Letters From Iwo Jima (Blu-ray) (2006)

"...a sorrowful and savagely beautiful elegy that can stand in the company of the greatest antiwar movies.  David Ansen, NewsWeek
"Daring and significant...  Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
"...profound, magisterial, and gripping...  Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
"Taken together, Eastwood's masterworks - two of the best films of 2006 - may be Hollywood's last word on World War II.  Lou Lumenick, New York Post
"...the peak achievement in Eastwood's hallowed career.  Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
"Another masterpiece from Clint Eastwood.  Richard Corliss, Time
"Eloquent, bloody, and daringly simple.  Ty Burr, Boston Globe

Editor's Note Clint Eastwood's companion piece to FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS is again set during World War II. But in LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA, he looks at the war from the Japanese perspective, using Japanese dialogue. With American forces on their way, General Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe, THE LAST SAMURAI) arrives on the island to find his troops woefully under-trained and hopelessly outmatched. Japanese pop and television star Kazunari Ninomiya plays Saigo, a young soldier who asks, "Am I digging my own grave?" as he creates trenches. With no hope of reinforcements, these men have little hope of leaving the island alive. Eastwood and director of photography Tom Stern paint their picture in a palette of taupes and grays. The landscape of the volcanic island is desolate, providing a hellish experience for the stationed soldiers but a stark beauty for the audience. With this bleak setting, LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA is a powerful ode to duty in dire circumstances. General Kuribayashi and Saigo provide the emotional center of the film, giving a glimpse into the minds of both seasoned officers and drafted novices. Eastwood doesn't deal in simple heroes and villains; these characters are sympathetic and real, whether their motives are pride, fear, or loyalty to their country. Though only the Academy-Award-nominated Watanabe is a familiar face to American audiences, each of the actors involved displays his experience working in Japanese film, television, and theater. The battle scenes are breathtaking and brutal, but it's the actors who are the core of the film. The picture has the standard tropes found in any modern war film, like verbal abuse by a superior and battle scenes filled with severed limbs. But Eastwood goes beyond the war-movie boilerplate with this impressive film that deserves every accolade it earns.

	Hiroshi Watanabe
	Kazunari Ninomiya
	Ken Watanabe
	Tsuyoshi Ihara
	Clint Eastwood - Director
	Gary Roach - Editor
	Henry Bumstead - Production Designer
	Iris Yamashita - Screenplay
	James J. Murakami - Production Designer
	Joel Cox - Editor
	Kyle Eastwood - Original Music By
	Michael Stevens - Original Music By
	Paul Haggis - Executive Producer
	Paul Haggis - Based On Story By
	Steven Spielberg - Producer
	Tadamichi Kuribayashi - Based On Book By
	Tom Stern - Cinematographer
	Tsuyoko Yoshido - Based On Book By

Entertainment Weekly
"[P]rofound, magisterial, and gripping....LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA enthralls in the audacity of its simplicity." -- Grade: A 12/22/2006 p.57

Rolling Stone
Ranked #3 in Rolling Stone's "The 10 Best Movies Of 2006" -- "[A] single, stinging portrait of war..." 12/28/2006 p.118

Rolling Stone
4 stars out of 4 -- "Eastwood's film burns into the memory by striving for authentic detail. The result is unique and unforgettable." 12/28/2006 p.121

Entertainment Weekly
Included in Entertainment Weekly's "Top 10 Films Of The Year" -- "[A] war picture that honors every soldier everywhere..." 12/29/2006 102

Film Comment
Ranked #16 in Film Comment's "20 Best Films Of 2006." 01/01/2007 p.36

Uncut
5 stars out of 5 -- "Directed with fluency and grace, LETTERS...illuminates a desperately dark episode with rare insight and conviction." 03/01/2007 p.118

Sight and Sound
"[A]s a seasoned film-maker, he can render action -- especially sudden death or suicide -- as disorientating as it's startling." 03/01/2007 p.64

Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he performances ensure an emotional connection....LETTERS seeks to humanise the other side in a way FLAGS never did..." 04/01/2007 p.37

Ultimate DVD
4 stars out of 5 -- "Eastwood treads a respectful and even-handed path." 08/01/2007 p.104

Wall Street Journal
"In a larger sense, it's the second, and artistically superior, half of a single epic film that springs from a single act of compassionate imagination..." 02/05/2010

ReelViews 8 of 10
Letters from Iwo Jima is a unique American-made war movie for at least two reasons: it depicts the battle from the perspective of the losers and it represents the United States as the "enemy." Coupled with Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima provides director Clint Eastwood's complete statement about the 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima. Although Flags of Our Fathers deals as much with how a photograph from the battle was used as propaganda on the home front as it does with the actual combat, Letters from Iwo Jima remains entrenched upon the island from start to finish (except for a few character-building flashbacks). In terms of its structure, this is more what we expect from a war movie than what Flags of Our Fathers offers. The only character common to both films is the island's rough terrain. - James Berardinelli

Rolling Stone 10 of 10
...Letters is quality from first frame to last, a war film that is almost a tone poem in how it reveals the minds and secret hearts of the Japanese soldiers defending the volcanic island of Iwo Jima against American forces over forty days of battle in 1945...Eastwood's direction here is a thing of beauty, blending the ferocity of the classic films of Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai) with the delicacy and unblinking gaze of Yasujiro Ozu (Tokyo Story)...The scenes of combat, shot in desaturated color on the beaches of Iceland by the gifted Tom Stern and edited with grit and grace by Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach, gain in terror and complexity from what we learn of these men. We watch in horror as soldiers bang their helmets with live grenades, preferring suicide to surrender. Eastwood's film burns into the memory by striving for authentic detail. The result is unique and unforgettable. - Peter Travers