#19 We just watched this on Netflix streaming.You should too!:Letters from Iwo Jima

The Film: Letters From Iwo Jima

Letters from Iwo Jima, to me, is the best war film ever made. A bold statement and one that I stand behind. Taken as a triumph of style and execution, Iwo Jima is a great film. Taken as an American perspective on the Japanese, it is a masterpiece.

It is impossible to consider the Japanese’s involvement in WW2 appropriate. However, with grace, talent, and respect, Eastwood and his star, Ken Wanatnabe, show the ironic, maddening, hypocritical, and, most importantly, the tragic elements that made up the Japanese warrior persona.

It will always be hard for any Non-American to view the Japanese the way we do. Before Pearl Harbor and until 9/11, our country was relatively attack-free. Japanese remains on of the few countries to attack us outright. Moreover, while in high school I learned about the Atom bombs being dropped. I was told it was a triumphant decision. Questioning otherwise was unpatriotic or just plain wrong.

To this day Americans still look at Japan a little shifty, but have otherwise forgiven Germany. So seeing such compassion and tenderness given to our former enemy is shocking.

Why to watch it: Eastwood’s respect for human beings.

Letters strips away my problem with war movies. The problem being: How can you make war entertaining, but at the same time frame war as wrong? The Hurt Locker, like many other great films, side-steps this problem by making the film a subjective look at a guy who loves war and never apologizes for it.

There is always the “Us vs Them” element in war films which manipulates the  audience. You can’t help but root for one side; it is just natural. Eastwood’s two war films view both sides of the fight. In Iwo he gives dignity and pity to men who were brainwashed into thinking their leader was a god and who were raised with a dangerous warrior pathos.

Pay attention to this: Ken Watanabe

Watanabe came to the west’s attention when he stole the stage from Tom Cruise in Last Samurai. Letters from Iwo Jima might not have worked very well if not for Watanabe who exudes the persona of a leader that, even without the banzai attitude, a man would die for. Also, it is important that he is not overly sympathetic. The General is an educated, well-informed man, but still holds the characteristics of a person who is brainwashed.