‘Letters’ Sends a Brutal Message

The companion to Clint Eastwood’s “Flags of Our Fathers,” Oscar Best Picture nominee “Letters from Iwo Jima” depicts the eponymous battle from the Japanese perspective. Eastwood, up for Best Director, released the film months after “Flags,” which chronicles the infamous fight from the American point of view.

The screenplay, based on a book of letters written by General Tadamichi Kuribayashi to his wife, adds historic validity as well as emotional sincerity to the film. The actors, all Japanese, speak in their native language, the fluency further easing audiences into the story.

Ken Watanabe of “The Last Samurai” plays Kuribayashi. Watanabe never fails to impress, and in “Letters,” he delivers a powerful performance as the American-trained general whose must constantly prove that his personal and patriotic convictions are one in the same.

Other noteworthy performances include Tsuyoshi Ihara, who portrays Olympic equestrian Baron Nishi. Ihara delivers one of the central principles of the film—“Do what is right because it is right,” translated from an American soldier’s letter from his mother—which resonates with soldiers on both sides of the battle.

Perhaps the most poignant performance, however, comes from Kazunari Ninomiya as common soldier Saigo. Hoping to return home to his pregnant wife, Saigo breaks from the traditional Japanese codes of honor, struggling to persevere even with no hope of Japanese victory rather than honorably committing suicide for the country. Through the journey, Eastwood reveals the stark contrast between Japanese and American mentalities of honor.

All in all, “Letters” succeeds in revealing the divisive yet binding nature of war. Together with “Flags of Our Fathers,” “Letters” shows that, at its core, war is not about sides, but about people. Despite holding differing convictions, Japanese and American soldiers are fundamentally the same: both vulnerable and afraid, both with mothers who remind their sons to “do what is right because it is right.”

Eastwood’s “Letters” easily outdoes its counterpart in the Iwo Jima duology through crisper cinematography and more heartfelt acting. Like many war films, it embraces the vivid atrocities of war, but unlike other members in the genre, “Letters from Iwo Jima” juxtaposes that graphic violence with honesty from both sides of the conflict, Japanese and American alike.