A touching, heartfelt movie that outdoes Eastwood’s previous work

In a year when America is in the midst of a vicious, unpopular war, Letters From Iwo Jima stands out as an important movie, one that is as good as it is informative. While discrimination remains a major issue throughout the world, Clint Eastwood managed to create a movie that puts differences between cultures aside and proves that even enemies have a lot in common.

Letters From Iwo Jima, unlike Eastwood’s earlier movie Flags Of Our Fathers, revolves around the Japanese, and their struggle to prepare for the American attack against the island of Iwo Jima. Sent in to aide the troops, General Tadamichi Kuribayashi arrives with his knowledge of the Americans, and his loyalty to his country. While he has spent enough time with the Americans to consider them friends, when it comes to war, a soldier’s loyalty to his country comes ahead of friendship. As the Japanese troops prepare for battle, knowing that death is inevitable, all they can rely on is the memories of their loved ones.

Perhaps the most interesting concept of the movie is that Eastwood, for the first time in decades, shows us a war movie from the enemy’s point of view. By doing this, he effectively tears down any misconceptions that Americans used to have against the Japanese. They’re made to appear as normal as the Americans, even though at that time, Americans believed the Japanese to be vicious, lawless beasts. In Letters From Iwo Jima, the audience, for the first time in a war movie, is made to believe that maybe in war, there’s no difference between either side. Maybe they follow the same laws and ideals, but are poisoned with misinformation at a young age, and are forced to follow their loyalty.

The acting was not as standout as I would’ve expected, but there are a few standout performances, especially of Kazunari Ninomiya, who plays a foot soldier named Saigo. Ninomiya’s performance is more real then any other character. Throughout the movie, he wonders whether his loyalty to his country is more valuable then his love for his wife. Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai) also delivers a fine performance as the general. It seems as if no matter what movie Watanabe is in, he shines, delivering an “old soul” sort of performance.

I was pleased, during the credits, to see that Paul Haggis (most well known for writing Million Dollar Baby, and Crash, both Oscar award winning movies for Best Screenplay) co-wrote Letters From Iwo Jima. Just about everything he writes flows so well, and keeps you enthralled every second of the movie. And Eastwood as director? There’s only one word that I can use to describe him: phenomenal. If it weren’t for Scorsese and his superb direction of The Departed, I would say that Eastwood deserved the Best Picture Oscar.

As I said before, the concept of showing war through the enemies eyes revitalizes the war genre, which has been growing stale as of late. Letters From Iwo Jima isn’t just some second rate war movie filled with your typical gory scenes. It’s a touching movie that teaches us an important lesson: our enemies may not be as terrible as we believe. Maybe it’s just how we’ve been taught to perceive them. In one of the most memorable scenes in years, Lieutenant Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara) and his men find an American soldier badly injured. Shortly before he dies, they find a letter in his pocket from his mother. Nishi realizes that his mother wrote similar letters to him. The Japanese side sees that their elders were wrong in teaching them that Americans were cruel and vicious. They see for the first time that both are the same. As Nishi says, “Do what is right, because it’s right.” I think that’s advice we can all afford to listen to.

Grade: A-