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Waste of time

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

good back-story, and good acting

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Okay,to be honest I was entertained by this movie, at least the first hour or so. The interaction between the general and the soldiers were executed very well. The young protagonist is a likable fella and has the makings of a great drama actor.The depictions of war though were very awkward and a few scenes were directly ripped off from Saving Private Ryan. Unfortunately, the film is like a comic book, that keeps rebooting its characters. The Japanese imperial troops in the movie are now, in Eastwood's misty vision, simply American farm lads with squinty eyes. They also have a mommy back home who cooks meals for them (aw shucks).Sorry Clint, these imperial soldiers were from a different time period and culture. They were a product of a twisted and barbaric way of thinking. It's called the dark side of patriotism, something you are very familiar with, given that you supervised that jingoist tripe, American Sniper. Frankly, it's very hypocritical. Here, you are making a statement that war is evil but in AS, it's alright, as long as it's made to defend the world from "terrorists".Simply put, most of Clint's directorial efforts are boring and sentimental pieces of junk (maybe with the exception of "A Perfect World"). He was great in Spaghetti westerns and dirty cop roles though.

As the movie opens, a group of men are climbing up a mountain and then down into a cave in the side of that mountain. The men look like modern Japanese workers in white uniforms. When the camera pulls back, we see that the mountain seems to be the only one on an otherwise desolate- looking island and that it is not far from the beach of the island. The white mountain--Mount Suribachi--sticks up like Devil's Tower or one of those rocky thumb-like structures that juts up in Monument Valley, often seen in one of John Ford westerns. We soon hear distant voices, coming closer, as an almost seamless transition takes us to Japanese soldiers digging trenches on a beach. We realize that this is a the 60-year flashback where the movie's story will unfold. Under orders from their commanding officer, the soldiers are digging endless trenches in perpetration for the coming invasion from the Americans. Among themselves, the soldiers are joking and complaining, 'Why would the Americans want THIS'?..'If they want it they can have it'!! The movie, at times, seems surprisingly peaceful for a war movie. In fact, the main conflicts seem to be between the Japanese officers--at different command levels—and the common soldiers that serve under them.As the 140-minute movie unfolds, we become intimately acquainted with about five major soldiers—officers and subordinates--in the Japanese Imperial armed forces. We get to know them through their conversations, attitudes, flashbacks of their pasts, and responses to unfolding events during their doomed defense of Iwo Jima. Their job is to defend the island against the American invasion that they know is coming and that most realize will fail in the end. At this point in the war, America is on the offense and Japan is in retreat, or at least, in a defensive mode. However, Iwo Jima is critical as a gateway to the Japanese mainland, and the commanding officers know it.When the commanding officer of the campaign, Lt. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe), arrives, his first step is to stop the trench building and establish a fort-like encasement—with tunnels and caves--within Mount Suribachi. Lieutenant Ito (Shido Nakamura) is a strict officer who disciplines his men beyond what is necessary and would rather die for his Emperor than surrender to the enemy. When Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara) arrives on Iwo Jima, he is treated like a celebrity due to his recent Olympic victories as Japan's equestrian champion. The cast is rounded out by an idealistic young military policeman, Shimizu (Ryo Kase), and a young soldier, Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), who is a baker in civilian life. With a wife and young child at home, he wants to live rather than die for the Emperor or the Empire of Japan. His idealism is that of a family man, not a fallen hero. The movie is about these principal characters, their interpersonal relations, and the way they see and respond to the prolonged battle when it arrives.Strange to say, but this is not an overly violent movie for a war movie. True, there are constant American bombardments in the background, but the movie centers more on the men, Japanese and American, than the gore of war. The face of the American soldier is rarely seen. But when it is, it is the face of one human to another—for better or worst. ONE SCENE involves a wounded American GI from Oklahoma who is taken into the cave and dies there. When a letter is found on him, the General, translates it to his Japanese soldiers. It sounds just like a letter that they would write home to their family. ANOTHER SCENE involves a Japanese soldier trying to surrender to the Americans. When the Americans don't know what to do with him, one soldier tells them to shoot him.The fact that the movie shows human frailties and fears, as well as the common bond of one man for another, gives us the impression that it is more of an anti-war movie than a war movie. Evidently the screenplay was written using unearthed letters, later discovered in the caves of Mount Suribachi, written by the Japanese men who were there. As you might expect from Clint Eastwood's direction, this is a winner that unfolds slowly and should be relished.

War is something that we've all grown up knowing about. It's a subject that movies, television, books, comics, video games, and every other form of entertainment has used, and that's for those of us who are lucky enough not to know war first hand. But so rarely do we ever think of the opposing side of a war as something that bleeds like we do and has the fear that our soldiers have in the heat of battle. That is something that makes this film so impactful. Letters from Iwo Jima follows Japanese troops during the naval invasion by the United States on the titular island. It is shot, acted, and directed in the professional and uncompromising style that Clint Eastwood is well known for. Eastwood doesn't take the camera away from the moments that other directors would flinch away from, the horrible ways that men in uniform on both sides died during the famous battle. Those moments have stuck with me for years after first seeing this film. I'd recommend this movie, but I would like to warn that this movie is not for the young and its not for the faint-of-heart. It's an important film non the less though, its important to think of people as people, no matter who they are.

Letters from Iwo Jima is a film praised by audiences and critics , most unfortunately this film did not catch me , I did not like , photography, soundtrack , costumes and the cast are good , especially the photograph is excellent , the direction of Clint Eastwood is competent , more is not better, the acting is competent also , the Costume is well done , I found the very long movie , and the pace does not hold , it is tiring plus of course it is in my opinion , the dialogue some are good , other surface , the film yet but can be tense at times, the battle scenes are good technically , most are not exciting , Letters from Iwo Jima same critical acclaim , I did not like so much, more ta far from a bad movie , has very positive points, I think one of the weakest work of Eastwood. note 5.1