Saigo leans into her belly and speaks to their child).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

The soliders are mostly noble, though they're confronted by impossible orders, expected to commit suicide rather than surrender (with an eye to future honor); some soldiers (including Americans) are plainly overzealous and weary, killing out of frustration.

Parents need to know that this war drama deals with a very serious subject: the defeat of soldiers who know they'll die and that their cause is lost. Thanks to that and the fact that it's deliberately paced and spoken entirely in Japanese (with English subtitles), it will likely appeal only to older teens. The explosive action scenes include brutal battles with shootings, stabbings, and the use of flamethrowers -- resulting in dismemberment, beheading, burning, bloody injuries, and general chaos. Some wounded soldiers appear in distress, and U.S. Marines take and abuse prisoners. A dog is shot off screen (kids can be heard crying), and a beloved horse is killed in an explosion. A character dies of dysentery (off screen, though he's sick for some time). A couple of soldiers write letters home that reveal their awareness of their imminent bad ends. Characters smoke cigarettes, and officers drink in flashbacks. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parent and Kid Reviews

Parents say (4)
Kids say (11)

Based on 4 parent reviews

Haunting and very well made

A powerful companion to "flag of our fathers", what's the story.

Concentrating on the battle at Iwo Jima, director Clint Eastwood 's film depicts the daily grind and worries of the Japanese soldiers that occupied the island, awaiting an inevitable attack by U.S. forces. We see them digging trenches and constructing tunnels for battle, and, at last, waiting to die even as they extol the nobility of their hopeless cause. General Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) carries an American Colt .45, which makes him suspect in the eyes of more traditionalist officers, including Admiral Ohsugi (Nobumasa Sakagami). Saigo, a young baker recruited against his will, and the general both write letters home, Saigo to his wife and Kuribayashi to his son Taro. Each, in his own way, understands what's coming, and each embodies a certain nobility that is at once familiar from U.S. war movies and unconventional. They question conventional wisdom and look after their fellows, but neither is inclined to the sort of unquestioning obedience displayed by the fierce Lieutenant Ito (Shido Nakamura), who, unable to convince anyone else to follow him, straps mines to his body and heads off into the night, determined to find an American tank and lie beneath it to blow it up.

Is It Any Good?

Elegant and sad, Letters from Iwo Jima is a war movie about loss. Director Eastwood conceived it as a companion piece to Flags of Our Fathers , and it is at once a more finely focused and more profound film, with violence that can never answer the questions raised by its long moments of anticipation.

The film interrogates the inevitability of loss in war, even when victory is proclaimed. Superiors communicate to their men that the rationale for war is always the future. Ironically, this is precisely what's lost to those who fight, whether they come back with memories or don't come back at all. Letters ends on the beach where it begins, refusing to illustrate a future after loss, concentrating instead on loss itself. It makes war seem too terrible to bear.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the dedication shown by the Japanese soldiers -- to their nation and sense of cause, and, more immediately, to their commander. How does the movie connect this dedication to their previous experiences? How is their behavior different from that of the U.S. soldiers in Flags of Our Fathers ? How does this movie draw connections between history and current events? How does the film argue against war, even as it admires national pride and individual soldiers' bravery? How is the Japanese perspective (filtered through director Clint Eastwood's U.S. lens) different from one that might be considered strictly American? Is there such a thing as the "true" version of history?

Movie Details

In theaters : December 20, 2006
On DVD or streaming : May 22, 2007
Cast : Kazunari Ninomiya , Ken Watanabe , Tsuyoshi Ihara
Director : Clint Eastwood
Inclusion Information : Asian actors
Studio : Warner Bros.
Genre : Drama
Run time : 141 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : graphic war violence.
Last updated : May 22, 2023

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Review: letters from iwo jima.

Clint Eastwood’s charcoal-colored aesthetic casts a pall of doom over his story’s ill-fated protagonists.

As a companion piece to Flags of Our Fathers , Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima inevitably shares many of its predecessor’s thematic concerns. Assuming the Japanese’s perspective on the 36-day battle for the black sand-shored titular island, the second component of Eastwood’s WWII doubleheader—subtitled in Japanese, and reportedly sped into theaters ahead of its projected 2007 release to help bolster Flags ’ waning award-season prospects—is another rumination on the nature of wartime courage and heroism that’s distrustful of the bureaucratic military machine and interested in the intimate individual experiences of those who fought and perished in the critical conflict. Detailing the efforts of General Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) to rally his outnumbered military forces for a futile defense against the American invaders, the film, in ways both subtle and forthright, reflects the concerns of its Allied Forces-focused forerunner, as it investigates the empirical chasms separating on-the-ground grunts and on-high officials, the socioeconomic divides found within regimens, and the cultural and generational tensions that colored the campaign’s management and execution. When disillusioned Imperial soldier Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya) has a letter for his wife edited by a postman who knows that its critical comments won’t ever make it past censors, Letters from Iwo Jima even slyly alludes to Flags ’ portrait of the military’s systematic distortion and denial of wartime truths.

