In fall 2006, the film “Flags Of Our Fathers” was released, portraying the World War II battle of Iwo Jima, the circumstances surrounding the battle and the derivative photograph “Raising the Flag On Iwo Jima,” which went on to become one of the most significant and recognizable images from the war. The film presented the American perspective of the battle: the anxious days before going to war, the gruesome battle and the successive glorification of the photograph that went on to symbolize the Allied cause in the war. With Clint Eastwood directing and Paul Haggis (“Crash”) having a hand in the screenplay, the film was prematurely predicted to be one of the best films of the year. Despite the anticipatory accolades, however, the film failed to meet these expectations, receiving a generally favorable but not exceptional reaction from critics and audience members alike.
Notwithstanding whatever lingering dissatisfaction, Clint Eastwood recently released the complementary film to “Flags of Our Fathers,” titled “Letters from Iwo Jima,” this time presenting the story of the battle of Iwo Jima from the perspective of the Japanese.
While the first of the two films was a broadened portrayal of the United States’ involvement in the battle, detailing circumstances leading up to the battle and the years directly following it, “Letters from Iwo Jima” generally disregards the historical preludes of the battle for the Japanese and chooses rather to focus primarily on how the Japanese planned and fought in the battle of Iwo Jima.
“Letters from Iwo Jima” contrasts with its predecessor in that it depicts a different kind of glory, one not in survival or victory, but in martyrdom and death in the face of defeat. And the result is at times an unbearably poignant but compelling look at the Japanese soldiers’ psychological and physical struggle with survival, death and their nation’s honor in losing one of the most important battles in the Pacific Theater of World War II.
The film begins with the archetypal preparations of war: the Japanese fortify the island by setting up outposts in burrowed caves in the island’s only mountain as a defense against the invasion. Then follows the initial bombardment of the island by U.S. forces and the subsequent incursion, which ultimately overwhelms and defeats the Japanese.
To present this story, the film intimately follows the stories of two Japanese army men and their letters to loved ones — hence the film’s title. The first of the main characters is Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), a foot soldier who is drafted to fight in the war and taken against his will from his baking shop and pregnant wife. The second main character is Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe), a general and commanding officer of the garrison at Iwo Jima who is at once in conflict with his commanding peers due to his unconventional defense strategy and his modernism, both of which often clash with Japan’s sense of honor and wartime tradition.
While the difference in these two characters’ situations and positions is drastic, their perspectives on and experiences in the battle are somewhat parallel. As the Japanese defense positions became surrounded by U.S. forces, the Japanese officers were quick to command what they deem the only honorable exit: suicide. When Saigo cannot put his own supposed honor before his survival, he becomes marked as a mutinous deserter among his peers, and his most dangerous adversary then becomes his own contiguous countrymen instead of the invading army. Likewise, as General Kuribayashi commands undermanned and under-resourced troops against the U.S. invasion, the bane of his command becomes his own self-destructive and recalcitrant soldiers, who disobey orders and die by their own hands for the supposed honor and glory of Japan before really being useful against the encroaching enemy.
While the story’s narrative is both moving and compelling, its depiction of the battle of Iwo Jima refrains from being uplifting and also avoids bowdlerizing any of the horrific gore. The film’s somber color scheme reinforces and subtly amplifies the reality and atrocity of the events presented in the film. Tom Stern, the film’s cinematographer, withdraws most color from the film, leaving a dulled and drained image that looks almost like a brown-tinged black and white film. This quality strengthens the verisimilitude of the film and its action, as the image’s color is often reminiscent of the color of film that would have been used during the time period. The only conspicuous and rich colors that were permitted in the film — oranges and reds — bleed through the drably colored picture at times of action. The oranges from explosions and the reds from bloodied bodies of the soldiers seem to stand out from their dulled surrounding. This masterful and contrived cinematography serves to emphasize and further draw the audience’s attention to the horrors and atrocities of the battle and enhances the solemnity of the film.
Some may find it surprising and ironic that a film chronicling the Japanese involvement in the battle comes from one of the most prototypical American names in cinema, Clint Eastwood. Eastwood, a man proficient in the ways of Hollywood, has veered from the traditional Hollywood filmmaking path with this international war epic, making a film almost completely shot in Japanese with Japanese actors. Through his powerful cinematic storytelling and presentation in “Letters from Iwo Jima,” he has proven himself a virtuoso in all languages and techniques of filmmaking.
So while the first of the two films chronicling the battle of Iwo Jima may have been more anticipated, “Letters from Iwo Jima” is the true masterpiece of the duo. “Flags of Our Fathers” and many other famous war dramas tend to take on the typical “struggle and subsequent glory” structure. And while “Letters from Iwo Jima” does exhibit the brutal struggle common in war films, it takes on a nuanced kind of glory. For these outnumbered Japanese soldiers, the only glory they see in the face of defeat is in death. Clint Eastwood has come to slightly dismantle and reinvent the conventions of the clichéd war epic and reinvent the genre with “Letters from Iwo Jima,” just as “Million Dollar Baby” did with the tried conventions of the boxing film genre.
Through its powerful and earnest story and its brilliant execution, “Letters from Iwo Jima” has established itself as one of the most underrated films of the year and a monumental redirection for the war film genre. And because of these qualities, this film is likely to be a strong competitor in this year’s Oscar race.
Grade: 5 out of 5
