Letters from Iwo Jima

This movie is so good. Probably even great. Like other movies it shows the horrors of war. Letters From Iwo Jima gives a real genuine feeling too it. You really feel scared for all the characters involved. By no means is it stating something new by showing the negatives of war but what it does have that other anti-war movies don't show well. It is realistic more than anything, it shows the past lives of the soldiers briefly yet it feels like you know so much about the character. This movie is the Platoon of this decade.

The directing was great in this movie. Clint Eastwood does such a masterful job here. Showing landscapes of the island, the incredibly large fleet of the U.S. He really is able to teach you some history in this film without having to state facts. Usually subplots of characters in these war movies spin out of control and just confuse or bore you. This movie is done just right because of the directing. Eastwood does not put too many characters yet he is able to show the responsibilities and feeling of certain ranks from the general down to a simple private.

All of this has to do with great editing. This movie could have easily fallen into a 3 1/2 hour novel/soap opera. Instead the movie jumps from scene to scene so fluidly and consistently that you want to see more and more.

The acting was great. Ken Watanabe led a pretty much unknown cast(at least to me) giving great conventional yet original portrayals to their roles. The acting made it so easy to get into this movie and the characters. Ken Watanabe was fantastic in here perfectly displaying the pressures of a general. He is able to show how their needs to be some sort of hope to survive, no matter how bad times can be.

The music was spectacular. It stuck out so much and gave me as mentioned before such a genuine feeling. Every part of this movie was great and in my opinion is better than some recent World War II such as Saving Private Ryan, A Thin Red Line or anything else that I have seen from the past 10-15 years.

You could see that this movie was done so well and with so much feeling. It was not made to impress people but too make a real statement. That is what makes the movie so great. You can see that well funded movies can still be powerful. This movie is a sign of hope from the movie industry that has seemed to become more and more commercial. I know I'am repeating myself but that is because this movie reminds me of such great war movies such as The Deer Hunter, Platoon, Born On the Fourth of July, Apocalypse Now and The Killing Fields. These were all powerful movies and this has go to be right up there. Just shows the power of foreign movies when they are actually noticed and somewhat funded. Remember this movie by no means had a big budget.