Nevertheless, whereas the two films’ similarities are numerous—also extending to their use of framing stories (here, Japanese archaeologists unearthing letters written by the fallen) and interest in self-sacrifice—it is Letters ’ departures from its precursor that make it a superior, if still somewhat flawed, work. Adapted from Kuribayashi’s collection of correspondences Picture Letters from Commander in Chief by Iris Yamashita (story by Yamashita and Paul Haggis), Eastwood’s latest historical saga more or less chronologically recounts the twin travails of Kuribayashi and Saigo, the former an iconoclast whose time spent in America gives him a personal insight into the enemy, and the latter a young husband and expectant father who, while digging beach trenches that may prove to be his grave, insubordinately proclaims that he’d just as soon hand the island over to the Americans. Throughout, the narrative’s fundamental discord between a soldier’s eagerness to adhere to traditional conceptions of honor and duty on the one hand, and a desire to practically assess and confront the current circumstances on the other hand, will play out both around and within these two men, their loyalty to country and custom complicated by their strategically rational and emotionally selfish and relentless survival instincts.

Rumored to have been given his unfavorable post only because another turned down the job, Kuribayashi arrives at Iwo Jima and immediately rankles the conformist officers under his command, his unconventional plan to concentrate troops not on the beachfront but on the mainland—and, specifically, in a series of tunnels he has dug into the landscape’s scraggly hills—foreshadowing his forthcoming refusal to accept hara kiri as an honorable response to defeat. By prizing tactical ingenuity over outmoded Bushido-era philosophies, Kuribayashi proves himself a modern thinker in a static intellectual environment, a state of mind uneasily allied with his desire, lamented upon while discussing his fondness for steed-mounted cavalry with former Olympic horse rider Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara), for the “good old days.” Such a shaky equilibrium between modern and old-fashioned impulses doesn’t initially plague Saigo, who merely yearns for a way out of the impending clash. By the time desertion and surrender become viable options, however, the skeptical soldier comes to a minor revelation regarding the definition of “honor”—a term many of his superiors disgracefully wield as a blackmailing agent, but which he (as did Flags ’ trio) eventually learns has to do with both judicious allegiance to the cause and selfless commitment to one’s comrades.

As Saigo, Ninomiya displays not only fine comedic instincts but also palpable fear and confusion in the face of war’s horrors, while Watanabe dramatizes his character’s inner struggle with regal dignity, lacing his commanding and quietly heroic portrayal with a sadness born from being deserted by one family (the military, which fails/refuses to provide air and sea support) and the knowledge that he’ll never see his other, flesh-and-blood one. Alas, both performances are occasionally undercut by Yamashita’s scripting, which commences with deft lucidity but, as the sappy flashbacks (replete with narration taken from various men’s letters home) and edifying conversations mount, slowly reveals the lack of subtlety that’s become Haggis’s signature. Rigidly patriotic Shimizu (Ryô Kase), a member of the elitist Kempeitai military police unit, is looked upon suspiciously and disdainfully by his new cohorts, yet the best the film can do to resolve this class hierarchy-infused friction is a simplistic memory scene in which he’s shown to actually be the kind of noble, stand-up guy who wouldn’t comply with orders to shoot an innocent dog. Such crudity intermittently substitutes for nuanced drama, as with General Kuribayashi’s recollection of a U.S. state dinner that’s full of statements-of-theme, or as when Shimizu’s realization that Americans aren’t “cowards” and “savages”—and, in fact, are very much like himself—is articulated in the most aggravatingly obvious language possible.

Although American soldiers are largely faceless in Letters (as were the Japanese in Flags ), the idea that the two sides’ soldiers were kindred spirits—young, scared, desperate to reunite with families, and used as pawns in service of a larger cause—permeates the proceedings. It’s a notion rooted in Eastwood’s humanism, but despite being true on an individual—if not political—level, the sentiment is sporadically handled with clumsiness, epitomized by Nishi’s rescue of a wounded American fighter named Sam (Lucas Elliott). After giving the Yank his squadron’s final doses of morphine, Nishi and Sam convivially chat about Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford (whom the Japanese Olympian once had over for dinner), their shared interests a lesson in cross-cultural resemblance that becomes more blunt when, later on, a note written to Sam by his mother is read aloud to a group of Japanese soldiers, their slack-jawed faces—and the ensuing epiphany it sparks in Shimizu—inelegantly making clear the film’s “we’re all alike inside” ethos. Especially given that the omnipresent specter of Flags makes such points implicit, the screenplay’s devotion to communicating its opinions first softly and again, in the third-act, explicitly results in hints of the didacticism that bogged down Flags .

