Letters from Iwo Jima

I have mixed feelings on war movies. On one hand, there is something intriguing about the way men deal with the effects of war and killing. On the other hand, it's really easy to make a lousy war movie, because IMO Hollywood tends to get confused and think that a "war movie" should be more like an "action movie." Furthermore, as my wife's cousin glumly stated after we saw the movie Letters from Iwo Jima, "All war movies have the same basic point: 'War is bad.'"

I don't totally agree with that last statement; although I can't think of a war movie where war wasn't portrayed as a terrible thing, most good war movies have a more specific theme than that. Saving Private Ryan (and the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers) focused more on the bonds between American soldiers, while movies like Full Metal Jacket and Apocalypse Now deal more with the dehumanizing effects of war (albeit in absurd and sometimes hilarious ways).

I fully expected director Clint Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima" to be tragic, but strangely, I didn't prepare myself for what a downer it would be. Seems foolish on my part to go into a movie about the Japanese side of Iwo Jima and not expect to be totally depressed afterwards, you know, seeing as how only 5% of the Japanese soldiers survived that battle. I guess some part of me thought that even in the wake of defeat, the Japanese sense of duty and might be portrayed as being both tragic as well as honorable.

But no...tragic pretty much wins here. It's clear from the start that the Japanese soldiers know they are facing certain death at the hands of the American invasion. The lowly soldier knows it, the lieutenants know it, and General Kuribayashi (played the totally awesome Ken Watanabe) knows it, even though he clings to the hope that somehow reinforcements will come. What follows is two and a half hours of killing and death, including a really f**ked up scene in the middle of the movie that explores the Japanese ideas of duty and honor on the field of battle. And credit the filmmaking here; from the music to the washed out visuals, the feeling of hopelessness is palpable for the entire length of the movie.

This is the kind of movie that a former coworker of mine refers to as "a real wrist-opener." Which leads me to another reason why I have mixed feelings on war movies: even when they're as fantastically well-made and thoughtful as this one, the subject matter usually removes all the enjoyment from the viewing experience. This is the conundrum with "Letters". It is so awful to watch precisely because the acting and filmmaking are so very good.

Despite my experience here, I have a feeling that I will go and watch "Flags of our Fathers," Eastwood's companion movie about the American side of Iwo Jima, which is also supposed to be quite good. I mean, the ending has got to be a little happier than "Letters from Iwo Jima," right? We won that battle, right?

(What's that you say? There were MORE Allied soldiers killed at Iwo Jima than Japanese soldiers? *Sigh*)