Movie Review - Letters from Iwo Jima

Shot from the Japanese perspective this shows their side of the last days of Iwo Jima and the futile nature of combat. The narrative is taken from letters written by the Japanese soldiers and shows their war. Many who know nothing about Japanese culture, Bushido, their ideas about honour will struggle to understand many of the things the Japanese soldiers do in this film. Why they choose to fight to the death, why they choose to commit suicide rather than die, why they disobey their most senior officers orders to retreat.

Westerners and most certainly Americans will struggle to understand the ideas behind these concepts as their culture does not promote giving your life. It promotes the idea that you live to fight another day. The Japanese soldiers of that time would also struggle to understand this concept, it would be as equally alien to them as the ideas behind Bushido were to the West.

This film is well shot and looks amazing, many of its sequences are re-used in "Flags Of Our Fathers". This film is better than "Flags" as it is easy to follow and flashbacks of people to their home lives before the war are easy to pick out and not constantly referred back to. The film has a much more linear nature than "Flags" making it easier to watch, follow and understand.

To those who asked "Who were you rooting for when the battle started" clearly totally missed the point of this movie. It's not about who you are supporting, the whole point was to make you understand wars have 2 sides and both sides are equally justified and no-one is in the right. My only complaint against the film is we never get to find out what happened to the baker who survived. Did he go home to see his wife and baby? Did he go back into business again after the war ended? Knowing he survived is not enough. All in all this is a most excellent film.