At what point do these shortcomings, frequently attributed to Haggis, ultimately also partially fall on the shoulders of Eastwood, who has now collaborated with the Crash filmmaker on three projects in three years? The director’s choreography of both battlefield chaos and quiet, reflective moments have a workmanlike polish that’s aided by his funereal theme music and Tom Stern’s near-black-and-white cinematography (splashed with yellow fireballs and crimson blood), the latter of which—as with a nocturnal skirmish in which Americans and Japanese appear as indistinguishable silhouettes, or in the visual contrast of Kuribayashi’s Colt .45 with his officers’ samurai swords—wordlessly conveys his tale’s overriding preoccupations. Beautiful compositions such as one of fighter jets showering a hillside with bombs are the rule rather than the exception, but Eastwood is also prone to indulge in corniness like a slow-mo image of letters sadly floating to the ground, or, after a Japanese combatant is seen clutching family photos in the seconds before blowing himself up with a grenade, a superfluous pan to the man’s severed hand still clutching said snapshots. While nothing in Letters approaches Flags ’ groan-worthy present-day segments, Eastwood’s solemn sentimentality sometimes borders on triteness, even though his stately mise-en-scène is more apt to overshadow Haggis’s one-dimensional characterizations and moralizing scenarios than it is to amplify them.

Yet in spite of its cases of explanatory handholding, there remains a stirring potency to Letters ’ exploration of loyalty, responsibility, and nobility. Eastwood’s charcoal-colored aesthetic casts a pall of doom over his story’s ill-fated protagonists, as well as visually complements his tale’s belief in the falsity of black-and-white worldviews. And via Kuribayashi’s ideological clash with Lieutenant Ito (Shidô Nakamura), what emerges is a stirring reversal of codified principles: Ito’s age-old conviction that it’s preferable to suffer a dignified death—by hopelessly charging into battle, or by actively committing suicide—than to retreat or be captured is cast as the height of spinelessness, while Saigo’s strategic withdrawals and climactic, meaningful (attempted) sacrifice stands as the epitome of bravery. That Ito, as the one man zealously committed to sacrificing his life, is denied death may be a bit of pat irony. But with a shot of Ito, having failed to use his body as a bomb, rising from the corpse-lined ground upon which he’d been nestled, his canteen dropping to the soil where it becomes lost amid those of his deceased compatriots, Eastwood artfully expresses how the antiquated code of honor to which the character (and, by extension, Japan) clings has made him as useless as the dead. It’s an instance of understated, eloquent grace, and as with Letters ’ finest moments, one in which pure visual storytelling remains unsullied by subsequent expository reiteration.

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Movie Review: Letters from Iwo Jima

I have now watched Clint Eastvvood's Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jims and been re-immersed in both sides of the battle that was the seminal experience of my young military life. Fields of Our Fathers (reviewed by the author in the November 2006 Proceedings) tells the American story. Letters from Iwo Jinui, winner of a 2007 Golden Globe award for best foreign language film. portrays the Japanese side. Letters leaves one with a profound feeling of sympathy and sadness toward the men who were then our mortal enemies.

Director Eastwood skillfully uses what I'll call "cinematic license" to dramatize the emotions and lives of the soldiers, For example, lieutenant Colonel Baron Takeichi Nishi, who won the individual equestrian Gold at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, is shown as having brought one of his beloved horses to Iwo before the American assault. The horse appears in its death throes, hit by an American air raid, with Nishi consoling it in its dying moments. There was no Nishi horse on Iwo but we do know that Nishi clipped a bit of mane from his Olympic companion. Uranus, and carried it in his wallet when he left Tokyo for Iwo.

After his Olympic victory, Nishi campaigned for the belter treatment of horses in Japan. This contrasts sharply with the subhuman conditions to which his troops were subjected. But Nishi never sent a horse to Iwo Jima. What he did send was tanks. Nishi's tlrst shipment of tanks to Iwo in 1944 was sent to the bottom by an American torpedo. His second shipment of some 25 made it. The island's commander. Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, had them dug in as pillboxes.

