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December 11, 2006
The Letters From Iwo Jima review
What makes Clint Eastwood's Letters From Iwo Jima special is that it never really offers anything like hope… but it never allows its heroes to lose their humanity.
Of course, its heroes are our Far Eastern enemies in World War II, specifically the men on Iwo Jima who were overtaken in 1945. But Eastwood has put the war into the rear view, as he explores what interests him… the lives of men who don't have the freedom to chose otherwise. It is this theme that does connect Letters From Iwo Jima to the earlier release Flags of Our Fathers. But the newer film also makes it extremely clear how Flags failed in a similar goal.
As opposite numbers, Flags seems to want to be about the desperate effort to maintain your humanity in the face of survival, while Letters seems to be about the desperate effort to maintain your humanity in the face of imminent death. But Flags never seems to be able to answer the pressing question of why survival is so hard. It got caught up in some father/son thing that never turned into magic and plays like it is from some other planet than Letters. It doesn't seem to me that the two films had to be direct reflections of one another, but Flags doesn't seem willing to go in for the kill, as it were.
Posted by poland at December 11, 2006 06:16 PM
Comments
The grin on my face right now is a mile wide.
The previews for Flags did nothing for me, so I passed. However this tale seems to be a nice capper for the year.
Posted by: Tofu ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/nav-commenters.gif)
at December 11, 2006 10:00 PM
So this year is the year of Eastwood again? I've got nothing against him, but well...
Posted by: ployp at December 12, 2006 06:45 AM
Hi Mr. Poland. Thank you for the fine review. I'm just wondering, why is this review not included at rottentomatoes? I'm guessing mcn is running a little late in updating the reviews page since its not there yet too.
Thank you again for loving Saigo.
ah..Tofu's here. Maybe tempeh, soyu & nattou will post something after this
Posted by: soya at December 12, 2006 08:25 PM
ployp, Anderson Cooper going on and on about the Lady Di report can't be hurting The Queen. The heir and a spare are going to be on a segment coming up.
Posted by: T.Holly at December 12, 2006 10:41 PM
Wah... Breaking news -- the Saudis will back the Sunnis -- preempted the boys. They'll be back.
Posted by: T.Holly at December 12, 2006 11:25 PM
Big tip o' the hat to the FAT GUY who slept and SNORED through the entire movie yesterday at the Arclight at the 4 o'clock show. Thanks for nothing, Tubby. As usual, no one made any attempt to roust the fat bastard, not even his wife, who spent the quiet, soulful opening hour stuffing her face with one intricately wrapped bag of candy after another while hubby snored and snored, causing me leave after 45 minutes and ask the staff if I could have passes to see it again later. Fortunately, they obliged. Great movie.
Posted by: LexG at December 21, 2006 04:20 PM
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