Letters from Iwo Jima

I don't understand how this Clint Eastwood war flick completely flew under my radar. It is a very decent affair from the viewpoint of the Korean people, where Clint beautifully shows that not all the soldiers were fanatics of the Emperor, but there were people with hearts who felt fear. The film has decent war scenes with no shortage of gore and features some very powerful moments (the shooting a family's dog and a mass sacrifice). 85%. (19/09/2017)

I've read the book that Clint and the writers were inspired by, and I have to say that I imagined everything the way it was eventually presented to me in the film. Letters from Iwo Jima is undoubtedly one of the best "modern" war films I have seen.__P.S. Be sure to get the soundtrack - but be warned, it's terribly addictive and you won't be able to get it out of your head! (20/09/2007)

Clint Eastwood is an experienced and highly professional craftsman of American film studios and I don't think he has ever disappointed me with any film, but none of his movies have really made me excited, either. He usually represents a safe bet, as he is disciplined but mostly predictable. I'm not saying that Letters from Iwo Jima is a bad war film, I just feel like more could have been extracted from the given material. The most intense battles on the Pacific front took place on this island, where strength crushed strength and determination clashed with determination, and considering how intense that battle was, I didn't really see much of that excitement in the film. The execution scene of two Japanese prisoners was perhaps the only surprising and cinematically enjoyable moment; otherwise, Eastwood's journey into World War II history left me rather indifferent emotionally. Overall impression: 60%. (27/10/2008)

My next encounter with war Eastwood, where the director once again shows that he is much closer to a human story than capturing war. He is not trying to make a great war film, but a great drama. I simply cannot forget some scenes from the movie. The scene with the dog, touching and harsh at the same time, Japanese fanaticism, which ends in mass suicide with a lot of grenades, a bucket of excrement, which means the difference between life and death. Even in war, there is room for happiness. An excellent film that surpassed its doppelgänger "Flags of Our Fathers". I admire Eastwood for not shooting in English, but in the right language, just like Mel Gibson did in "Apocalypto" or "The Passion of the Christ". That's how it should be. And not like the case of the film "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", which is great in the American version, but why the hell is it set in Sweden when the characters speak English anyway? More: http://www.filmovy-denik.cz/2012/04/diar-milovnika-filmu-c-0003-eastwood.html (14/02/2013)

Without a doubt one of the best anti-war films ever to grace cinema screens. Eastwood is not playing "soldiers" or "good guys vs bad guys", his view of war is much more complex. His film is one of the few that looks at the soldiers of the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis from the human side (in this respect, of the few cases before him, I remember Vilsmaier's Stalingrad, or the emotional ending of Riders in the Sky) and demythicizes the conventional view of ordinary Japanese soldiers as heartless war creatures with heads full of kamikaze. No matter which side of the conflict you are on, talking to a friend about family, making jokes, fearing death and questioning the meaning of war are all human feelings that are the same for everyone, regardless of the uniform they wear. Eastwood tells the story sparingly, but every minute has its place, and some scenes – the mass suicide, Baron's conversation with the wounded American soldier, the shooting of the prisoners, even the scene with the dog – are very memorable. And why not admit it, reading a letter from the mother of a deceased prisoner of war brought tears to my eyes, and in Eastwood's masterful rendition such moments are simply hard to resist. And if you think they are all made up, you are a lost cause. It is quite clear from the film that the greatest enemy in a war conflict is not a combatant from the enemy side, but the nonsensical orders of a moron in a superior uniform. Otherwise, the fight scenes have verve, although Eastwood commendably doesn't try to be as spectacular as possible (unlike, for example, Spielberg in the final battle in Saving Private Ryan) and the charismatic Watanabe is growing into a great actor in my eyes from film to film. With all due respect to my favorite Marty and his The Departed, the clear Oscar winner in my eyes is once again "Iron Old Man" Clint and his sensitive, empathetic masterpiece. The average rating on IMDb, 8.3/10, says much more about its real value than here on FilmBooster. And I don’t think half the votes there come from Japan. (23/05/2007)