Another dubious episode is the last banzai charge, with Kuribayashi in the lead. Kuribayashi, in fact, had committed seppuku well before a polyglot group of about 200 Japanese from bypassed caves made their way down to the two airfields on the island, killing 35 or more Army Air Forces pilots sleeping above ground. At dawn on 26 March. Captain Harry Martin of our Pioneers organized a counterattack, killing all the attackers, but losing his own life. His was the last heroic act on Iwo to merit a Medal of Honor.

Even with these lapses, the film is a superb achievement. The portrayal of the hardships of the common soldier in digging the labyrinthine defenses in 120-degree heat and living on a daily ration of a cup of stinking sulfur water and a hard biscuit is brilliant. And all the time the soldiers knew that death was inevitable.

Ken Watanabe and the other lead actors give outstanding performances and elicit sympathy for the condition of the Japanese. The only thing lacking in Mr. Watanabe's portrayal of Kuribayashi is the general's slight paunch. It was said of him that he had a belly full of courage.

The episode on the killing of a family pet, a dog, is indicative to me of the strange dichotomy in the Japanese psyche at that time and maybe at all times, which is well borne out by the movie: The Japanese can be very sensitive and solicitous of the feelings of others but they can be just the opposite-ruthless and unrelenting in their application of horror and terror.

My views of the Japanese tend to coincide with their portrayal in Flags of Our Fathers and Letters front Iwo Jima. I never haled them, which was good because hating tends to make a soldier more emotional-and less effective-in dealing with the enemy than if one simply considers him to be somewhat inanimate and an obstacle to be overcome. The only time during World War II that I had any real revulsion toward the Japanese was triggered by two incidents in which we recovered the remains of two Marines who had been captured. There was evidence of torture and desecration. We do not know whether these two Marines were wounded or dead when thev were taken captive but we do know that the fingers and forearms of one were broken and his head smashed. The Japanese had used the torso of the second Marine as an ashtray.

For me, all the enmity is gone. We have been meeting on Iwo annually for more than ten years in a Reunion of Honor. 1 have met and talked with General Kuribayashi's widow, his son, and his grandson on the Blaek Sands. Peaee is with and among us. Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers and Leiters front two Jima remind us to keep it that way.

A veteran of three wars, Major General Haynes was a eaplain in the regiment that seized Mount Suribachi and raised the American flag there on 23 February 1945. General Haynes is the chairman of the Combat Veterans of Iwo Jima. He lives in New York City, where he is currently at work on a hook about Combat Team 28 and the Battle of Iwo Jima.

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Letter from Iwo Jima (United States, 2006)

Letters from Iwo Jima is a unique American-made war movie for at least two reasons: it depicts the battle from the perspective of the losers and it represents the United States as the "enemy." Coupled with Flags of Our Fathers , Letters from Iwo Jima provides director Clint Eastwood's complete statement about the 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima. Although Flags of Our Fathers deals as much with how a photograph from the battle was used as propaganda on the home front as it does with the actual combat, Letters from Iwo Jima remains entrenched upon the island from start to finish (except for a few character-building flashbacks). In terms of its structure, this is more what we expect from a war movie than what Flags of Our Fathers offers. The only character common to both films is the island's rough terrain.

The movie begins in late 1944, several months before the conflict, with the arrival of General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) on Iwo Jima. The Japanese realize this will likely be an American target and they dispatch the general to ready the defenses. To this end, he re-deploys artillery from the beaches to the high ground and commissions a series of tunnels designed to protect from air attacks and connect various Japanese strong points. His tactics are scoffed at by some, who see them as cowardly, but applauded by others. As a counterpoint to the General's perspective, the movie provides the point-of-view of a common solider, Saigo (pop star Kazunari Ninomiya), who plays a more important role in events than one might initially suppose.

Although Eastwood does an adequate job of developing the characters into more than paper-thin soldiers, this isn't a character-based piece, and that limits its effectiveness. The movie fascinates because of the unusual rhythms it imparts to a familiar genre: the war film. The Japanese, for example, do not in general believe in surrender, so we know from the start that most of the people in this movie are going to be dead by the time the end credits roll. Instead of surrender, the Japanese options include suicide attacks and blowing themselves up with grenades. Both occur during the course of the movie. This is dying with honor. For many watching the film, the impulse will be to think "what a waste."

Previous movies about Iwo Jima have presented the Japanese as a faceless, implacable enemy. While they put up a stiff defense, they are not as invulnerable as they have been portrayed to be. They are short on men, food, water, and ammunition, are rejected by the mainland when they request reinforcements, and have no air cover. Much of their communications equipment is broken so in many cases the General has no way to reach his men in the field. Human messengers are unreliable; many never reach their destinations. The army is also rife with mutinous thoughts. Some sub-commanders, thinking Kuribayashi to be weak and pro-American (he spent time in the United States and is friendly with some American officers), ignore his orders to fall back and instead commit suicidal frontal attacks. In the end, the Japanese are almost wiped out, but they take a surprisingly large number of Americans with them. To the degree that Iwo Jima is costly to the United States, it is the result of Kuribayashi's strategies. Had he not been hampered by poor communications and recalcitrant officers, he might have done more damage.

