My wife and I saw this film on a rainy afternoon in Northern California yesterday. Uniquely, it is the first movie dealing with warfare that she has ever (in 40 years of marriage and film going) taken the initiative to suggest. After more than 2 hours of listening to Japanese soldiers (and some family members, by flashbacks) speak the entire film in their own language with English subtitles, we both understand why. Yes, it a "war film" in that the subject of the action is warfare. No less importantly, however, it is a film about humankind, about the relationship of citizens to their respective governments and about the ubiquitousness of humanity and human feelings not matter how they are masked, uniformed, trained or acculturated by their respective backgrounds and upbringings.

While I understand that this film is intended to be seen as a companion piece to director Clint Eastwood's 'other side of the coin' complimentary work, "Flags Of Our Fathers," I have not yet seen it - so I will contain my remarks to this film as a singular cinematic work - and, if you will, a monumentally important one at that.

I recall the last couple of lines from Bob Dylan's "Positively 4th. Street,": "I wish just for just one time you could stand inside my shoes: Then you'd know what a drag it is to see you!" It's about the need, in this life, to allow for the experience of empathy. To allow ourselves, and to value and learn from the experience of seeing, feeling and being in the world from someone else's point of view. Eastwood has placed this empathically written, produced, acted and, for all you old Robert Heinlein fans, 'grocked' and meaningfully presented us with a reality never before depicted so effectively on the American theater screen; A piece of WWII from the point of view of one of our enemies, the Japanese soldiers. In this instance, it is, specifically, those doomed to die in the forgone presumptive defeat on Iwo Jima by an undermanned, under supplied and fantastically out gunned mass of American combatants, The underlying ideas exposed and developed, though, apply to most if not all situations where nations pit the lives of their young men - one against the other - into the throes of a battle-to-the-death to achieve some political purpose.

The film is framed in the here-and-now as the caves dug by the defending men are being excavated and scattered throughout the film, there are brief but revealing flashbacks visually articulating both the personal lives of some of the men and the cultural realities that had become prevalent in wartime Japan. Looks and sounds a lot like mostly other dictatorships where the State has assumed absolute and absolutely capricious power over everything and everyone. Also, voice-overs during the battle, let us hear (actually, r to read in the English subtitles) the letters the doomed Japanese soldiers are writing home - letters that will never leave the island and will be found, ultimately, by the modern excavators: Thus, the name of the film. What strikes us is their essential humanity. They are us and we are them. This is not to ignore or understate actual cultural and learned differences between Americans and Japanese (of the 1940's and earlier), but Eastwood cleverly lays out these differences in a way that puts them in perspective. Having the opportunity, for the first time in my own life to "Stand inside their shoes..." gives me greater insight into humanity and war - and causes me to realize that, like most of my generation, I was taught to regard the Japanese as soulless monsters. Thank goodness that learning remains possible while there is still breath in our bodies.

Sometimes they are easier to empathize - at times even to sympathize with than at others. Some characters are more 'regular people' while others have bought the militaristic, die-with-honor code hook, line and sinker. These are, of course, a bit harder to identify with! This is not the first, nor do I suspect it will be the last film showing a well known experience in history from an alternative point of view. It has even been done before - at times comically, as in "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead", or "Wicked." This being said and acknowledged, Clint Eastwood has gone, quite literally, where no one has yet gone before and done it by making a 2 hour masterpiece of cinema. Every element, including script, acting, cinematography and overall and aura or this film are simply tops.

It is NOT easy to watch - especially in one scene in particular where we are made to remember that we Americans are, as a group, made up of both good and not-so-good people. Blood and guts flow freely as do other human flaws and eliminations. It is a GREAT film and, here on the morning of OSCAR night, I hope it gets the attention and acknowledgment I feel that it deserves. It certainly deserves the viewing time of anyone interested in almost anything deeper than cartoons or romantic comedies, especially those interested in the lessons of wars past.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age