`Enemy' humanized in Eastwood's `Iwo'.Byline: Daniel M. Kimmel COLUMN: MOVIE REVIEW Clint Eastwood turns 77 in May. At a time in life when many men are looking forward to visits from the grandchildren or simply enjoying their retirement, Eastwood is continuing to turn out the best work of his long career. Since finally convincing the naysayers (including this reviewer) that he was a serious filmmaker with his Oscar-winning western "Unforgiven" in 1992, Eastwood has been on a roll, tackling a variety of projects that might easily have crumpled crum·ple v. crum·pled, crum·pling, crum·ples v.tr. 1. To crush together or press into wrinkles; rumple. 2. To cause to collapse. v.intr. 1. in lesser hands. Some fell short ("Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil"), while others soared, from the romantic melodrama "The Bridges of Madison County Madison County is the name of twenty counties in the United States, named after President James Madison:
The Mystic River is the name of a short river in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Its name derives from the Native American word "Missi-Tuk", which translates to "great tidal river", and it lies to the " and "Million Dollar Baby." Most recently he has been tackling the World War II genre, but that wasn't challenging enough. Instead, he made two films, of which "Letters from Iwo Jima Letters from Iwo Jima (Japanese: 硫黄島からの手紙, Iwo jima kara no tegami) is a 2006 Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning critically-acclaimed[1][2][3] ," opening today, is the second. The first was "Flags of Our Fathers," which deserved better than it got from critics and audiences, and will garner a better reputation with time. It focused on the battle of Iwo Jima The Battle of Iwo Jima was fought between the United States and Japan in February and March 1945, during the Pacific Campaign of World War II. The U.S. invasion, known as Operation Detachment, was aimed at capturing the airfields on Iwo Jima. from the American side, and what it meant to be a hero. That might have been enough for most filmmakers, but not for Eastwood. "Letters" is the companion film, focusing on the same battle from the Japanese side. It is nearly entirely in Japanese, with subtitles, and may be not only one of the great war - or anti-war - films, but one of the only examples of a filmmaker from the winning side presenting a sympathetic portrait of the enemy. Of course that's not quite right. "Letters" isn't so much about Imperial Japan as it is about the ordinary citizens forced into uniform and the career officers who know their duty, regardless of whether they approve of the policy. Eastwood wants us to see the Japanese soldiers as human beings, not all that different from us. It helps that the focus is Iwo Jima Iwo Jima (ē`wō jē`mə, ē`wô), Jap. Io-jima, volcanic island, c.8 sq mi (21 sq km), W Pacific, largest and most important of the Volcano Islands. Mt. where not only did the U.S. win but the Japanese leaders knew their forces were doomed. This is a plea for the individual stories, not a whitewash whitewash, white fluid commonly used as an inexpensive, impermanent coating for walls, fences, stables, and other exterior structures. It varies in composition, being generally a mixture of lime (quicklime), water, flour, salt, glue, and whiting, with other of the war policies of the Japanese government. He also makes the point that neither side has a monopoly on virtue. A scene of American soldiers callously executing their prisoners reminds us that terrible things happen in war, even among the "good guys." The Japanese cast will be largely unknown to American viewers, but Ken Watanabe, who plays Gen. Kuribayashi, may be familiar from "The Last Samurai" and "Batman Begins." Here Watanabe plays the officer as someone who does the best he can until the end, regretful re·gret·ful adj. Full of regret; sorrowful or sorry. re·gret  ful·ly adv.re·gret that it has come to this as he has a genuine fondness for America. (The irony is that he was thought too sympathetic to the U.S. by the hardliners.) "Letters from Iwo Jima" is an outstanding film in a career that continues to amaze. `Letters from Iwo Jima' * * *-1/2 A DreamWorks Pictures and Warner Bros BROS Brothers BROS Benefits and Retirement Operations Section (King County, Washington) BROS Barnes and Richmond Operatic Society (London, UK) . Pictures presentation Rating: R for graphic war violence Running time: 2 hours, 21 minutes ART: PHOTO CUTLINE: Japanese officers and soldiers know the end is near. |
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