Letters from Iwo Jima

"Congratulations. You're going to war." This line, spoken with a straight face to a young draftee, made me laugh out loud. It illustrates the fundamental difference between the Japanese and the American soldiers. Letters is an interesting movie, a confusing movie, a sad movie, a startling movie and a long movie. I knew next to nothing about Iwo Jima going in and the film certainly held my attention, however, If I watched it at home I would have been lost. This film requires serious focusing so if you really want to see it, see it in a theater. One thing the film does brilliantly is to begin battle sequences with no fanfare and no lead in. One moment the Japanese are having dinner and then all of a sudden, planes are overhead and the island is being bombarded. I was shocked by the suddenness of it. I was also shocked by some of the Japanese and their decisions to commit suicide as oppose to continuing fighting. There's a scene where individual soldiers commit suicide by holding hand grenades and pulling the pins. We see their bodies blow up right in front of us. Very disturbing. It's a very good film and I think it has a good of chance of any of winning tonight. In fact, I think it will.