Letters from Iwo Jima

Clint Eastwood has directed other war films, such as Heartbreak Hill, but this time he decided to make a movie depicting the US conflict with Imperial Japan from the Japanese point of view. It follows solders led by a charismatic sergeant, who was once a big fan of America and its culture, who must defend the island against the American invasion of Iwo Jima, the "gateway to Japan." By showing the hell of war through Japanese eyes, Eastwood tries to penetrate the mentality of Japanese military culture and samurai ethos of bushido, which glorifies death for the Emperor. At the same time, he also penetrates the samurai armor of his characters by showing their human aspects such as longing, fear, torment, doubt, which all but disappear when they face the enemy. While Letters are the second installment of a two-part series (along with Flags of our Fathers about the war in the Pacific from the American perspective), Eastwood's "Japanese" film is better of the two as a war movie and as a realistic psychodrama from the front. In both his films, Eastwood empathizes with the "expendable" soldier on the ground, the "poor bastard" who is only a pawn in a war conceived by generals and politicians, writes Roger Ebert.