Letters From Iwo Jima (2006) is the companion film to Flags of Our Fathers (2006), two films created fast upon one another (and released at once) that approach the famous 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima from opposing angles, the former from the Japanese, and latter, from the American perspective. That director Clint Eastwood should even broach such a complex experiment, viewing two sides of a war, and attempting to find the human side even in the enemy ranks, is a testament to his sensitivity. As with Million Dollar Baby (2004) or Unforgiven (1992), Eastwood approaches violence and the major themes of redemption, individual versus larger forces, morality and sacrifice, with a healthy dose of ambiguity and ambivalence.
Not having seen the complementary Flags of Our Fathers, it is a little difficult to judge the larger picture of that moral dilemma, but even viewing Letters on its own, one gains the rich spectrum of human will, offering in its collection of soldiers and commanders a deeply ambiguous and morally fraught portrait of humanity. Which is simply to say, there is little if any jingoism here, and Eastwood locates the individual voice within the collective scream of the battlefield.
The film uses the bookend flashback and flash forward device, a somewhat tried and true method of entering the past. Current day excavators are searching the caves on the island of Iwo Jima, the strategic position that was seen as a lynchpin for protecting the mainland (from the Japanese view) or attacking it. Soon enough, the scene dissolves to the same caves and island setting in 1945, in the weeks leading up to the American forces’ arrival. General Kuribayashi (played by Ken Watanabe of The Last Samurai and Memoirs of a Geisha) arrives and quickly earns the mistrust of other generals for what they perceive as his pro-American vintage (as he had spent time as a guest in the US).
The soldiers are kept out of the loop of the true progress of the war, and to some extent, so are the generals, but the prevailing sense is that the Japanese are losing the battle, and will not be able to defend Iwo Jima. A key question, answered in a variety of ways by the various generals, is then what to do when the end appears nigh. Many favor the status quo “every man fight to the death” with a preference for honorable suicide over surrender, but cracks in that ethos begin to emerge, sometimes from surprising places. At the bottom of the chain of command, the sympathetic soldier, Saigo (the superb Kazunari Ninomiya) wants most of all to return to his wife and newborn child, and the simple life of a baker before the war.
The most humanizing aspects of the film, as suggested by its title, are the many letters we hear in voice over, letters the men hardly expected to reach home, let alone leave the island. If there is any genius touch to the film, it is the structuring around this most intimate of windows in the individual spirit. When an American is captured, a Japanese captain who knows English gains the wounded soldier’s trust. Eventually, the Japanese unit is privy to a letter from the POW’s mother, and it strikes them (as it does we the viewers) as very much akin to the letters back and forth from the Japanese. As such, the film locates a pocket of shared humanity in the midst of a very dirty battle.
Speaking of the battle, if you are upset by graphic violence, stay away: this is every bit as graphic and realistic as Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, with many instances of limbs and bodies being rent asunder. One of the film’s strengths though are its intense visuals, the sense of color drained from the image until it is near black and white, until the bombs and fire and blood add a dose of extreme vividness to the action.
As an American (albeit one born well after the unfolding of these historical events), it feels odd at first to watch the battle from the enemy’s eyes, since naturally “we” are tantamount to the enemy in theirs. There is very little context given for the famed battle that ensues, so that the specifically aggressive aspect of the Japanese imperial campaign is never mentioned (e.g. neither their initial attack on Pearl Harbor, nor the criminal assaults of a decade past on China). Indeed, if one knew nothing of the historical events at all, the Japanese in this film come off as victims of American aggression wholly deserving of sympathy for that fact alone.
For perspective, I tried to imagine what it would feel like to watch a similarly made film, one in which Germans bemoan the onset of the American and Russian armies. Admittedly, it was difficult to fully sympathize with the Japanese plight, insofar as the historical record (looming in mind, though not the film) suggests a story of imperialism and determination to fight to the death. I realized my feelings about the men depended also on their rank; the lower down, the more pitiable, the higher up, the more culpable. It is to Eastwood’s credit that no one comes off a mere stereotype (whether villain or hero), and save for the inclusion of his sentimental and hence manipulative score, we are left to make up our minds about the men (American and Japanese) who fought and died on the island over a half century ago.
Note: The film is in Japanese with English subtitles, which would be fine except the titles are white, making some words difficult to read against the often white background. At least Eastwood had the taste to keep this in the original language, unlike the bozos behind Memoirs of a Geisha.
Nominated for 4 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima tells the untold story of the Japanese soldiers who defe...More at eCOST.com
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