Eastwood makes some interesting stylistic choices. Most of the movie is shot in near black-and-white. Occasional muted flashes of color can be observed, especially when there are explosions but, for the most part, the movie is monochromatic. This may be intended as an homage to older World War II movies or it may be an attempt at a pseudo-documentary approach. The battle sequences are effectively presented with good CGI and lots of explosions. There's plenty of gore, although the movie is less visceral than its companion piece. In Flags of Our Fathers , Eastwood seems influenced by Saving Private Ryan . His approach to Letters from Iwo Jima is less bloody. (The black-and-white also defuses the impact of the viscera.) Actually, the movies doesn't show a lot of detailed battle action; it stays with the characters, many of whom don't see a lot of action.

The only actor likely to be familiar to American audiences is Ken Watanabe, who is perhaps best known from The Last Samurai . Watanabe exudes a calm, confident aura - perfect for a general who understands he will not survive this mission and has made peace with that fact. He has a job to do and intends to do it to the best of his ability. Before leaving his wife, he makes sure his affairs are in order. Oddly, the thing that worries him the most is not dying on Iwo Jima, but whether the kitchen floor will be finished. Watanabe's performance places Kuribayashi in good company amidst a large group of brilliant, effective cinematic generals whose on-screen portrayals don't overly exaggerate reality.

Another performer worth singling out is Kazunari Ninomiya, a popular Japanese singing star. Saigo is as far from the stereotype as any character in the film. American movies about World War II demonize the Germans and Japanese. Saigo, however, is just an ordinary guy who thinks the battles are pointless and wants to go home to be with his wife and newborn daughter. Ninomiya's performance brings out the human qualities of Saigo, making viewers reflect about how powerless the pawns are in any war.

Of the 100,000 U.S. troops that participated in the battle of Iwo Jima, nearly 7000 died and 20,000 were injured. The Japanese defenders numbered around 20,000 and only 1000 survived. Iwo Jima, because of its timing and publicity value more than its strategic importance, became one of the Pacific Theater's best known conflicts. With his two 2006 movies, Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima , Eastwood has stripped away some of the misconceptions about the battle and provided new perspectives. Taken together, the films offer an imperfect but interesting interpretation of history. Of the two, the more straightforward and better focused Letters from Iwo Jima is the stronger movie.

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\| \| \| \| • CNN.com's Tom Charity: New Eastwood film "a masterpiece" • "Letters From Iwo Jima" tells battle story from Japanese POV • Film has strong performances, steady, reflective direction (CNN) -- There aren't many examples of war films made from the vantage point of "the enemy," but perhaps there should be more. Orson Welles told Sam Peckinpah that "Cross of Iron" (Peckinpah's 1977 film about Germans on World War II's Eastern Front) was the best antiwar film he had ever seen, and Lewis Milestone's 1930 best picture winner, "All Quiet on the Western Front," still holds up. Clint Eastwood's reverse angle on the brutal battle for Iwo Jima is a remarkable companion piece to and the better of the two films. It is also the only American movie of the year I won't hesitate to call a masterpiece. Shot almost entirely in Japanese, and even more monochromatic than its predecessor, the film has a more linear trajectory than "Flags," only leaving the barren Pacific island for a handful of brief flashbacks when a soldier swaps his rifle for a pen and reminisces to loved ones he never expects to see again. The device is a good one, permitting Eastwood to strike the same rueful, reflective key he found in "Unforgiven," "Bridges of Madison County" and "Million Dollar Baby," even in the midst of nightmarish combat scenes. It also allows us access to fears and sentiments proud Japanese soldiers would be unlikely to express aloud. Indeed, the first time we see Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), he is beaten by an officer for a casual defeatist remark. Saigo's fatalism is more honest than that of the Imperial High Command, which neglects to advise General Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) that the naval fleet has been destroyed and with it any hopes for victory. In any case, the general realizes that the best he can do is delay the Americans for as long as possible. He orders miles of tunnels to be dug out of the island's volcanic rock, and draws up plans to consolidate his beleaguered forces through a series of strategic withdrawals. The plans outrage his subordinates, indoctrinated in Bushido ("way of the warrior"): death before dishonor. None of the four characters we get to know best in Iris Yamashita's screenplay share this crazed militaristic mindset, but even the two relatively enlightened officers, Kuribayashi and Lt. Col Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara) cannot break free from its bonds. Ken Watanabe makes the general a shrewd and charismatic leader, but if the film has a hero, it's Saigo, the least conventionally heroic of the lot. He's an infantryman who still thinks of himself as a baker, and who is at greater risk from his own army's suicidal zeal than the American onslaught. In a pivotal sequence, Nishi -- a horseman who competed in the Los Angeles Olympics of 1932 -- orders his medic to treat a mortally wounded American GI with what remains of their morphine. Later he translates a letter from the dead man's mother for the benefit of his men. They are surprised and touched by its simple, heartfelt sentiments, and what they reveal of the enemy their rulers have systematically demonized: "Come home safe; do the right thing because it is right ...," she writes. "My mother said the same things to me," Shimizu (Ryo Kase), a disgraced military policeman, admits to Saigo. He deserts, but in the midst of battle, even surrender is dangerous. He sits, oblivious, with another POW, while two GIs callously decide their fate over a smoke. The Pacific campaign was tremendously hard-fought, culminating in the firebombing of Tokyo and the atomic blasts at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Twenty-one thousand Japanese troops died in the intense fighting on Iwo Jima, a volcanic island a mere eight square miles in area. Eastwood's spare, fluid, eloquent movie shows atrocities on both sides, squarely attributes the worst of these to Japan's military-Imperial dictatorship, and gently sifts the black sands of Iwo Jima for moments of solace, grace and mercy. \| \| \| \|	E-mail Alerts

