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January 26, 2007 > Arts & Entertainment > Eastwood’s Iwo Jima wins over audiences

Eastwood’s Iwo Jima wins over audiences

By Bryce Gray | Thresher Editorial Staff

In 2006, director Clint Eastwood released Flags of Our Fathers, a film about the six soldiers who raised the American flag on Iwo Jima during World War II. Letters from Iwo Jima, shot back to back with Flags of Our Fathers, tells the story of the battle from the perspective of the Japanese soldiers who fought to defend the island.

Letters is a startlingly important and extremely compelling film. Facing impossible odds and abandoned by Japanese government, the soldiers must come to terms with honor, sacrifice and inevitable death.

The cast of characters includes typical war-movie stereotypes — the zealous officer, the apathetic young soldier and others — but Iris Yamashita’s screenplay grants these well-worn character molds depth and realism. Yamashita builds a background and identity for each character through frequent flashbacks and letters they write to their families. The war raging around them waits for no one, and the film’s characters are frequently startled out of introspection by the shot of a rifle or an exploding shell.

Kazunari Ninomiya (The Blue Light) plays Saigo, a young baker whose life has been suddenly shortened by the war. Separated from his wife and unborn daughter, Saigo makes a reluctant soldier — he considers the struggle pointless and thinks solely of returning home. It is only after the battle begins that Saigo discovers his great inner strength.

Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai), who plays General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, explores the general’s external stoicism and inner turmoil. Having lived and traveled in the United States, Kuribayashi struggles with the definition of patriotism and country. Charged with defending Iwo Jima at any cost, Kuribayashi slowly realizes that he has been given a suicidal mission. Despite no hope of victory, he resolves that each day he is able to hold the island is one more day his children are safe in Japan.

The cast also includes Shido Nakamura (Fearless) as Lieutenant Ito, an officer determined that each man under his command die an honorable death, even if it means disobeying orders. Ryo Kase (Sakebi) plays Shimizu, a recent transfer to the island whom Saigo suspects is a spy from the government. Distant and guarded, Shimizu starts to question his blind faith in the government after the battle begins.

Tsuyoshi Ihara (Sakebi) portrays Baron Nishi as both charming and emotional. Nishi’s fame preceded him to Iwo Jima — he stands out as a former Olympic gold- medalist and a man of strong and balanced convictions. In one of Letters’ most powerful scenes, Nishi shoots an American soldier and then orders the man to be given medical treatment. When the medic protests that the Americans would not do the same for one of them, Nishi asks, “Have you ever met one?”

Letters contains more than just well crafted characters: Excellent cinematography helps to place the soldiers on a stunningly austere island. The film’s brown and gray color palette perfectly matches the mood of isolation and desperation of the soldiers trapped on Iwo Jima’s volcanic beaches and deep inside claustrophobic, man-made caves. The screen only flashes with color after bombs and mortars begin to fall.

Letters does not shy away from the horrors of war. Eastwood treats violence as a physical reality and not a cinematic technique. Mel Gibson could learn a few things from Letters: The film depicts horrific injuries, suicides and deaths, but not for voyeurism or entertainment. As the characters ruminate on the value of their lives, the bodies of both friends and enemies fall around them.

When Hollywood has taken up the Japanese perspective in the past — such as in Tora! Tora! Tora!, an American-Japanese film about the attack on Pearl Harbor — it has focused on admirals and generals. Letters goes much deeper, giving its audience a nuanced and more complete understanding of the cost of the battle. Although the film is filled with death and loss, it also contains hope. Expertly crafted and filled with sincerity, Letters should not be missed. The questions this film raises about country, sacrifice and honor are as relevant today as they ever were.

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