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 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 among his staff. In the lower echelons, a young soldier, Saigo, 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, both Kuribayashi and Saigo find strength, honor, courage, and horrors beyond imagination.
Genre(s): Drama, History, War
Runtime: 141 minutes
Rating: 8.1/10 (47,539 votes)
Release Date: 15 November 2006
Country: USA
Languages: English, Japanese
Company: Amblin Entertainment
Sound: DTS, SDDS, Dolby Digital
MPAA: Rated R for graphic war violence.
Director(s): Clint Eastwood
Producer(s):
Clint Eastwood – producer
Paul Haggis – executive producer
Robert Lorenz – producer
Tim Moore – co-producer
Steven Spielberg – producer
Writer(s):
Iris Yamashita – (screenplay)
Iris Yamashita – (story) &
Paul Haggis – (story)
Tadamichi Kuribayashi – book "Picture Letters from Commander in Chief" and
Tsuyoko Yoshido – book editor "Picture Letters from Commander in Chief"
Cast:
Ken Watanabe – General Kuribayashi
Kazunari Ninomiya – Saigo
Tsuyoshi Ihara – Baron Nishi
Ryo Kase – Shimizu
Shido Nakamura – Lieutenant Ito (as Shidou Nakamura)
Hiroshi Watanabe – Lieutenant Fujita
Takumi Bando – Captain Tanida
Yuki Matsuzaki – Nozaki
Takashi Yamaguchi – Kashiwara
Eijiro Ozaki – Lieutenant Okubo
Music: Kyle Eastwood, Michael Stevens
Tagline: From the director of "Flags of our Fathers" comes the completion of the Iwo Jima saga
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Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers had ambition, and I admire it for that.Unfortunately, the script ended up becoming too tangential and muddledfor its own good – while it was trying to zero in on a message, itended up loosing itself and searching for that message in the wrongplaces. Letters, however, hits the right marks. The result is anextremely well put together film, with deep humanistic and spiritualsignificance. It ponders the very nature of life itself and (like mostunforgettable war movies ever made) it reaches a beautiful conclusionabout life's "big questions" without beating us over the head. The filmis so sensitive toward human life, yet it is not over the top. Itdismisses dramatic grandeur for pure, undecorated truth. This verycandid and frank approach pulls at the heartstrings not overtly, butlike other films by Eastwood, possesses a more subtle quality. I'vecome to realize that the poetry and the drama in this movie arecarefully disguised in the simplicity of the narrative. For thesereasons, the film is affecting on an inner level, and sticks in themind even after watching it just once.
Clint made a big deal in both films about Ralph Ignatowskis story, butwhen it came to giving any insight as to what happened has seeminglydecided it was best not to create any bad feeling. According to thismovie he was simply bayoneted. I don't know what I expected Clint toshow but I was left totally ignorant of what actually happened by thismovie-I had to Google it. Was the other US soldier who was treated forhis wounds when captured by the Japanese but died of them anyway just afictional character to "balance the books" for Ralphs inhuman treatment? This kind of doctoring of true stories to fit the historical picturethe director wants to paint is VERY annoying. For myself it ruins thefilm for watching again as although I know it's not a blow by blowaccount of what actually took place I know the director isn'tinterested in portraying events accurately. This also results inignorance amongst anyone who doesn't look up actual events. Other thanthis doctoring this film would be a 7 or an 8 but as I don't want towatch it again as it winds me up it gets a 5. Stop censoring/modifyinghistorical dramas Hollywood !!!! Clint stick to Dirty Harry orUnforgiven, you can make up what you like then ! Poor Iggy went througha nightmare that can't be imagined but Clint didn't think it was worthrocking the boat or upsetting anyone with it.
Set in 1944, Letters from Iwo Jima follows 'General Kuribayashi, who isgiven the impossible task of holding the island of Iwo Jima, which isvital to holding off an American invasion of Japan. He chooses anunconventional defence that, while effective, conflicts with manyestablished ideas with the other commanding officers. With dwindlingresources and soldiers, the situation becomes more and more desperate.The story also follows a young, reluctant Japanese soldier named Saigo,who is doing what he feels he must; but as the film progresses, himselfand others feel more and more uncertain about their duty.'
Letters from Iwo Jima is the companion film to Flags of our Fathers,also released in 2006. Both films were directed by Clint Eastwood andrevolve around the historic Battle of Iwo Jima. Flags of our Fatherswas told from an American perspective, and showed three US soldiersbeing exploited on a nationwide public relations tour; conversely,Letters from Iwo Jima tells the battle from the Japanese point-of-view,and documents the struggles and anxiety of the Imperial soldiers.