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Ken Watanabe plays Gen. Kuribayashi in "Letters From Iwo Jima," Clint Eastwood's telling of the Battle of Iwo Jima from the Japanese point of view.

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Letters from Iwo Jima

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.
The island of Iwo Jima stands between the American military force and the home islands of Japan. Therefore the Imperial Japanese Army is desperate to prevent it from falling into American hands and providing a launching point for an invasion of Japan. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) is given command of the forces on the island and sets out to prepare for the imminent attack. General Kuribayashi, however, does not favor the rigid traditional approach recommended by his subordinates, and resentment and resistance fester amongst his staff. In the lower echelons, a young soldier, Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), a poor baker in civilian life, strives with his friends to survive the harsh regime of the Japanese Army itself, all the while knowing that a fierce battle looms. When the American invasion begins, Kuribayashi and Saigo find strength, honor, courage, and horrors beyond imagination. — Jim Beaver <[email protected]>
In 2005, Japanese archaeologists explore tunnels on Iwo Jima, where they find some letters buried in the soil. The film flashes back to Iwo Jima in 1944. Private Saigo, a conscripted baker, is beaten by his commanding officer Captain Tanida, after complaining that they should just give the island to the Americans. Tanida is stopped by General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, who has arrived to take command of the garrison. Kuribayashi is shocked to learn from Colonel Baron Takeichi Nishi, that the Japanese Combined Fleet, upon which the island had been depending for support, has been destroyed. The next day, Kuribayashi orders the garrison to begin tunneling defenses under the island. His subordinate officers protest at the lack of beach fortifications until he informs them of the fate of the Combined Fleet. In February 1945, the first American air raids occur. A few days later, U.S. Marines land. Kuribayashi waits until the landing beach is filled with Marines and orders his men to open fire. The Marines suffer heavy casualties, but, as Kuribayashi predicted, the beach defenses are quickly overcome. The attack then turns to the tunnels below Mount Suribachi. While running a message to Colonel Adachi, Saigo overhears the Colonel pleading with Kuribayashi for permission to commit suicide. Kuribayashi refuses. Ignoring the General's orders, Adachi orders his officers and men to kill themselves. At Tanida's order, the soldiers of his unit detonate hand grenades against their stomachs while Tanida shoots himself in the head. Saigo convinces Shimizu that they would better serve the Emperor by continuing to fight. They meet with other survivors of Mount Suribachi, one of whom is incinerated by a U.S. Marine with a flamethrower. Saigo and Shimizu report to fanatical Navy Lieutenant Ito. Ito prepares to summarily execute them both with his Katana for abandoning Mount Suribachi, but Kuribayashi arrives and reprimands Ito for attempting to needlessly kill two soldiers and confirms that he gave the order to evacuate the mountain. Ignoring orders from Kuribayashi, Ito plans to lead his men in a massed banzai charge against U.S. positions. Ito then straps land mines to himself and walks toward the battle zone, intending to throw himself under a tank. Saigo announces that he is going to surrender and dares Shimizu to arrest him. To his surprise, Shimizu tells him that he was dishonorably discharged from the Kempeitai after five days of service for disobeying his superior's order to kill a family's barking