Letters From Iwo Jima (DVD)

...The device of the unsent letters as puzzle-pieces to tell the story is a worthwhile dramatic device - few Japanese survivors emerged from the battle on Iwo Jima, so the history from their perspective is sketchy as best. This is not meant to be a documentary re-creation, even as Eastwood took great pains to keep things in a logistical and battlefield sense historically accurate. However, the stories that did emerge show heroism, self-sacrifice, honour ...
...'Memoirs of a Geisha') read letters from Kuribayashi in preparation for this role, and studied both the history and the mannerisms not only of Kuribayashi but of other military figures of the time for his character. There is a bit of a samurai sense about Kuribayashi, and also about Watanabe, who tries to incorporate into his own life some of these principles and practices. The role seems natural for Watanabe, for good reason. This is definitely ...

frkurt 04.03.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Letters From Iwo Jima (DVD)

As the American forces advance on the strategically important island of Iwo Jima, during the Second World War, General Tadamichi Kuribayashi is sent to lead the defence. His travels in the US mean the general has no hatred of the enemy, but has a strategic insight into the minds of the opposition. Using the very rock of the island itself, Kuribayashi's tactics change what had been predicted as an easy victory for the Americans into almost forty days ...
...the companion piece to director Clint Eastwood's "Flags of Our Fathers", this time chronicling the battle of Iwo Jima from the Japanese side. He employs many of the same techniques as in the other movie. The film he uses is grainy and desaturated to such an extent that it is almost black and white. It highlights the barren volcanic landscape (with Iceland standing in for the real island), making it feel even more inhospitable. This monochrome palette ...

afy9mab 17.10.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Letters From Iwo Jima (DVD)

...movie is taken from real letters written by the Japanese soldiers and shows their war. Many who know nothing about the Japanese culture of Bushido and their ideas about honour will struggle to understand many of the things the Japanese soldiers do in this film. Why they choose to fight to the death, why they choose to commit suicide rather than die, why they disobey their most senior officers orders to retreat. Westerners and most certainly Americans ...
...their culture does not promote giving your life, it promotes the idea that you live to fight another day. The Japanese soldiers of that time would also struggle to understand this concept, it would be as equally alien to them as the ideas behind Bushido were to the West. This film is well shot and looks amazing, many of its sequences are re-used in "Flags Of Our Fathers". This film is better than "Flags" as it is easy to follow and flashbacks of ...

atytyut2434 09.03.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Letters From Iwo Jima (DVD)

...have, besides the fear, the letters that the soldiers write to their beloved families: nostalgic pieces, that work as an escape from the hell they’re going through, and at that same time a requiem for those soldiers. And in common all these compositions have loneliness. (=) Just like Eastwood in most of his roles (with his passivity he holds with Henry Fonda a similar way of “acting”, being for that a man of the future). Loneliness…: not because ...
...but because of the moments they share, the emotions they cross, the perceptions they have from the world obliging an answer, or a refuge, that only in their privacy can take place. And when in privacy, you are alone. (=) Is this condition of the characters from both movies that I would like to praise: the two soldiers (the Indian Marine Private, Ira Hayes and the Navy Medical Corpsman John “Doc” Bradley, but especially the Indian) from “Flags” and ...

octavio.teixeira 07.04.2007 (31.05.2007) · Read full review
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Review of Letters From Iwo Jima (DVD)

...about their families and their letters that might be never accepted by their love ones. The japanese had been beaten and the general died at last. But they had shown they successfully defended the island longer than enemies predicted. The director shows to us that not all Japanese soldiers all cruel and inhuman. Like other human, these soldiers still had fear dan despair feeling. But the director doesn't shows many heroic action and the epic of ...

yusufty 24.06.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Letters From Iwo Jima (DVD)

This is a fantastic movie by two highly accomplished movie director's, Clint Eastwood and Steven Spielberg. Eastwood directs and co-produces with Spielberg in this epic war drama set in what really should once have been described as "Pacific Japan", though some may disagree. If you want to know more why I call it "Pacific Japan" or why it may once have had this status, see the movie! Here is a brave portrayal by two leading Western director's of an incredibly brave yet humble nation. The director's have managed to create a movie which is emotionally touching but also not too emotional as to detract from the macabre of war. Yet, one man comes through neither a hero nor a villain. ...

bollywoodrambo9345 12.09.2008
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Review of Letters From Iwo Jima (DVD)

This Japanese viewpoint on the Battle for Iwo Jima is both uplifting and depressing in equal measures. Clint Eastwood, the director, shows a sensitive approach to the impossibilities of a small Japanese task left to defend a small Japanese outpost with little hope of success. The realtionships between officers and ranks, and the wartime Japanese class system, are explored within the dark background of a force facing overwhelming defeat. The film ...
...you who struggle with subtitles, may seem enough reason to avoid this film. However, it is always useful to try and understand both sides of a story, particularly one based around war. As yet, I have not seen the companion American viewpoint in Flags of our Fathers, but am sure that the viewer will gain most if both of these are viewed. Well made but difficult viewing. ...

stain3565 05.08.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Letters From Iwo Jima (DVD)