biggyofmt I don't I've ever seen a film so fairly depict a conflict. It captures the nature of war as long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror. It humanizes an enemy, while unflinchingly confronting the evil nature of that nation's leadership. At it's center a sane man struggles to survive in a world that has quite literally gone mad.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU This second film on the battle of Iwo Jima is from the point of view of the Japanese and based on a collection of letters the Japanese soldiers received or wrote during the battle, letters that were never dispatched or were never distributed, and were incidentally saved by probably the sole survivor of the battle, a survivor who only survived due to a set of circumstances that saved his life three times during the whole battle. This Japanese soldier put the letters in a leather bag and buried them in one of the caves used by the commander of the Japanese troops. The bag of letters was found when some Japanese workers started working recently on the island to turn it into some kind of memorial. The film shows with a lot of crude truthfulness the life of these soldiers - and officers - who knew from the very start that they were all going to die on this island for no reason whatsoever but for the Emperor and the Empire, even though this Emperor and this Empire were doomed to get to their dead end of a final destination. The life of the soldiers is brutal and the officers are divided. A new commander arrives for the battle and some flashbacks show how attached to the USA he was and yet he will be wounded and will die, by his own hand with a Colt that had been presented to him by some American important people in some kind of celebration in the USA before the war. An allusion to the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Games is quite pregnant in this context. This commander could be humane in this context, both for his troops and for the one and only prisoner he made. Apart from this one he provided with some medical and communicational comfort while he was dying, no other prisoner was made and two Japanese prisoners were made on the American side and the two GIs who were supposed to look after them took the decision to kill them, one GI by shooting the two bullets and the other GI as an accessory to this crime.This battle was a battle without any prisoners, except the simple soldier who had been saved from a vicious caning at the beginning, then from a sectarian beheading from some fundamentalist patriotic officer, and finally from the final assault by the commanding officer of the battle. This soldier witnessed the final suicide of this commanding officer who was severely wounded and committed suicide with the Colt he was presented as a gift long before the war, hence dying from an American bullet. The surviving Japanese soldier buried his commanding officer so that he would not be taken away from this Japanese land, just before being made prisoner. Nothing is said about his future.The film also shows, particularly with the letters the soldiers are writing to their families that are quoted all along the drastic horror they have to live through. They are also divided between very few wanting to surrender, many being tired and bored with the war but ready to go on to the final end, and a certain proportion, particularly among officers, ready to consider dying in such a butchery is an honor, a heroic honor. Clint Eastwood and Steven Spielberg do not go beyond and hardly show real Japanese society, except in some flashbacks about before the war, about before being drafted into the war, or even a few about the real survival conditions of the wives and children left behind. War is a drastic event and there is no one side in such an event that is clean. Since 1945 and this second world war, all wars were lost by the western powers who waged them, be it Great Britain, the USA, France, and even the USSR as an eastern power. Wars are numerous but always limited in scope and even terrorism is limited and would be a lot more limited if the west, globally or partially, had not provoked the Muslim world with the war in Afghanistan and then the war in Iraq and then the war in Syria, in other words a never-ending war in the Middle East started in 2001 and still going on with the USA trying to play their own and singlehanded game as if they were God Almighty. And of course they are unable to concede a defeat and after Obama had tried to step back and out of the muddy quicksands, the USA is back on the war track and the tomahawks they brandish are missiles. The two films, Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, are a real manifesto to our most humane mental reality to make us understand there is no glory in war, no heroism in war, no future in war, and yet some have difficulties, and at times many difficulties to understand there must be an end in everything. It is amazing how people who have never had a war in their own street and in their backyards are unable to see the horror of such events and are ready to pay for such brutal and cruel selfish violence that achieve so little positive results, including pay for substitutes when they are drafted into such a war.Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU

Wuchak RELEASED IN 2006 and directed by Clint Eastwood, "Letters from Iwo Jima" chronicles The Battle of Iwo Jima, which took place February 19–March 26, 1945. Of the approximately 21,000 Japanese entrenched on the island about 18,000 died either from fighting or by ritual suicide. Only 216 were captured during the battle, but close to 3,000 were later found hiding in the caves & tunnels.While this is an American-Japanese co-production, it was written by Japanese and the main cast is entirely Japanese (e.g. Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryo Kase, etc.). Bitter critics complained that the movie is sympathetic toward the Japanese and their stubborn emperor worship. While it's true that the movie does humanize them despite their renowned brutality during the war, it potently shows the folly of worshipping the martial state and the inevitable ramifications (doom).In theory, Japan's government was a constitutional monarchy during WWII but, in fact, it was a military junta (dictatorship) and therefore totalitarian in nature. The movie effectively shows the harebrained ideology of government-worship and the corresponding misguided "honor" of sacrificing oneself for the malevolent goals of said government. What a waste! "Letters from Iwo Jima" also powerfully details the American threat to the remote isle and its militants. Put simply, these boys came to kick total axx. Their aim was to bomb/shoot/whatever first and ask questions later. If I were there I would've done the same because the Japanese made it clear that this was a fight to the death. I'm actually surprised at how many Japanese POWs were taken (216 but, like I said, almost 3000 were eventually found in the caves & tunnels). By contrast, only 2 Marines were captured by the Japanese, but they died of their wounds while captive.The first 44 minutes are a set-up wherein the characters and their desperate situation on the isle are established before the action starts. From there it gets seriously brutal and increasingly dismal till the climax. For balance, be sure to see Eastwood's companion piece "Flags of Our Fathers," which debuted two months prior.THE MOVIE RUNS 141 minutes and was shot in Barstow & Bakersfield, California, with establishing shots of Iwo Jima. WRITERS: Iris Yamashita (and Paul Haggis) from the books by Tadamichi Kuribayashi & Tsuyoko Yoshido.GRADE: B+/A-

Patrick Nackaert At the end of the second world war, the Japanese armed forces make a stand on the strategic island Iwo Jima. With an imminent American invasion, a Japanese commander with an American affiliation takes the leadership of the island.Although one could expect a 'traditional' war movie similar to Saving Private Ryan, it's none of that. The central theme of the movie is the clash between Japanese tradition and 'modern' values.Through the use of personal stories, the film carries a strong message against the atrocities of war. But it also shows that individuals can make a positive difference in war. The many dilemmas the characters face show an interesting side of war.Thanks to the smaller and bigger decisions the main actors have to take, this drama takes viewers within the Japanese's heads while fighting for their countries and families staying at home. Should they follow their values, their convictions, their leaders or their thoughts? Courageous choice to produce the movie in Japanese, dialogues are authentic, and emotions are real.A thought-provoking movie, not a b-film to just fill an empty evening.