Letters from Iwo Jima

In many ways the picture on this blog is not an appropriate representation of what this film is about. Unlike its' companion piece by Clint Eastwood (the far less good Flags of Our Fathers) this cannot be described as a traditional war/action film. It is shot almost entirely in a kind of drained monochrome that so suits the tone of the movie. It reminded me of the Australian movie about World War One - Gallipolli for its' sense of tragedy. This is a film about emotions, human relationships, friendship, loyalty and camaraderie - especially moving when it is clear early on that these men know that the chances of surviving the battle are close to nil. Iwo Jima is a vast rocky tomb. It is significant that there are so few women characters, and although they seem incidental it is the women and children that these men are fighting for - abandoned as it seems on this lump of rock on the fringe of the Japanese homeland. Although the commanders speak constantly about fighting and dying for the Emperor and the country these men are surviving and supporting each other - well the ones that are central to this film. Unlike Flags of Our Fathers it is the characters that we care about - we want them to survive, and are upset when most don't, and their deaths are pretty messy, too.
The main characters are a General - a regular soldier who has visited (and probably admires) America - he is undermined by the fanatical subordinate senior officers, many of whom end up with opting for suicide along with their soldiers rather than fighting strategically; then there is a junior officer who won a medal for equestrianism in the Los Angeles Olympics; a conscripted baker whose main aim is to survive to see his daughter (he went into the army whilst she was still in the womb); and a soldier who was discharged from an elite military academy for failing to shoot a dog.
Despite the fact that this film is almost entirely in Japanese it is gripping and evokes so much compassion, easily avoiding the usual stereotypes about national characteristics. This is not a mirror of Flags of Our Fathers - it is so much better, moving, and draws you in to connect you with the lives of these men who wrote the letters discovered sixty years later in one of the caves where these men spent their last days.
Rating: 9/10