Letters From Iwo Jima (2006)
Watanabe Ken, Ninomiya Kazunari, Nakamura Shido
Dir. Clint Eastwood
(Copied/edited from an e-mail message):
One couple behind me in the ticket line (which stretched past the front door, almost to the stairs leading to the parking structure) was grumbling about the crowd and speculating out loud if they would even make it inside in time for "Letters." "It's NOT a mainstream movie," said the guy, also hoping that the screening would have the usual ten minutes or so of trailers and ads for Coke. I got the tickets about five minutes after showtime (7:15 PM) and only caught the tail end of a B&W trailer featuring George Clooney and a lady with a German accent.
The movie... good, although not particularly groundbreaking or revelatory. Watanabe still has that good screen presence. Ninomiya, playing the main grunt of the movie, gets just as much screen time and could even be the lead character. The storytelling jumps around (since they have to "read" the letters to you, the audience) and while the flashback scenes work for me the narrative dealing with the different battle scenarios (Watanabe in his bunker, Ninomiya battling to stay alive) sometimes didn't play out too smoothly for me. I'm sure the story could also have been cut some (a LOT of movies seem to be two-hours plus these days).
I've never seen any of those "Greatest Generation" movies ("Saving Private Ryan" etal) so the more brutal war movies I've experience were in more recent settings (Vietnam, most prominantly). There's not too much gore in "Letters" as expected, though what's there IS effective enough. There is a stylistic look in the movie that portrays the atmosphere in a very muted color scheme that looks B&W at first glance. Only the effects of war (explosions, gunfire, blood) are in rich and vibrant colors. This actually worked out for me, surprisingly.
I've read that the budget for this movie was small enough to almost label it an "indie picture." It's true that most of the movie takes places on sets and the SFX isn't dominant as in most Hollywood movies these days, focusing things on people and dialogue (which I guess is what "indie" movies are all about). "Letters" is a story about people I was attracted to and could relate to, and that's something I don't see too often in motion pictures these days.
*** (out of ****)