Last night, heartily sick of 2008 politics, I sat down to take in Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima, the second half of his film endevour to tell the story of one of the bloodiest battles of World War II. The film is part of a two movie series, with Flags of Our Fathers telling the story from the American point of view.

On February 19, 1945, the American forces invaded what was known as the 'Home Islands' of Japan, a terrible blow to the morale of the Japanese. Iwo Jima was a small speck of land, with little recommend it besides its location. There was little food or water, with nearly everything having to be brought in. The Japanese were convinced that they would be able to defend it. The Americans thought they'd have it overrun in a day or two. What really happened was a bloody siege, lasting for more than 40 days, ending finally on March 26, 1945.

General Tadamichi Kurayabashi (Ken Watanabe) has been sent to the island of Iwo to take over the defense in the face of an oncoming American invasion. He knows that the cause will ultimately be hopeless, as he has had contact with the Americans before, and knows what he is up against. But his military commanders, still mired in a dogmatic past, tell him to hold the island at all costs, and as a good military man, Kurayabashi will do as he is told. His staff officers resent him, thinking that his strategies are cowardly, and that they should obey the rigid protocols handed down by the Imperial command in Tokyo.

To help himself cope, he -- as many of the soldiers on Iwo Jima do -- writes home to his family, filled as with many letters are, not to worry, that he is looking forward to coming home and seeing them again, that he is fine.

Along with Kuriyabashi, we get to know others on Iwo Jima. There's a friend of the general, Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara), an Olympian equestrian who has brought his horse along for excursions on the black beaches; Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), a young man who has been conscripted into the army, leaving behind his pregnant wife and child, and Shimizu (Ryo Kase), a Kempeitai soldier, stiff and patriotic to the point of fanaticism. I found myself genuinely caring about all of them, even the unbearable Shimizu. All of them have good and bad points to them, and the viewer is treated to quite a few surprises.

For those who study history, the grim statistics of Iwo Jima tell the story. Of the more than 21,000 defenders of the island, nearly all of the Japanese died, with only a handful being taken prisoner. Of the Americans, more than 6,000 would die -- more than on the D-Day invasion -- with nearly 20,000 injured.

Several scenes are very effective -- the suicide sequence is nearly unbearable to take in; men moving at night through what I thought was a barricade at first, then turned out to be a Japanese graveyard; Nishi's questioning of a wounded American soldier. It was these that moved this film from an ordinary war movie, to something more.

For those who are curious about such things, the filming locations are quite varied in this one. Ranging from Iwo Jima itself, to Iceland and California, this was a very convincing film to watch, and it was easy to visualize the terrible privations on a barren, volcanic island in the Pacific.

Another high point is that the film is in Japanese, with English subtitles. Again, it truly sets the feel of being in that time and place. Subtitles are also provided in Spanish and French.

And now for the bad news.

This film shameless plumbs for the audience's emotions in this one. You truly do come to care about the characters, and it's more of watching how and who of these characters will survive the ordeal. It's very clearly an antiwar film (there really isn't any other sort), and the use of various filters to render the film into a psuedo-documentary with a black-and-white feel, and touches of colour in various shots of blood, uniform insignia and fire got to be too much at times.

The other downswing is that the film drags in sections, moving at a leaden pace, and making me glance at the time on the DVD player -- how much longer was this going to go on? To me, that's always the sign of certain death, or at least, diminished interest in the film.

On the second disc of this special edition, there are several supplement pieces. Featurettes cover the making of the film in "Red Sun, Black Sand" -- the original title of the movie -- and talking with the cast and crew, along with various new conferences.

For those who are curious, the film is loosely based on Picture Letters from Commander in Chief, first published in Japan in 2002. There is a second book, So Sad to Fall in Battle, by Kumiko Kakehashi. Both of the books are still in print, and available here in the States.

This film certainly earns its hard R rating. Burning bodies, loss of limbs, and violence that tends to be in your face, makes this one that should be avoided for the under-seventeen crowd. If you can handle sitting through two and a half hours of film, or are very interested in the battle for Iwo Jima, then this special edition DVD might be for you.

Summing up, I discovered while writing this review, the more I thought about this film, the more I enjoyed it. It's a somber, thought provoking film that moves beyond the usual cliches of warfare, and tries to bring some perspective to what ultimately proves to be a monumental waste and tragedy.

Four and a half stars, rounded up to five. If you can stomach the violence, highly recommended.



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age