ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies

THERE ARE always at least two sides to every story. That explains why Clint Eastwood was inspired to follow the acclaimed ‘Flags Of Our Fathers’ with the Oscar-nominated ‘Letters From Iwo Jima’.

The first film dealt with the American view of that vital World War Two battle, the new film shows events from the Japanese perspective. Drained of colour, it is almost literal in telling us this was not a story of black and white but one that unfolded in infinite shades of grey.

Flags dealt with the distortion of heroism and the propaganda of war. Letters deals more explicitly with the human price of conflict.

Beginning in 2005 but largely set in 1944, the film follows the arrival of General Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) on the island. He has been ordered to defend this small corner of sacred Japanese soil or die in the attempt. Reinforcements will not arrive and the odds are overwhelmingly against him.

He orders the troops to dig an elaborate system of tunnels within the bowels of the island and prepares to fight the Americans.

The gruelling battles that follow are told in bitter truths and reveal the way in which the ordinary Japanese soldiers were finally led to question that rigid sense of duty and self-sacrifice that their country demanded of them. Was this bleak, barren landscape worth dying for when the war itself seemed destined to end in defeat?

A measured, well-crafted model of classical filmmaking, ‘Letter From Iwo Jima’ sheds fresh light on some of the darkest days of the Second World War.

Nationwide release

Director: Clint Eastwood
Stars: Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryo Kase, Shidou Nakamura
Screenwriters: Iris Yamashita, Paul Haggis based on Picture Letters From Commander In Chief by Tadamichi Kuribayashi, edited by Tsuyuko Yoshida
Certificate: 15
Running time: 141 mins
Country: USA
Year: 2006

© Allan Hunter, 2007