This lack of records may hinder the truth claim of the movie, and yet Eastwood, with help from his writers, Iris Yamashita (story and screenplay) and Paul Haggis (story), are able to create such an astounding film that every second of it is completely believable. It doesn’t truly seem to matter that some of the specifics have been fudged. There is a book, Picture Letters From Commander in Chief (with TsuyokoYoshido) that the movie is partially based on, but that book was written by Kuribayashi years before the battle (presumably they provided insight into who he was).
It is clear that Clint Eastwood has a gift. In a single year, Eastwood was able to create two movies about the Battle of Iwo Jima. In one of them, the enemy coming over the hill was the Japanese, and in the other it was the Americans. He has managed to tell both sides of the story with an eloquence not often seen in depicting a single side.
Letters From Iwo Jima is a better all-around movie than Flags of Our Fathers. While both feature wonderful performances, Letters’ dark atmosphere and its look inside our war-time enemy provides greater interest than does Flags. I wouldn’t argue that Flags of Our Fathers is lacking in any way, but Letters has more style to go with its substance and is a view of the war not often seen. Combined, however, the two provide an incredible look at the first battle of World War II to be fought on Japan’s home soil.
The DVD, available May 22, comes in a two-disc edition that contains a couple of relatively standard, though still interesting, behind the scenes documentaries on the creation and casting of the film. There are also looks at a press conference and a premiere for the film and photographs from the filming as well.
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