Letters From Iwo Jima - Page 2

Tino · 01-26-2007, 10:08 AM

Despite my initial concerns I decided to see Letters From Iwo Jima.

And I am happy I did. It was an incredibly moving and powerful film, definitely one of the years best.

Much better than Flags since it's focus was better. Concentrating on the few characters it did made for a truly moving and harrowing experience.

I did have a few problems with it relating to my earlier concerns, but overall it was an excellent film that showed that we all, despite where we come from, or what we are taught, share common themes of family, hopes and dreams.

Adam_S · 01-26-2007, 01:18 PM

Quote:

I thought the soldier wearing the mines waiting all night for the Americans to run him over, played kinda humorous though

That struck me as a particularly Kurosawa style moment, very much how a character like Kikochiyo from Seven Samurai would have behaved in that situation.

Chuck Mayer · 01-26-2007, 07:10 PM

Glad you saw it Tino! I too appreciated the way it played, and played mostly fair. Much moreso than most war movies.

Tino · 01-27-2007, 01:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuck Mayer

Glad you saw it Tino! I too appreciated the way it played, and played mostly fair. Much moreso than most war movies.

Agreed Chuck.

Tino · 01-28-2007, 07:55 AM

Ran into this review at RT and it accurately conveys the reservations I had before seeing the film.

I agree with the reviewers complaints but accept that Eastwood was focusing on a select few of the decent Japanese soldiers and not the majority
of the bad ones. I do believe the film is somewhat revisionist but can still appreciate what it was trying to do and I believe for the most part, it succeeded.

http://www.tonymedley.com/2006/Lette...o_Jima.htm#top

Robert Crawford · 01-28-2007, 08:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tino

Ran into this review at RT and it accurately conveys the reservations I had before seeing the film.

I agree with the reviewers complaints but accept that Eastwood was focusing on a select few of the decent Japanese soldiers and not the majority
of the bad ones. I do believe the film is somewhat revisionist but can still appreciate what it was trying to do and I believe for the most part, it succeeded.

http://www.tonymedley.com/2006/Lette...o_Jima.htm#top

There are some mistakes in that article about the second flag in the first film and there was a scene in Letters from Iwo Jima that showed some Japanese soldiers torturing and killing a captured Marine down in the caves. Furthermore, what good does it do to focus this film on the brutality of the Japanese soldiers? Over the years, from early in the war, many films have shown the Japanese soldiers as a vicious enemy that will kill without mercy while being depicted as less than human. IMO, Eastwood made an artistic decision not to get his film tangle in that controversy in order to focus the film on a select few characters as well as a Japanese culture that was clearly class structured that fostered a sense that a Japanese soldier should do the right thing and kill as many of the enemy as possible before ultimately sacrificing his life for his country.

Deane Johnson · 01-28-2007, 10:34 AM

Is this film in the Japanese language with English subtitles? The first post in this thread refers to a Japanese language film, yet IMDb states "English, Japanese" as the language.

Thanks.

Rudi · 01-28-2007, 11:54 AM

[quote=in order to focus the film on a select few characters as well as a Japanese culture that was clearly class structured that fostered a sense that a Japanese soldier should do the right thing and kill as many of the enemy as possible before ultimately sacrificing his life for his country.[/QUOTE]

Exactly what I saw. Also this was not so different from the "kill japs, kill japs and kill more japs" ethos of Halsey on the American side. In war the dehumanization or demonizing of the enemy is used to enable people to do things which go very much against the way they have lived in peace time. The "krieg ohne hass" that was practiced in North Africa between Rommels Afrika Korps and the British Desert Army is very much the exception. Even in todays enlightened wars this is still the norm for both sides. As in "Joyeux Noel" if allowed to, soldiers realize they have more in common with the guy in the other trench than the the leaders who command them to fight. At the end of the day I think just about every soldier on both sides would opt to call it a day and go home.

Yes it is in japanese with english sub titles.

Brett_M · 01-29-2007, 07:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Haggai

Chuck and I saw this today. I thought the character development was slow-going at first, although it was enough to keep things going, and then all the battle sequences were very powerful. I liked Flags as well, though I do agree with the general assessment that this movie works better. One of the main reasons is that--as Chuck pointed out just after we saw it--this one has a real star performance by a great actor, in Ken Watanabe, which Flags didn't have. I haven't seen Last Samurai or any of his other previous roles, but man is he great in this movie. He doesn't seem to have been nominated for anything yet for this performance, so I guess he probably won't break into the Oscar field for it either, but I have an awfully hard time believing that there were 5 better lead performances than this one in the past year.

I couldn't agree more. He is absolutely fantastic.

Jose Martinez · 02-02-2007, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rudi

Yes it is in japanese with english sub titles.

Except for one scene which is in English

Gabriel>P · 02-04-2007, 02:28 AM

I was sort of dissapointed with this. It was good, but it felt like it dragged, the coloring did little but annoy me, and it felt cliched.

It was good, but best picture of the year? Not hardly.