dog. Saigo is moved and the two become friends. Nishi is then blinded by shrapnel when a shell hits the cave. By now, his men are out of shells and ammunition. He orders Lieutenant Okubo to lead his men to regroup with Kuribayashi. Left alone in the cave with his rifle, Nishi removes his boots to pull the rifle trigger with his toe and kills himself. Shimizu and Saigo plan to surrender together, with Saigo leaving first pretending to have dysentery. Another soldier asks to join him, but they are discovered by Lieutenant Okubo, who shoots the other soldier. Shimizu escapes and surrenders to a marine patrol, meeting another Japanese POW. The American patrol moves on, leaving behind two Marines as guards. As Shimizu and his fellow POW discuss their plans for after the war, one of the Marines shoots them both to avoid having to stand watch over them. The two bodies are found by Lieutenant Okubo, who cites them as a lesson against surrender. Sobbing, Saigo wraps Shimizu's Senninbari over his corpse. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Ito, desperate and malnourished, breaks down and returns to the caves. When found by a Marine patrol, he surrenders without incident. Saigo and the rest of Okubo's patrol are forced to pass through a firefight while retreating to the north of the island; Okubo and several others are killed. The survivors rendezvous with General Kuribayashi, who is impressed that Saigo has come all the way from Mount Suribachi. Kuribayashi is amazed to learn that he has twice saved the Private's life, commenting that things always come in threes. After gathering the rest of his men, the General orders Saigo to stay behind and burn all documents and letters during the final attack rather than join the fighting, thus saving his life a third time. Saigo cannot bring himself to burn his comrades' letters to their families and buries them instead. Attired as a common infantryman, Kuribayashi launches a final charge at the head of his surviving soldiers, telling them their countrymen will never forget them. Kuribayashi is seriously wounded when shrapnel is lodged in his legs. Fujita, the general's loyal adjutant, drags him away from the battle. By the next morning, the Japanese forces have been overrun, and the Americans have taken the rest of the island. Beginning to succumb to his wounds, Kuribayashi orders Fujita to behead him. As a weeping Fujita raises his Katana, he is shot dead by a Marine sniper. Private Saigo arrives and the dying General orders his last soldier to bury him where the enemy will never find his body. Then, Kuribayashi draws his M1911 pistol- a gift from an American officer friend before the war. He asks Saigo, "Is this still Japanese soil?" Saigo responds, "Yes, this is still Japan." The General fatally shoots himself and a weeping Saigo drags Kuribayashi's body away for burial. Meanwhile, a Marine patrol find Fujita's body and the Katana. The leader of the patrol, a Marine Lieutenant finds Kuribayashi's pistol and tucks it in his belt as a trophy. They search the area and find Saigo with his shovel. Seeing Kuribayashi's pistol in possession of the enemy, an enraged Saigo begins swinging his shovel at the Marines but is too weak to fight. The Lieutenant orders his men not to shoot him. Instead, he knocks Saigo out with a rifle butt and has him sent by stretcher to the POW camp. Awakening, Saigo glimpses the sun setting over the black sands of the beach and smiles grimly. The film ends with the Japanese archaeologists finding the letters that Saigo had buried.

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Letters from Iwo Jima (Cartas desde Iwo Jima) [2006]
Preparing for the Battle
Letters from Iwo Jima Full Movie Super Review and Fact in Hindi / Ken Watanabe
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Letters from Iwo Jima OST:Shimizu's Past

