Letters from Iwo Jima

Regardless, this is an accomplished, humane film, of a piece with Eastwood’s greatest ‘late period’ films. His recent work — most fully realized with Million Dollar Baby – has earned him a place in my book as one of the great American directors. This is, as most would agree, far superior to the (very good) companion piece Flags of Our Fathers, which also succeeds in capturing the real feelings of human beings unnaturally forced to become soldiers, but is tainted by a strange Hollywood atmosphere: too many pretty boys emoting, perhaps; too hackneyed in both narrative and character development (the drunkard native American? Must we? Lucky Adam Beach was so good). In contrast, Letters gives us surprising characters, particularly well developed for a fairly large ensemble, and an affecting window into another culture’s conflicts and values (I can only hope it is passably true to reality: I have no knowledge myself to judge its cultural or historical accuracy).

Anyway as the well-respected but mainstream American films of 2006 go, this rightfully stands out among the pack, but it is thoroughly classical in every sense save point of view. This isn’t a flaw, but most of us prefer to look beyond Hollywood, and no one should fantasize that this is anything but that.