As you probably know, Letters from Iwo Jima tells the story of the battle for the Japanese island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese perspective. It’s the other movie in the Clint Eastwood directed Iwo Jima bilogy, the first one being Flag of our Fathers.

The film has many important characters but focuses most of it’s attentions in General Tadamichi Kuribayashi ( Ken Watanabe) and in private Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya). Kuribayashi has taken the job of commanding the defense of Iwo Jima after a more well known general passed on it. He is a man more used to the bureaucracy of the war then to the actual fighting of it, and has spent some time in the United States during more peaceful times. Because of these aspects many of his commanders don’t trust him, and end up going against his orders in crucial moments.

Saigo on the other hand is just a soldier recently drafted to the army. He used to be a baker and has a wife and a newborn kid he has never seen. At the beginning of the movie he tells a fellow soldier that they should just surrender the island to the Americans and be done with it. As that implies Saigo isn’t so invested in the army or in the war. He just wants to go back home to his family, alive.

As it turns out Saigo’s suggestions of surrender weren’t that crazy. By the time the battle of Iwo Jima rolled around Japan was already towards the losing end of the war. And the Japanese had no chance of winning the battle for Iwo Jima. The only reason for defending the island was to gain time in order to better prepare a defense of the main land. Of course, that defense was ultimately futile.

General Kuribayashi realizes the inevitability of defeat soon, and so do many of the commanders. The soldiers understand it quickly once the battle gets started. And so they all have to face the prospect of death and have to choose how to face it. And this choice is the meat of Letters from Iwo Jima. Some soldiers, like Saigo, want to try to survive as long as they can, running from every lost battle in order to fight another day. Some prefer to commit an honorable suicide once it becomes clear they have failed in the goal assigned to them. Others want to make suicidal attacks on the American forces. Some (few) try to surrender. As the battle progresses opinions change and they make different choices.

It’s very sad watching people confront this situation. But it is also uplifting, when they find force inside themselves to remain honest and kind throughout the ordeal or discover a love and devotion to their fellow soldiers. And humbling when they realize how much they want to live. And it forces us in the audience to consider our own lives, the way we want to live them and how we will choose to face our own death.

The film uses the soldiers’ letters and a few flashbacks in order to give us some perspective of the life outside the island and of how Japan is being affected by the war. This is important since it allows us to better understand the reasons these soldiers have for their choices, and who they are beyond being just another Japanese fighter. It also puts the battle in a larger context of a society being disrupted by a bloody war.

A secondary but inescapable aspect of the movie is the political one. It is obvious that the Japanese high command is willing to take this war much beyond the point where it is clear they have lost. It’s also obvious that they are lying to the people and to the soldiers about the state of the war. Even more than that, they are using the idea of the necessary complete devotion to country and to the emperor and the myth of Japanese superiority in order to keep everybody from getting restless and turning against the war. And for what? So they can protect their own egos? So that they don’t have to admit their failure? So that they don’t lose their honor? How many lives is this honor worth? It seems that facing up to the defeat and ending a war is much harder than starting it.

Letters from Iwo Jima is a brilliant movie. It allows us to understand a little bit more about war and it’s consequences. But more importantly, it is also meaningful for all of us that might never see battle, but who will nevertheless have to face our own deaths eventually.

Once again I’m left grateful for Clint Eastwood’s superb directing and choice of projects. Keep up the good work Clint, you and Marty are still kicking most of the newer guys’ asses.