Whilst Letters from Iwo Jima is widely considered to be superior to itscompanion (as well as being hailed as one of the best films of 2006), Iam one of the few who begs to differ. I found this film to be ratheruninteresting and close to the opposite of 'riveting' or 'engrossing',and the film found it hard to retain my attention. On the other hand, Ifound Flags of our Fathers to be extremely engrossing, and anear-masterpiece.
I'm not entirely sure why I consider Letters from Iwo Jima to beaverage and bland. Maybe it's the much slower pacing of events(although some may argue that Flags of our Father's pacing is slower),or it could be what happens in the film itself; I found the events tobe much less interesting, and drawn out too. Whilst the idea ofhumanising the Japanese soldiers (who were the enemy in the companionfilm) sounds interesting and is a good idea, it just didn't work forme.
Letters from Iwo Jima completes Clint Eastwood's Iwo Jima saga, andcompletes a story that gives both sides a fair chance to tell theirstory. If I were to choose which film I were to watch out of these two,I would take Flags of our Fathers any day; but that doesn't meanLetters from Iwo Jima is an entirely bad film. To me, it's was just adisappointment when I was hoping for something great. It seemed that myhopes and expectations were a waste of energy.
7.5/10
I like the movie, but it did not hit home with me as much as I thoughtit would. Certain scenes were really intense, but I feel as the battleof Iwo Jima has a better story than this movie or Flags of our Fathershas told yet. I think there was some fundamental issues with the scriptand the pacing did not work for me. I loved the soundtrack and theacting was top notch, but I was hoping that these two movies wouldfinally be able to pull off showing both sides of a war and what itmeans to be a human killing another human being. The criticism of thismovie is unfortunately tied to Flag of our Father, but I was hoping formore connections and personal conflict among both sides. I think thismovie has a surprising good cast and some scenes in another actorshands would not have been as good. In particular Ken's personal sceneswith Kazunari Ninomiya at the end were particularly good. I know thiswill make me unpopular with a lot of people, but I just do not thinkthat Eastwood makes good decisions a lot of the time. Certain cameraangles were silly and some originality the use of the low or high shotwould have been nice. The one scene when they first start gettingbombed with a really shaky camera felt out of place and did not go withthe rest of the movie. I do not know if this is was Eastwood'sdecision, but I would have like a slower paced movie with just reallyquick burst of action and really gotten a feel for what it felt likeliving in a hole with such a singular goal. It was not a bad movie, butjust not great.
Seriously! The people who call this movie inaccurate aren't watching itcarefully. The thing is Iwo Jima is a Japanese island with no nativesor any others there so if Clinton Eastwood showed scenes of Japanesetorturing or raping innocents then that would be historicallyinaccurate. Since there aren't any natives to beat or rape there. Alsoif you think this movie doesn't show the cruelty and strictness of theJapanese during the war. The punishments the soldiers received forshowing unpatriotic feelings toward the war or even disobeying ordersis enough to prove cruelty especially with that one officer orderingthe dog to be killed. Anyway this movie has to be once of the greatestwar movies I've ever seen in my life. It's rare for film makers to makea movie showing the opposite side of the war. The sad storyline anddialogue is enough to make you cry. The acting is strong in the moviealthough I thought the actor who played Saigo's friend was a bit tooWestern than WWII. Clinton Eastwood does it again and I like thedirecting too. This is a lot better than "Flags for Our Fathers." WhichI honestly thought with no harsh feelings to Mr. Eastwood was a bitlousy and kind of stupid. 10 stars all the way with Letters from IwoJima.
Clint Eastwood achieved everything he set out to with this film.At thetime of writing i haven't seen Flags Of Our Father partly due tonegative word of mouth and critic opinion.'Letters' is an outstandingfilm, Eastwood has just kept churning out the masterpieces in the last10 years and this is another to add to his collection.If he's notcareful he could end up being remembered as one of the great Americandirectors.Letters takes a very human stance of the battle for Iwo Jima,Eastwood prefers to centre his story on the individual character andhis back story to give the viewer a strong investment in theunravelling events.His skill as a director really shines through as weawait the American invasion and cling to hope that the centralcharacter will survive against the odds. Its a great piece, expertlyshot with some touching and often moving moments of human kindness andcruelty on th harshest of battlefields.