“Letters from Iwo Jima” about the senseless and merciless battle between the Americans and the Japanese for the deserted island in early 1945 became the third consecutive picture Eastwood (after “Mystic River” /Mystic River / (2003) and “Million Dollar Baby” /Million Dollar Baby / (2004)), claimed two major “Oscars” – for best film of the year and best director. The film took only a statuette for sound effects editing – Eastwood himself obviously did not count on more, realizing that everyone thinks that he has enough! After all, two major “Oscars” – in the early 1990s for ‘Unforgiven’ /Unforgiven / (1992), and then also for “Baby”.
Meanwhile, 2006 may remain in movie history only because of Eastwood. The best of the entire dilogy is the first 40 minutes of “Letters from Iwo Jima,” which develops with a confident slowness lost to cinematography. Quiet military life of the Japanese and – by contrast – the first American air raid, which makes a crazy impression. In these moments you come to the sincere conviction that Eastwood remained the last of the great representatives of classic American cinema – given that Kubrick is dead, and Scorsese and Coppola are not what they used to be.
Of course, Eastwood (note, by the way, that he also wrote the music for Flags of Our Fathers!) is first and foremost a classic traditionalist. But it is amazing that in his 76 he remains and avant-garde.
No one had ever before thought of the seemingly obvious idea of making two movies about the same battle from opposite trenches. “Flags of Our Fathers” was shot from an American point of view and with American actors. “Letters from Iwo Jima” is from a Japanese point of view, with Japanese actors, in Japanese. It’s not about two versions of events – similar movies have appeared, remember “Citizen Kane” (1941) or “Rashomon” (1950). It’s about two points of view: how things are seen from here and how they are seen from there. The American marines in Flags of Our Fathers are not actually storming enemy fortifications, but a lifeless, volcanic-rock-covered shore. They don’t see the Japanese – it is the shore that spews fire, and their own around them fall dead and maimed. The Americans, like the viewer, do not know that the Japanese have taken refuge underground, in caves and dug tunnels.
No one in Hollywood has ever dared before to make a large-scale war picture without explaining the essence of the battle to the audience. About the fact that the Japanese dug 30 kilometers of tunnels under the island, the battle lasted 40 days, killed about 7,000 Americans and 21,000 Japanese, you can learn from the articles about the dilemma, but not from the dilemma itself. Eastwood shows what the soldiers saw. And they had no statistics and no general’s maps.
Finally, the film is unconventional in color. In the battle sequences it is not even black and white, but gray, which gives it the look of a war chronicle, but the fire and blood in it are frighteningly colored. Yes, yes, I agree that not everything in the movies is perfect: there are repeats, the rare computer-generated footage – with panoramas of the battle – is not too good. But against the backdrop of what we’re talking about, the flaws don’t matter.
In fact, the plots of the movies are very different. “Flags of Our Fathers” is not only about the battle. The battles there are about thirty minutes long, although the movie regularly returns to them in the characters’ flashbacks. This is a movie about how the propaganda machine works, about the fact that politics has long been part of show business in America. A few soldiers inadvertently participate in the ostentatious hoisting of the American flag over the conquered Iwo Jima. In truth, the flag was hurriedly planted on the fifth day of fighting, not by these soldiers, but by others who actually risked their lives. But the command felt that the flag was not spectacular enough. They decided to replace it with a large and beautiful – a photographer took a picture of the installation, and the frame, reproduced in all newspapers, printed on stamps, etc., became a symbol of victory and heroism for America. The story is real.
Four of those who hoisted the showy flag were later killed. But three others (including one who did not fly the flag) were declared major war heroes in America and forced to participate in a massive campaign to raise money for the army upon their return. Although the money was important, all three felt shame, realizing that they had been designated heroes only because they had survived. One of the thoughts of the movie is precisely this: the war dead, no matter how many pathos words are uttered immediately after their death, are always forgotten. The laurels of heroes go to the survivors, and no one cares at what cost and at whose expense they survived. The shamed survivors have it worse. Especially since even in America they are forgotten at the end of the propaganda campaign.
Four of those who hoisted the showy flag were later killed. But three others (including one who did not fly the flag) were declared major war heroes in America and forced to participate in a massive campaign to raise money for the army upon their return. Although the money was important, all three felt shame, realizing that they had been designated heroes only because they had survived. One of the thoughts of the movie is precisely this: the war dead, no matter how many pathos words are uttered immediately after their death, are always forgotten. The laurels of heroes go to the survivors, and no one cares at what cost and at whose expense they survived. The shamed survivors have it worse. Especially since even in America they are forgotten at the end of the propaganda campaign.
Of course, Eastwood was filming a dilemma about the difference in mentalities. Japan demands unquestioning loyalty from its soldiers. America (after all they’ve been through) demands financial return. Americans don’t go to war to die. For them, the army is a romantic man’s game. They are set for life and do not believe in advance that they will be shot at for real. When a man running to the right gets half his head blown off, they are at first very surprised. The Japanese go to war to die – for the Sun Emperor and because they said they had to. One of the wildest scenes of “Iwo Jima” is the ritual suicide in a circle of the Japanese squad realizing that the battle is lost. With a shout of “banzai!” everyone takes turns blowing themselves up with a grenade. Wouldn’t it be better to jump out with that grenade and blow up the enemy? Somehow it’s not better. Eastwood’s desire to penetrate the Japanese mentality is not surprising. It’s natural that a man raised on westerns, a genre that dates back to samurai culture, should want to understand Japan. However, for Eastwood it is more important not to divide, but to unite: that among the Japanese there were also many who wanted to return alive, to the family.
In fact, Eastwood made a dilogy that opened up a new movie genre. He had already created a new movie genre once. His “Unforgiven” was the first ever anti-Western – a movie that exposed the mythology of the classic Western: everything that was said about cowboys – a lie, the story of the exploration of the Wild West – a story of brutal killers. “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters from Iwo Jima” are the first truly anti-war movies. The earlier anti-war ones were still, to one degree or another, war movies. About the beauty of feat and nobility. About “there’s an exhilaration in battle.”
