Review: 'Letters From Iwo Jima' a masterpiece - CNN.com (2024)

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Review: 'Letters From Iwo Jima' a masterpiece - CNN.com? ›

CNN.com's Tom Charity in his review described Letters from Iwo Jima as "the only American movie of the year I won't hesitate to call a masterpiece."[8] On the "Best Films of the Year 2006" broadcast (December 31, 2006) of the television show Ebert & Roeper, Richard Roeper listed the film at #3 and guest critic A. O.

To sum it all up, "Letters from Iwo Jima" is one of the greatest war films ever made, and is easily does the best job of depicting war as something that harms all involved that I have ever seen. Clint Eastwood has, with this achievement, engraved his name as one of the greatest American directors in film history.

While some characters such as Saigo are fictional, the overall battle as well as several of the commanders are based upon actual people and events.

In the big picture, Iwo Jima demonstrates that both the Japanese and the American armies included both noble men and men who made selfish and morally repugnant choices. In doing so, it makes the statement that men in war everywhere are ultimately similar.

Generally speaking, Japanese users have appreciated the film for its anti-war message, its sentimental story, and its"surprisingly sympathetic stance for an American director." Nonetheless, an articulate minority have taken issue with the historical inaccuracies of the film.

Voegelin, a Japanese TV crew followed the story and found that the letters had belonged to Tadashi. The Japanese station located Mr. Matsukawa. Victor Voegelin was a 19-year-old sailor in Iwo Jima when he found the packet of letters.

The assault units of the corps—Marines and organic Navy personnel—sustained 24,053 casualties, by far the highest single-action losses in Marine Corps history. Of these, a total of 6,140 died. Roughly one Marine or corpsman became a casualty for every three who landed on Iwo Jima.

"Among the men who fought on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue." (Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, USN, 16 March 1945.) "The bended knee is not a tradition of our Corps."

Located roughly half way between Saipan and Tokyo, and directly under the flight path of B-29 Superfortress bombers headed to Japan, the island of Iwo Jima was a Japanese stronghold of crucial strategic importance and could not be bypassed.

For many Japanese, the battle that killed 6,800 U.S. Marines and 21,000 Japanese has long been a tragedy best forgotten. "Iwo Jima was a defeat. It was miserable and no Japanese movie company wanted to try to show it," said Eichi Tsukada, a 71-year-old retiree whose father died in World War Two.

What was Clint Eastwood's motivation for creating Letters from Iwo Jima? ›

He tries to escape from stereotypical images of the Japanese society, Japanese soldiers, and Japanese culture, often presented in the American cinema. Main roles are cast with the Japanese while in the earlier Hollywood movies Japanese characters were generally performed by Chinese-Americans or Asian-Americans).

This archaic or mistaken form of the Japanese name was particularly reinforced during the Second World War, when it was mistakenly used by Japanese naval officers who arrived to fortify the island ahead of US invasion.

The island of Iwo Jima, now named Iwo To, is open to American civilians only one day each year for this very special Reunion of Honor.

After gathering the rest of his men, the General orders Saigo to stay behind and burn all documents and letters during the final attack rather than join the fighting, thus saving his life a third time.

Realistic, graphic and disturbing war violence. The second half of the film presents dirty, harrowing combat, with lots of blood, exposed entrails and limbs are blown off. A soldier's face is blown off during an air attack.

"America's productive powers are beyond our imagination. Japan has started a war with a formidable enemy and we must brace ourselves accordingly." Kuribayashi recognized that he would not be able to hold Iwo Jima against the overwhelming military forces of the United States.

The strategic importance of the island, and the enduring image of Marines raising the American flag on top of Mount Suribachi, cemented the Battle of Iwo Jima as one of the great victories in the history of the Marine Corps.

Clint Eastwood conceived Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima as companion pieces, telling the same story — the 1945 battle of Iwo Jima — from opposing (American and Japanese) sides.

Violence & Gore (18) Realistic, graphic and disturbing war violence. The second half of the film presents dirty, harrowing combat, with lots of blood, exposed entrails and limbs are blown off. A soldier's face is blown off during an air attack.

Summary: The film was directed by Clint Eastwood and is actually in Japanese with English subtitles. The movie is told from the Japanese perspective of the Battle of Iwo Jima and provides an insiders look at what it's like to have war in one's home soil.