Letters From Iwo Jima (1 Viewer)

[Combat]

The Clint Eastwood movie from the Japanese perspective opens in the US on Dec. 20. It has received decent reviews and will be interesting to see how it does.

 

[Warrior]

I did a search and found a website that had a review of the movie and said it is the best war movie ever made, the best movie of the decade and by far Eastwoods best work, worthy of best director award.

Don't know if I'd go quite that far, but I will go see it and decide for myself. It was interesting that the reviewer (maybe for the NY Times?) said "Flags" was a flop and did terrible at the box office and was a rah rah war film with no substance to it. Can't really agree with that line of thinking...........

 

[Combat]

They have done very little so far to promote the film which has just been named the best film of 2006 by the LA film critics and the National Board of Motion Pictures. There will be a limited US release on Dec. 20 then a wider release in January. This is a link to the Japanese trailer:

http://wwws.warnerbros.co.jp/iwojima-movies/trailer/letters_large.html

 

[gk5717]

I was looking forward to seeing the movie tomorrow but I guess the St Louis area is not in the limited release area. Hope it comes in January.
Looking forward to a review if any one sees it.
Gary

 

[jazzeum]

It's not playing in our stupid area either. Based on the trailer, it looks very good.

 

[sceic2]

I have been watching, on the Independent Film Channel (IFC), a Japanese movie (with English subtitles) named Fires on the Plain. It was released in 1959 and is in black and white. The movie follows a gravely ill (TB) Japanese soldier who tries to hang on to his humanity while his abandoned comrades resort to cannibalism. This poor unfortunate fellow is one of those Japanese who was by-passed on one of the Phillipine islands. Not much dialog, lots of individual conflict among the various Japanese soldiers he encounters.

He is with a company of soldiers who don't want him around because he has TB. His platoon leader sends him to the hospital and they won't admit him because he is not wounded enough. He is advised by everyone to end his life. He does not want to do that and tries to survive. Wonderful character study of the individual soldier in very challenging circumstances. I would recommend it to anyone who gets a chance to see it. Not a happy ending by the way.

Here is a link to a review that I found on-line http://www.waggish.org/2004/11/fires_on_the_plain.html . The movie is available at Amazon.com (it is not cheap)

 

[Warrior]

When they said limited release, they weren't kidding as it is not anywhere in the Boston area; guess I"ll have to wait until January. I heard the reason it was released at all in December was so that it would be considered come oscar time...........