LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA [2006] review

It’s not often Japan gets a movie before the U.S., but when you have a movie about Japan made by Clint Eastwood, such is the case. However, for some reason, the theater I saw it in used the movie’s first title, Red Sun, Black Sand, which caused me much confusion when trying to buy tickets online since I didn’t know Clint changed the title.

LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA is a simple story told in gray-tones with a splash of sepia here and there highlighted by Ken Watanabe strong lead performance. The movie is well acted overall with each character displaying one main trait, be it courage, loyalty, bravery, or heart.

However, about half-way through the movie and a third of the way into the assault upon Iwo Jima by U.S. forces, I started to think, “what is the point of this movie? Does it have any real point?” I felt like it wasn’t showing anything new about war, providing no new insights since as Clint shows, Japanese troops have the same doubts and misgivings as soldiers from any other country. Many just want to go back home, some don’t think what they are doing is worth dying for anymore, and others are just totally sold on the propaganda fed to them by those in power.

I felt some emotion during the movie, but most of it was manipulation, and not so strong because all the emotional scenes were very predictable, like as soon as an officer gives a speech, sure enough their cave is hit by a bomb and that officer is critically wounded. That said, I could hear many crying and sniffling in the audience. The young Japanese guy sitting to my left, a noisy mouth breather during the whole movie, cried several times. Maybe if you are a Japanese then seeing your own soldiers dying is more emotional to you. Maybe that’s a strength of the movie, as none of them died a heroic or even noble death. All their deaths seemed pointless, as everyone knew the island had no chance to be held. But this risks making a pointless movie.

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