Letters from Iwo Jima

It seems that every two years Clint Eastwood releases a new film (this year he released two), and like clockwork, each new film joins the previous efforts in the upper pantheon of Eastwood's best.

Letters from Iwo Jima is a World War II variation on the battle for the Alamo. From the Japanese point of view, we are able to see soldiers preparing and waiting for the enemy to arrive. Knowing they are outnumbered with no support coming they are basically waiting to die. This is a minimalist war film, focused on the day to day activities of these soldiers.

Eastwood depicts these men objectively and with a quiet sympathy. General Kuribayashi, played here by the great Ken Watanabe, arrives on the black sands of Iwo Jima knowing this battle was lost before it ever began. There are more than 100,000 Allied troops on their way to take the island, and with barely a fifth of that number of his own soldiers, faced with dwindling supplies, Kuribayashi understands that conventional Japanese battle plans are useless. Their only option is to dig in, creating a network of tunnels through out the island. The tunnels create a claustrophobic sense to the war scenes, adding another layer of doom over the soldiers heads.

Kazunari Ninomiya as Saigo also delivers an outstanding performance. As a soldier who wants nothing more to get home to his wife and newborn daughter, he will do whatever is necessary to survive the invasion.

Letters from Iwo Jima works as a companion piece to Eastwood's earlier Iwo Jima film, Flags of our Fathers. The American story was about lies to make war appear heroic, this is concerned only with fighting for survival.

Eastwood has delivered a restrained and honest document about the war.