Letters from Iwo Jima(2006)
Director Clint Eastwood
Genre Drama/History/War
Language Japanese
US Box Office $ 13.7 M
Runtime 2 hr 21 min
IMDB Rating 8.1 ( 55,742 votes , Top 250 : 211)
Personal Rating 7/10
Academy Awards Won : Best achievement in sound editing (Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman)
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| Kazunari Ninomiya (Saigo) |
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| Ken Watanabe (General Kuribayashi) |
Historical Relevance The battle of Iwo Jima was fought between United States of America and the Empire of Japan from 19th Feb 1945 – 26th Mar 1945. United States emerged victorious in one of the fiercest Pacific battles of WW-II and acquired tactically important airfields of Iwo Jima from Japan.
Iwo Jima was Japanese home soil, part of Japan, only 650 miles from Tokyo. It was administered by the Tokyo metropolitan government. No foreign army in Japan's 5000 year history had successfully trod on Japanese soil. To the US, Iwo Jima's importance lay in its location, midway between Japan and American bomber bases in the Marianas.
General Kuribayashi,, Commander of Iwo Jima was an aristocrat, who was educated in Canada and had toured the US before. His preparations, fortifications and strategy were marvels in the history of warfare. Although Japanese defeat was assured from the start, the soldiers defended their positions tenaciously. They didn't fight above but from beneath the ground digging up 1,500 rooms into the rock and the network of rooms was connected with 16 miles of tunnels. Japanese strategy called for "no Japanese survivors", of more than 18000 Japanese soldiers , only 216 were taken as prisoners. Further, Japanese strategy required them to kill at least 10 American soldiers before dying for their country.
Iwo Jima remains the only U.S. Marine battle where the American casualties exceeded the Japanese although Japanese combat deaths numbered three times that of Americans.
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Review Clint Eastwood has emerged as one of the foremost American directors to pick up the war of ‘Iwo Jima’ for his cinematic thirst. His artistic ordeal began with ‘The Flags of Our Fathers’ which represents the American point of view of the battle and terminates at ‘Letters from Iwo Jima’ which describes different facets of human emotions through the eyes of a diverse group of Japanese men. Eastwood’s humanity roars through the film in the silhouette of Saigo, be it as an innocent in battle or in flashbacks in which he hovers over his wife’s belly and whispers love to his unborn child inside.
Classic Eastwood tries to reproduce a pie of humanity within a bundle of inhumanities existing in an armed conflict. Eastwood movies depict a shade of shattering violence with a tandem also exploring human behavior during such legalized carnage. Yamashita’s technical expertise together with screenplay derived from picture letters of Commander in Chief unearthed from the site present not an anti war tract or glorification but a considerable estimate of how different persons with different set of objectives confront a war.
Sixty one years later after a fierce battle ensued between US and Japan, several letters were unearthed from island’s soil which provided faces and voices to the brave Japanese souls who fought the historical battle of Iwo Jima.
The Japanese soldiers were sent to Japan although they knew that probability of them returning was stark. Among them are Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), a baker who only wanted to return home to see his newborn baby girl; Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara), an Olympic equestrian champion ; Shimizu (Ryo Kase), a young former military policeman whose idealism has not yet been tested by war; and Lieutenant Ito (Shidou Nakamura), a strict military man who would rather accept suicide than surrender.
Tadamichi Kuribayashi is given command of the forces on the island and sets out to prepare for the imminent attack. Kuribayashi’s travel to America before gives him a strategic insights as to how to take on the vast American armada streaming from the Pacific. His follows a pretty unique strategy different from conventional Japanese War strategies despite resentment from the lower subordinates. Kuribayashi’s unprecedented tactics transform what was predicted to be a quick and bloody defeat into nearly 35 days of heroic combat. Almost 7,000 American soldiers were killed on Iwo Jima; more than 20,000 Japanese troops perished.
Eastwood, as classic as ever, Eastwood displays one of the most amazing visual experiences showcasing the scenes beautifully, reminding viewers of magnificent glimpses of black and white, desaturated and bleached of all its color once the war begins. The camera refuses to leave the side of Japanese. Eastwood displays both human and physical geographies in a non confusing manner unlike other war epics and it is easy to recognize who the soldiers are, where they are and what is going through their minds. Eastwood doesn’t take any political polls but goes ahead where his heart -- and especially his mind -- took him. And It's a good place.
Memorable quotes Saigo(In a letter to his wife) – “We soldiers dig. We dig all day. This is the hole that we will fight and die in. Am I digging my own grave”?
General Kuribayashi – “If our children can live safely for one more day it would be worth the one more day that we defend this island”.
Saigo- “We can die here, or we can continue fighting. Which would better serve the emperor”?
Watching Guide Brief moments of violent encounters associated with a typical war.
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