Letters From Iwo Jima [DVD] [2007]

This is an excellent war film set in WW2 at, you guessed it, Iwo Jima. The film focuses on the Japanese perspective of the battle and, despite the futility of their position, the Japanese psyche of dying for the Emperor is prevalent throughout. It also tells the story of a baker from Japan who is now a soldier but is desperate to go home to his wife and baby. The story goes from disinterested soldier to a soldier who wants to surrender and finally one who does not want to give up due to the example set by his General. The film is stark and unforgiving in its portrayal of war without necessarily showing the actual gore that seems to be a must in many modern films. An excellent accompaniment to Flags of Our Fathers.

Clint Eastwood's movie showing the WWII battle for Iwo Jima from a Japanese perspective is a refreshing change from the usual macho heroics of war films. It's basically about the universal lot of the common soldier: "Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die." It's not perfect but it is definitely worth watching, I would say. It's entirely in Japanese, of course, so one has to be prepared to read subtitles. I found the colours strangely muted: I don't know if this was deliberate by the film makers or an artefact of the transfer to DVD. Amazon thinks the DVD has not been delivered to me and won't let me review the supplier (Are they having issues with their software at the moment??), so I'll state here for the record that it arrived very quickly, at an excellent price, and in perfect condition.

Get both sides of this battle. This shows the Japanese side and is wholly in Japanese, with subtitles. This, to my view, gives the film more authenticity and certainly makes it all the more believable. Most certainly worth watching but do watch Flags of Our fathers as well simply to get both sides of this conflict.

A lot better than flags of our fathers.

A good film by director Clint Eastwood. Much better than its counterpart Flags of our Fathers, but that's my opinion!

ABSOLUTELY ABSORBING FILM WHICH GIVES A FASCINATING INSIGHT OF THE JAPANNEZE MIND SET, AND ALTHOUGH IT IS NOT QUITE TRUE THAT IT CREATED MY SYMPATHY, IT DID GIVE A DEGREE OF UNDERSTANDING TOWARDS THEIR ACTIONS

completer rubbish!

DVD was spot on.