COMMENTS

Blood and sand movie review & film summary (2007)
For a fraction of a second at the very beginning of Clint Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima," you may think that you are gazing overhead at a field of stars.
Letters From Iwo Jima
Letters From Iwo Jima. Long-buried missives from the island reveal the stories of the Japanese troops who fought and died there during World War II. Among them are Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), a ...
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
Letters from Iwo Jima: Directed by Clint Eastwood. With Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryô Kase. 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.
Letters From Iwo Jima
But of course there are other, contrasting stories, a handful of which form the core of "Letters From Iwo Jima," Clint Eastwood's harrowing, contemplative new movie and the companion to his ...
Review: 'Letters From Iwo Jima' a masterpiece
Review: 'Letters From Iwo Jima' a masterpiece. (CNN) -- There aren't many examples of war films made from the vantage point of "the enemy," but perhaps there should be more. Orson Welles told Sam ...
Letters From Iwo Jima
The most important film of 2006 was Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima. In 20 years Letters from Iwo Jima will be a classic. Full Review | Original Score: 4.0/5 | Feb 2, 2009. War is hell ...
Letters from Iwo Jima
Letters from Iwo Jima - Metacritic. 2006. R. Paramount Pictures. 2 h 21 m. Summary In this companion piece to "Flags of Our Fathers," Clint Eastwood presents the untold story of the Japanese soldiers and their general who 61 years ago defended against the invading American forces on the island of Iwo Jima. (Warner Bros.)
Movie review: 'Letters From Iwo Jima'
But of course there are other, contrasting stories, a handful of which form the core of "Letters From Iwo Jima," — that was set to open Wednesday in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco ...
Letters From Iwo Jima Review
Read the Empire Movie review of Letters From Iwo Jima. A sharper account of the Iwo Jima conflict than Flags, this balances its unflinching handling of...
Letters from Iwo Jima critic reviews
Letters From Iwo Jima, takes audiences to a place that would seem unimaginable for an American director. Daring and significant, it presents a picture from life's other side, not only showing what wartime was like for our Japanese adversaries on that island in the Pacific but also actually telling the story in their language.
Letters from Iwo Jima
Letters from Iwo Jima (硫黄島からの手紙, Iōjima Kara no Tegami) is a 2006 Japanese-language American war film directed and co-produced by Clint Eastwood, starring Ken Watanabe and Kazunari Ninomiya. The film portrays the Battle of Iwo Jima from the perspective of the Japanese soldiers and is a companion piece to Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers, which depicts the same battle from the ...
Letters From Iwo Jima
Letters From Iwo Jima. By Peter Travers. December 12, 2006. Having just won the Best Picture prize from the National Board of Review, Clint Eastwood's intimate epic Letters From Iwo Jima enters ...
Letters from Iwo Jima
Letters from Iwo Jima. (Cert 15) Peter Bradshaw. Thu 22 Feb 2007 19.07 EST. W ith this film, we can get the full measure of Clint Eastwood's bold and in its way remarkable two-part tribute to the ...
Letters From Iwo Jima
Movie Review In Letters From Iwo Jima, director Clint Eastwood returns to the same Pacific island that served as backdrop for his war epic Flags of Our Fathers. That movie told the story of the American Marines who raised the flag that became an iconic symbol for the U.S. war effort. This one portrays the battle from the Japanese perspective—in Japanese. The narrative revolves around Gen ...
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
Letters from Iwo Jima is a unique American-made war movie for at least two reasons: it depicts the battle from the perspective of the losers and it represents the United States as the "enemy."
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
Letters from Iwo Jima is a powerful film. We are shown the good and the bad of both sides. The film is about 98% in Japanese with three or four scenes spoken in English. The cast is all Japanese which was a must for the film giving it a more authentic feel to it. The battles are gritty and real and will shake you up.
Letters from Iwo Jima Movie Review
Our review: Parents say ( 4 ): Kids say ( 11 ): Elegant and sad, Letters from Iwo Jima is a war movie about loss. Director Eastwood conceived it as a companion piece to Flags of Our Fathers, and it is at once a more finely focused and more profound film, with violence that can never answer the questions raised by its long moments of ...
Review: Letters from Iwo Jima
Review: Letters from Iwo Jima. Clint Eastwood's charcoal-colored aesthetic casts a pall of doom over his story's ill-fated protagonists. As a companion piece to Flags of Our Fathers, Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima inevitably shares many of its predecessor's thematic concerns. Assuming the Japanese's perspective on the 36-day ...
Movie Review: Letters from Iwo Jima
I have now watched Clint Eastvvood's Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jims and been re-immersed in both sides of the battle that was the seminal experience of my young military life. Fields of Our Fathers (reviewed by the author in the November 2006 Proceedings) tells the American story. Letters from Iwo Jinui, winner of a 2007 Golden Globe award for best foreign language film ...
Letter from Iwo Jima
A movie review by James Berardinelli. Letters from Iwo Jima is a unique American-made war movie for at least two reasons: it depicts the battle from the perspective of the losers and it represents the United States as the "enemy." Coupled with Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima provides director Clint Eastwood's complete statement ...
Review: 'Letters From Iwo Jima' a masterpiece
Review: 'Letters From Iwo Jima' a masterpiece. (CNN) -- There aren't many examples of war films made from the vantage point of "the enemy," but perhaps there should be more. Orson Welles told Sam ...
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
The island of Iwo Jima stands between the American military force and the home islands of Japan. Therefore the Imperial Japanese Army is desperate to prevent it from falling into American hands and providing a launching point for an invasion of Japan. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) is given command of the forces on the island and sets out to prepare for the imminent attack ...

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