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WARNER BROS. / DREAMWORKS |
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LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA
This is perhaps the most daring creative act of the movie year, if not of this still-young century: An American director (Clint Eastwood) makes a film almost entirely in a foreign language (Japanese) and, more amazingly, offers a compassionate, even heart-breaking account of that nation's desperate defense of its last World War II stronghold. The Japanese had no "exit strategy" on Iwo. Their out-manned, ill-supplied soldiers were simply supposed to fight to the last man. Their commander (Ken Watanabe) knows this is insane, but he's a smart, dutiful soldier who will do his best to obey his orders. The most reluctant and inept of his troops (Kazunari Ninomiya) just wants to survive. The contrast of their two fates forms the core of this sad, gripping and intense film, which like all great war movies is really an anti-war movie.
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