Sixty-one years ago, U.S. and Japanese armies met on Iwo Jima. Decades later, several hundred letters are unearthed from that stark island's soil. The letters give faces and voices to the men who fought there, as well as the extraordinary general who led them, Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe). With little defense other than sheer will and the volcanic rock of the island itself, Gen. Kuribayashi's unprecedented tactics transform what was predicted to be a quick and bloody defeat into nearly 40 days of heroic and resourceful combat.

In an effort to explore an event that continues to resonate with both cultures, Clint Eastwood was haunted by the sense that making only one film, "Flags of Our Fathers," would be telling only half the story. With this unprecedented dual film project, shot back-to-back to be released in sequence, Eastwood seeks to reveal the battle of Iwo Jima--and, by implication, the war in the Pacific--as a clash not only of arms but of cultures.

MOVIE REVIEW

Letters from Iwo Jima is Clint Eastwood's follow-up to Flags of our Fathers, which was a unique, well acted but ultimately cluttered war picture. Thankfully, whether in response to constructive criticism on his first picture, which arrived in theaters only a couple months earlier than this new one, Iwo Jima is a simpler, more emotional film that develops its characters and provides a unique viewpoint on World War II from the perspective of the Japanese, something that has rarely been seen by American audiences.
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